Great place overall, but my department was not what Glassdoor advertises as an employer - Anonymous employee Glassdoor Employee Review

2.0
Apr 25, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free catered lunch. Incredible spot in Mill Valley. Open PTO. Many teams doing things that are either bleeding edge or incredibly innovative, making it feel like everything you do, shows in how the business is growing. CEO is energetic, down to earth, personable, and approachable. Had constant company wide conversations about the direction of the company, and then individual conversations with each department about how the direction impacts them. Salary for the Bay Area was a little lower than average, but we were not located in San Francisco so most areas were more affordable. Medical/Dental/Vision benefits are 100% if you are single, but are about average if you have a family.

Cons

No 401k match. Next to no food near the office, in the event the catered food was awful or was a day there was no lunch. Certain teams have management stubborn to the extent of failure. I was brought in as an engineer assigned to re-architect a underpowered and aged environment, to make it scalable, sustainable, and efficient. Every step of the way, road blocks from my direct manager included undermining my technical experience in lieu of their seniority, constantly assigning tasks that exceeded a 60 hour a week workload, was completely unorganized in assigning priority to tasks that were newly assigned every week. For example, a task I was assigned to work on 2 weeks ago that was said to have the highest priority, was suddenly de-prioritized and had another task assigned in its place. However there was an expectation that I would still need to complete the previous tasks with the same sense of urgency, if not more. This made it nearly impossible to complete any project, and was told that I had an inability to complete tasks or assignments, which (in their opinion) was a display of poor performance on my behalf. This made it feel as though I should not believe in a work/life balance, and should not only spend time at work doing tasks/projects, but spend a significant amount of time at home doing the same. There was an "always online" mentality that stemmed through the team, and it made some of the team members feel completely exhausted in their position. When trying to own a project or have a stake in decision making as far as architecture and technology used for items that I was directly responsible for, this was routinely made for me. My input was often dismissed, with the reasoning being I had not done my research or that I needed a thorough report written in order to even acknowledge my input as an item of discussion. The executive management my team directly reported to often had completely opposing ideologies and opinions (versus my direct manager) on priority regarding my tasks, responsibilities, and the type of technology and architecture we should be/could be implementing to better the company. At my resignation, much of the "issues" that were reflect upon my performance, were in complete opposition to what I was directly told by the executive management of my team. It left me feeling a little lost, and as though the treatment in my current situation was personal. I did not, however, see this sort of management or attitude on other teams. I do believe Glassdoor is an incredible organization to work for, that can provide ample opportunity to many different people. I do not, however, believe that my specific department is one of the successful areas of the business due to the aggressive management style that seemingly suppresses creative thought or individual input in their roles, duties, or ability to make decisions for the team.

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Glassdoor Response
8y
Thanks for the candid feedback. I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t feel empowered because empowering my team is a top priority. Some of our initiatives can be complex, so truth be told, we can require scrutiny at times to ensure we get things right. We aim to push responsibility out as far as possible, while balancing that with data, accountability and performance-based decisions too, especially with the big stuff. Glassdoor is fortunate to be growing rapidly, so we do work hard, and we ask that from each of our teams, though it’s often a workload that allows for work-life balance and time to recharge as you need it. Yes, there are times of the year when things can be busier than usual, like any team at any business, but when these times hit, I take the approach to be connected even closer with my team to ensure that top priorities get met, and we choose to delay other tasks when needed. Clear communication is essential here, and I ask employees to keep me posted if or when they’re feeling inundated. We can always adjust things. In addition, when difficult conversations do need to happen, my goal is to be aligned with my team as there should never be any surprises about performance. I will look into this, and I welcome you to reach out to me directly.

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Cons

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2.0
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Pros

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Cons

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