Pros
Michael Davos has recently stepped up as the office head and is really trying to improve the role and treatment of employees (I think).
Cons
Many of these are written from an emotional standpoint. The job is emotional. I will do my best to write from an objective standpoint as I truly hope that this feedback is taken by management. 1) The salary is appalling for San Francisco. Base of 40k comes out to about $2,300 a month after taxes, less if you don’t decline the health insurance which adds $100 a month. They mention unlimited commission in your interviews, but you first need to make the company 30k up front to be commission eligible and an additional 12k each month to be eligible for that month. In addition, for whatever cause comission you would receive you will notice a substantial amount taken away from “chargebacks”. Chargebacks are a deduction from your next paycheck based on if business owners cancel their ad program before 3 months, which most of them do because they only buy the program after Yelp reps manipulate statistics and shove fake value down their throats. 3) Insane micromanagement. If you want to work in a professional setting, do not come here. Not only do you show up to work to find frat boy attire and braless women (I mean come on ladies, I love the free the nip movement outside of work and am a female and feminist myself, but simply not appropriate), but you are also treated as a child. Managers, who were top selling reps promoted by their manipulation techniques rather than leadership abilities, will sit desk side, harass you if you check your phone for one second, “round up” if your 10 minute break is accidentally 12 minutes, and get on your back for being away from your desk at all. It is simply not pleasant - and not the managers fault as this is coming from the top down. Advice to management: to have a happy work force, treat employees as adults. Each individual working is an adult, so show respect for eachother. 4) The employees and business owners suffer at the expense of Yelp. Employees are forced to call back business owners 5-9 times after receiving a “please do not call me about ads again” and are reprimanded if they do not manipulate statistics to create a “need” for an individual business that has no need for Yelp ads. Business owners are lied to about yelp sales reps experience in the field and industry. Often times you will hear a manager barging (speaking into reps earpiece for rep to repeat) saying “I’ve been working here for 4 years and I personally worked with your competitor and know that this is what they did to bring in X business”. Business owners, do not believe it. Essentially, Yelp reps are paid at such a low base salary that while working you must engage in questionable sales tactics to stay afloat financially. 5) Care. Again, I truly believe Michael Davos cares but unfortunately no changes have been made to sales style, employee benefits, employee pay, or mutual respect around the work place. Unfortunately, most managers exist on a power trip of being promoted to a manager within a year after selling the most yelp ads and are unready to manage or display real leadership ability. 6) Retention and response to unhappy employees. Sales people at a well-known company should not be constantly mentioning depression and unliveable wages. It is not just low performing reps who complain of both of these, but also quota and target hitting reps. Most importantly, when reps express their unhappiness the response from management is “You’ll hate your job just as much anywhere else” “you’ll regret leaving because you’ll hate your job just as much anywhere else” “you have to pay your dues” “you just don’t like it because you’re not good at it”. These are unacceptable responses, and really showcase what yelp is about. Manipulation of employees and business owners to line their pockets. 7) Be honest. Yelp, be honest and treat business owners and employees better. Allow business owners to be placed on the do not call list or delete their free listing if they don’t want it, treat employees as adults and you will see magical things occur. There is a reason that people constantly want to expose you via different media sources.
