balena reviews

3.9

67% would recommend to a friend

(41 total reviews)

60% positive business outlook

balena has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 41 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The balena employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

41 reviews
2.0
Feb 15, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fully remote, very flexible hours, good work life balance, cool and smart people, global company (employees from all continents), genuinely cool product

Cons

- Dysfunctional flat structure - Sausage fest (approx 10 women employees out of a hundred) - Slow, convoluted decision making process - You can grow in any direction you want as long as it aligns with what they want you to do - Huge egos, the flat structure doesn't allow for a clear leader, therefore decisions are often made by whoever can argue the longest - Sexism and bias evident in layoffs. They fired 50% of the female engineers and did not consult them for peer reviews when decisions were being made for layoffs - Multiple instances of not providing new female engineers with the same amount of support and training as their male counterparts - no clear onboarding process, new hires left to sink or swim - Clique-ish mentality, people often find themselves iced out of projects that they are supposed to own - toxic attitude that Balena is so revolutionary compared to any other company, but in reality management is narrow-minded and not receptive to new ideas

3.0
Apr 9, 2022

Great company, bad management

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The team and product is amazing. And the company was one of the early leaders in fully distributed, worldwide, remote work.

Cons

The leadership is extremely disruptive and toxic, resulting in poor job performance. They're shooting themselves in the foot in their efforts to grow faster and bigger, and achieve the opposite results.

5.0
Aug 13, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Difficult and rewarding challenges - The team has a wide range of expertise and the are plenty of people to learn from - Remote first approach places a lot of trust in individual employees - Opportunity to move across different projects and areas - There are regular open discussions about the direction of the engineering architecture and product in general - Culture of radical candor aids clear communication and cuts through "office politics" - Flexible working hours - Family friendly work culture - Engineering team are willing to invest time in architecting correct solutions instead of sprinting for the first viable implementation

Cons

- Remote working has its downsides, you can go a very long time without seeing your teammates face to face - Technical discussion can be very challenging and requires you to put your ego aside, which is a difficult process - With the team spread across the world it can be hard to switch off - Remote first processes mean that you must be diligent in your communication, so that your messages are easy to understand - Its not always clear what is expected of you as an employee and can lead to you thinking that you are underworking or overworking - Due to working remotely, It can be easy to become siloed on a project if you are not taking personal responsibility and asking for help

Viewing 16 - 18 of 41 Reviews

Glassdoor has 45 balena reviews submitted anonymously by balena employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if balena is right for you.