- Completely irresponsible and erratic CEO
- Once a reliable career option, but absolutely no longer
- CSRs are touted as the backbone of the company's reputation, but aren't paid like it
- "Build our own tools" company attitude, except without offering the proper resources, time, or planning to do it
- Loud (and often uninformed) opinions are prioritized and rewarded
- Leadership wanting to be "different" and "cool", but frivolously played with peoples' livelihoods to try to live our their "big startup" tech dreams
A couple of years ago, big tech companies would report mass layoffs to the media, and in long emails. The CEO would laugh at them, and accentuate their irresponsibility and how different this company was, and how he cared about the welfare of employees, was trying to always secure us better benefits, put the people first, etc. It was very comforting at the time. It made employees feel like maybe this company was truly different from the rest, and that people were secure here. I used to think that he was a misguided but overall good guy who ended up pulling up britches a bit too big for him, but felt confident that he'd at least make sure things were right for his people. Some kind of "tough love" guy, where sure, some of the things he said had the spirit but were misguided, but the benefits and the culture spoke for itself.
However, something happened in the past couple of years. As the company grew, the CEO became increasingly erratic with company focus and resources. Frivolous company re-organizations began happening very frequently at the whim of the main stakeholder. The CEO's attention became known as the "Eye of Sauron" to some internally, because when it turned on you, it never brought anything good. In the thousands of words of emails that he wrote, you'd be hard-pressed to ever find him complimenting a product you built, or an acknowledgement that you'd built that product with minimal resources and done your best. Instead, you'd be told your product was bad (by completely subjective and vague metrics, with no data, and no details on why or how), you'd scramble to fix it (because now that his eyes are on it, it's urgent! go! go!), and then it'd be silence until the next time he'd come around to tell you it's bad. We were told to "own our product" but subject to the fickle whims of one loud person's final say and true ownership over everything. He'd tell people to tell him "no", but then throw complete fits when things weren't exactly the way he wanted them to be. (He is also apparently completely unable to tell anyone the exact way he wants it to be.)
It was always growth, growth, growth. And constant reassurances that as a "full-cash" "kicking unicorn" company, it could support that growth. People continued to do good work; not because of him, but in spite of him and the dysfunction creeping through the company as it grew.
Somewhere, an article drops about the CEO's sketchy behavior. It gets written off as a hit piece by a prior disgruntled employee. Legal action is threatened when press reaches out for comment. It's a good look, for sure. Teams are tasked to edit Wikipedia articles and do PR on Reddit, forums, and in Wiki edit discussions.
Cue 2025. The company throws a huge Vegas party for its 800+ employees. Remote employees (which is most of the company) are flown in, put up. There's raves, dances, practically a full company convention with booths. Flights, hotels, meals, shuttles, everything is paid for. How awesome! We hadn't had a company event like this since around 2023, when the company was much smaller, when the (much smaller-scale and cozy) event was held by one of its offices, in a rented Riverfront park. It was almost obscenely extravagant, in comparison.
Mid-to-late 2025, discontent begins rumbling. The guy who is never happy about things is, surprise, still not happy about the way the culture has changed as the company has grown, and yet continues to constantly grow it. The constant re-orgs culminate in cutting out a project management layer that was deemed more obstructive than helpful. We are told that those people will be offered other positions within the company to help transition to other roles. A PM I'd been working with messages me excited about a potential adjacent role to move to. (I notice a few days later, their account is deactivated. They're gone. Why? Because they lied about offering them other roles and cut them out anyway.) An intern asks, worried, if all companies are like this. We sadly tell them this one used to not be.
We are reassured by our managers that our positions are safe. This was just part of a re-org to get back to We continue to try to do our best work. I referred a friend to the company, because they are eagerly hiring. He had an interview on Friday.
On that Thursday morning, 138 people (around or over 10% of the company) are then pulled into a call via a meeting invite ominously titled and with no description. This invite includes people on PTO and people out of the country (where they are not permitted to access the company VPN from). Our direct managers can't seem to get answers on what the call is for, nobody knows. The call crashes (lol). The call comes back up. The people in the call are told their positions are redundant and the company is taking drastic cost-cutting measures, and that we are included in a layoff. We are told that as we are being spoken to, our access is being cut, and that they will answer no further questions. They acknowledge that this method is impersonal. They do not do anything to make it less so.
We are reassured that it was not based on metrics or performance. We are explicitly denied answers on how we were selected. People begged to know if they could just take a pay cut, if finances were a problem. They would take one. Everyone would. We were told no.
The lamentations that followed were heart-breaking. Many, many people talked about how they have tenure of 3+ to even 6+ years. This was not a reversal of their recent exorbitant hiring practices -- these were people who were here when things were still good, and that had dedicated years to the company. People talked about being the top performers in their teams & their states. I will never forget the grief of the woman who said that she was in her 60s. Another echoed the same. And those words spoke for themselves. Access was cut off, one by one. I had to break the news to some out-of-office affected people over third party messaging apps. We were told an email would come. Meanwhile, my friend's interview is finally cancelled.
An email didn't come to us first. No, what came first were two emails to the remaining company. First, a vague FAQ, which reassures that there will be no more layoffs because "The business is healthy. Revenue is growing, clients are growing", and that they'll resume hiring "at a much slower pace" in two months,
After the FAQ comes another one of those classic emails from the CEO to everyone, in which he blatantly admits to frivolously "liv[ing] like we were a fortune 500 company for half a year and blew it [...] and we're not living within our means". For over 2000 words, he talks about himself and how he "screwed up". He talks about how it was fulfilling for him to know he can provide people stability to build their lives and how he wants to keep doing that, completely ignoring the fact that he just shafted people I personally know who, after 3+ years, were finally feeling secure enough to start their lives with a stable position. He talks about hoping to get people to $25/hr and $130,000+ while conveniently forgetting to mention that many of the people he laid off were approaching that after many years of COLA and merit increases.
Imagine callously ending the livelihoods of nearly 140 people, and talking about yourself for 2000 words. Imagine letting them go in a callous and an inhumane way, admitting it was completely your fault because you decided to go on some big tech spending party bender, and then talking about your "plan" moving forward like your word can be trusted. Imagine admitting to your own incompetence and deciding that other people should pay for it, not you.
I used to recommend this place. I used to think it was different. I know better than to trust a company, but after three years, I thought that maybe I was proven wrong. I was not. I tell this story so that others can beware when looking at this place, and so that what happened isn't neatly erased. If you join, always keep connections, always keep savings, always keep lined up. The CEO will do the lip-service but never walk the walk.
