Toxic leadership more focused on their image than supporting their people - Developer Instrument Employee Review

1.0
Nov 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Truly talented and creative coworkers

Cons

1. Executive leadership is all talk and no action. Example: they constantly told people to ask for whatever time off they needed, but HR pushed back hard on managers who tried to support their people this way. 2. People often work nights or weekends to push through and get projects done, in part because resourcing is so chaotic and poorly planned. 3. They recently fired two of the strongest advocates for DEI within the company, one of who was a 10-year employee in non-executive leadership. 4. Execs constantly center their feelings when talking about their commitments to DEI and anti-racism, and make excuses about not wanting to give into urgency when they miss their own deadlines. Too many examples to list, including an exec who talked about their “BIPOC friends” to show how great they were doing at anti-racism work. 5. There’s no real way to talk with execs except through a form where you can submit questions, and those often get a response along the lines of “per our last email” with no actual info. 6. The company is more concerned with external image than how people internally are actually feeling and whether they’re supported. Example: they originally took down their Black Lives Matter splash page 3 days after putting it up, but some employees saw and objected to how shallow and self-serving that timing felt, so it went back up. 7. Many people, especially in the dev discipline, took pay cuts to work here because salaries are lower than industry standard. Are there cool projects? Yes. Are there truly great people to collaborate with? Yes. (Are we in a pandemic and a job here is better than no job? Yes.) That might be enough for you if you can keep your head down and ignore how executive leadership fails to follow through on any real change, and if you can be super strict about work/life balance even when you see your teammates working extra hours - otherwise, this place isn’t worth it.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for this feedback, and the experiences you shared. It is critical for us to do everything we can to ensure employees have what they need, in their personal and professional lives, including time off. If you feel comfortable, please reach out to People Ops as we have no known incidences of discouraging time off if an employee needed it, and always work to find the best way to support leave. 2020 has definitely put internal communication to the test. We are actively working to evolve communication and provide safe spaces and opportunities for many voices to be heard — and have undoubtedly had some successes and some failures. We continue to encourage employees to reach out directly to any member of Executive Leadership to have a conversation. Again, we really appreciate your open and candid feedback as it is the only way for us to reflect, action and pivot.

Explore other reviews about Instrument

5.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company with great people. Seamless life, work balance, and a very nice company culture.

Cons

No big cons as far as my concern. The pay can be slightly better, but it's okay compared to other agencies' standards.

3.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people here are great. Every team feels fairly connected, even for a 250+ person agency. Work/life balance is the best I've experienced at an agency so far. Pay is fair and scales depending on where you live and your experience overall. Work has the potential to be interesting, but most clients we bring in are not looking for ground-breaking work.

Cons

The benefits are not extraordinary, other than generous PTO. Recently removed a sabbatical program. Layoffs that come as a surprise, with scrambles only months later to fill the eliminated roles. Freelance hiring is hit or miss. Publicly-owned with a parent company that doesn't align with Instrument's morals. Leadership feels fairly disconnected and not genuinely interested in resolving the low morale amongst the larger team. Seemingly more interested in advertising themselves and using AI than in focusing on craft and high-quality projects. Constant leadership departures create anxiety.

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