Proceed With Extreme Caution: Why I Would NEVER Work Here Again - Senior Technical Marketing Designer Gatik AI Employee Review

I recently left Gatik after spending four months there because, in my opinion, they demanded far more than any standard professional should commit to. To be clear, I did not quit because I couldn't handle pressure; I left because, from my perspective, upper management encouraged long hours, weekend work, and intense micromanagement—often at the expense of personal boundaries and well-being. My manager was one of the co-founders who, as far as I could tell, oversaw more than half of the company. Every PTO request, IT ticket, and simple approval had to go directly through her. In my experience, this was commonplace with all of the founders: any and all decisions needed to be routed through them for final approval. These items would frequently sit untouched or unacknowledged for days, effectively halting people's projects unless it was a priority to them. I personally felt that if you tried to take proactive action, their response was ruthless, making it clear your head was on the chopping block. My role was the Senior Technical Marketing Designer, which logically and obviously belongs under the marketing team. Instead, I reported to the founder responsible for engineering. The unrealistic number of direct reports combined with her top priority being engineering and business-related tasks meant marketing was the least of her worries—as far as I could tell, it showed. No regular (weekly) check-ins, no efficient collaboration to get feedback, and nonexistent managerial delegation made day-to-day tasks far more complicated than necessary. From my first week to my last (minus the holidays), I observed the engineering team being stuck in an endless loop of sprints—working late nights and through the weekends. Initially, I thought it was a one-off crunch. It wasn't. Once one sprint ended, another immediately began. On top of that, "off-site" meetings in Half Moon Bay forced many to endure additional commute times for sessions that could have taken place in the office. In my view, it was a glaring waste of time and resources. Excessive hours weren't limited to the engineering team. In my opinion, employees across the board—truck drivers to recruiters—were expected to make the job their top priority at all hours. One engineer candidly told me he often worked until midnight. Quantity of work and seat time appeared to be valued over work-life balance. Even in my few months working there, I noticed a steady stream of departures. I hardly recall a week passing by without someone's desk being cleared out or their Slack account being deactivated, often without any public acknowledgment. Multiple coworkers told me I was lucky to realize early on that the situation felt unsustainable. Many of them stayed far longer than they intended, feeling trapped by the paycheck, H1-B status, or uncertainty about other opportunities. If you do your homework, you'll see a range of feedback on here or on Indeed. I personally recommend taking any glowing reviews with a massive grain (or mound) of salt. From my own observations, there's a noticeable gap between public-facing praise and day-to-day reality. It’s my opinion that any positive posts may be attempts to mitigate a growing reputation issue, rather than addressing the underlying problems.