"Better Together" Means Nothing - Anonymous employee Own Company Employee Review

1.0
Dec 3, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good product. The people at the bottom and middle are what make the company.

Cons

The CEO is very much involved in everything, as this is not a public company. If you are not a Yes Man, your At Will employment will not last long. I ignored a lot of red flags because I wanted to keep my employment. Due to early success with the product the C-Suite Executives have consistently burned money like kindling on events and parties while the employees were nervous about the dangerous economy. Slowing spending was not an option because it would go against the C-Suite's pride. Truly I think they fear letting down the employees, but in the complete wrong way; we all just wanted to be stable and continue growing, nobody needed any blowout parties. This culminated in a mandatory week long party in Las Vegas, which kept on racking up millions upon millions. Decisions were being made over drinks regularly, and the party had to go on. At the same time, they were requiring workers to come back in person to the office, because they were spending millions on building huge offices around the world. This was something the CEO hyped up in what could only be described as Corporate TV, which presumably was also eating up more money. At the same time, many employees noted amongst themselves that the C-Suite Executives did not seem to be setting the example of being in-office consistently. Rules for thee and not for me was generally what people thought. When the Chief Financial Officer left months ago without much word, we all felt concerned. The fact that the Chief Financial Officer has not been officially replaced should tell you a lot. Trust Through Transparency and Better Together are toted as huge tenets of the org but if you tell the Upper Level Management what they don't want to hear, you're marked. I'll likely get a robotic response to this review from the company. Saying that the huge recent layoffs are 'growing pains' is disingenuous. In almost every Town Hall there were employees worried about the economy and its effect on everyone, only to be reassured that OwnBackup is doin just fine! It is probably why multiple long standing members of HR left the company just before things went down. They might also say that 'large internal events are an investment in our employees'. If you are looking at this company keep this in mind: they gambled on this investment and lost. Millions spent on hundreds of people at that event no longer work for the company.

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Own Company Response
3y
While we’ve grown significantly year over year, the world has changed much more dramatically and as a result we have had to make a strategic organizational realignment, impacting employees worldwide. We’ve worked extensively with our Executive Leadership team and board of directors to refine our plans to best succeed in today’s market. Please note that large internal events and employee offsites are an investment in our employees and are typically planned over a year in advance. As far as our return to the office goes, employees are asked to come in on a cadence that best suits their role. For example, some roles, like workplace experience, are designed to be in the office. Some roles are more suited to remote work. There is no substitute for the connection, camaraderie, and collaboration that happens when teams work together in the same room. Thank you.

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Cons

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2.0
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Pros

Lunch was always free and good quality

Cons

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