Embark Veterinary reviews

3.6

55% would recommend to a friend

(67 total reviews)

Amish Desai

19% approve of CEO

51% positive business outlook

Embark Veterinary has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 67 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Embark Veterinary employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Personal Consumer Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

67 reviews
2.0
Jan 18, 2023

Not Worth it

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The one major pro to this company was the team and the people I was on and surrounded by. Everyone was truly so caring, fun and nice, so it was a nice change of pace from previous jobs.

Cons

Where to start.... 1 - Embark likes to "take pride" in how diverse and inclusive they are but there is very much a lack people of color in the company as a whole but also specifically the higher level and C level positions are all held by white people, and more predominantly white men. There were multiple surveys that were taken and concluded that there were microaggressions used towards people of color and they tried to use other ways to act like they were being inclusive and diverse but failed at that too. 2 - For months Embark was stating that we were "on the up and up", and even were presented bonuses in the months lading up to the massive layoff of about 30% of the company. They gave us zero indication that there was a problem with our fiances and left many former employees blindsides and angry. After all that, they acted like they were doing us a service by providing external resources after being laid off, so the arrogance that these people had is shocking. This was also their 2nd round of lay-offs. 3 - There is no room for growth at this company unless your superior were to either take leave or leaves the company completely, which does nothing for anyones career growth

avatar
Embark Veterinary Response
3y
Dear current employee, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. Embark is committed to becoming a more diverse, inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist organization because we believe that diversity is paramount and will make us a stronger team and company. Using a data-driven approach, grounded in listening, learning, trust, and transparency, we’re invested in building inclusive teams and products, cultivating a sense of belonging, and expanding community engagement and impact. While we remain committed, we recognize our work isn't done and we are still on this journey. Going through a layoff is an incredibly difficult process and leadership reviewed the demographics of those who were impacted and asked the important questions about bias to ensure we are not disproportionately impacting diverse employees or employees of one gender. It’s also important to share that we have made strides in increasing the diversity of our leadership with the addition of 5 executives, 3 of whom are women and 1 of whom is non-white. Additionally, the only Board member added since 2020 is a woman. As we move forward, we will continue to invest in DEIB through our employee-led DEIBCommittee and through initiatives led by the HR Team. We will build on our efforts over the past year to further increase the diversity of our candidates and foster an inclusive and equitable environment through training, speakers, collecting employee’s feedback on their experiences, facilitating open conversations about how we can improve, and evolving our People Practices. As the VP of HR, I remain very connected to our DEIB Committee and meet monthly with the co-chairs to ensure we understand and leverage feedback and insights from Employees and the DEIB Committee on important work such as manager training, engagement surveys, hiring practices, and more. I take your feedback to heart and invite you to reach out to me directly so I may better understand and address your concerns.
2.0
Jan 17, 2023

Disappointing

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Exciting mission, many coworkers also passionate Reasonable comp Fun technology

Cons

Lacking exec accountability and self-awarness. For example, in a previous layoff, an exec posted in a public channel just after the following bonus showing an expensive new purchase. Similarly, in the most recent layoff, the c suite took no pay cut and is still taking bonuses. Portioning relative to competitors is poor. They're being out done on price and advertising by competitors as well, so they're somewhat lacking a strategy at the moment to compete. The culture has changed dramatically in the last couple years, increasing bureaucracy. We have hired a number of manager and director staff that approach their positions with cynicism and a lack of respect, and despite repeated complaints little is done to coach them or effect cultural change.

avatar
Embark Veterinary Response
3y
Thank you for your review and feedback. As we continue to scale our company, we are always looking for areas of improvement and will certainly utilize this feedback as we continue to evolve as an organization. I am sorry to hear your perspective on Management. Since you are a current employee, I encourage you to reach out to the HR team so we can address behaviors that were disrespectful. Manager development continues to be an important initiative and we will be providing more training and development to this group into the coming year. - Ryan Boyko, CEO
2.0
Jan 10, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you resonate with the company's mission of improving overall canine health, this used to be "the" pet tech startup to work for

Cons

Embark's definitely not what it used to be. The leadership team has no past experience leading a startup through rapid growth (like what the company saw in 2020 and beginning of 2021), and now with that growth slowed, they've gone through 2 rounds of layoffs in just a few months, even after the CEO stated publicly on several all-hands in Q3/Q4 2021 that no layoffs were in the picture at Embark. The executive team WAY over-indexed on company culture, like hiring frivolous positions that are in no way necessary for a startup still trying to find its footing, and renting an unbelievably large office space in downtown Boston that hasn't been even close to capacity once. Even after these attempts, the company's work culture is still very toxic, with clashes inside the engineering org almost daily. The CTO created an elite committee that's supposed to "guide" the engineering team on best practices, but even they can't decide on paths forward. Avoid Embark at all costs - the financial footing of the company clearly isn't as great as the leadership team is painting it out to be, and more layoffs are almost certainly in-store. A lot of people are going to start jumping ship too.

avatar
Embark Veterinary Response
3y
Thank you for writing such a thorough review. I understand your concerns – Embark is one of many companies that made the difficult decision to reduce its workforce amid the economic slowdown and change in capital markets. However, as painful and challenging this moment has been, I want you to know this hasn’t changed our investment in canine health. I remain optimistic and excited about our future and how Embark will transform pet care. Since you are a current employee, I encourage you to reach out to me. I would love to talk through the future of the company to address your concerns. You also raise important points about leadership and management. The HR team is focusing on delivering management training to help develop leadership culture across the company in the coming months and I encourage you to reach out to that team to make sure your concerns are addressed. Ryan Boyko, CEO
Viewing 25 - 27 of 67 Reviews

Glassdoor has 69 Embark Veterinary reviews submitted anonymously by Embark Veterinary employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Embark Veterinary is right for you.