As others have noted, reviews on Glassdoor from current employees are positively skewed, since they are solicited to write positive reviews. Any concerns or frustrations are directed offline as employees are encouraged to take these to their leader. However, this sets the employee up to fail, as they are then labeled as another disgruntled employee or troublemaker. I witnessed retaliatory behavior from leadership in response to this, and many employees are eventually forced out due to “performance issues”. In this way, the organization has progressively instilled (directly or indirectly) a culture in which employees cannot be fully honest (even in surveys/platforms in which responses are intended to be “anonymous”) without fear of retaliation, which has led to highly curved positive results. This is deeply concerning, as the organization is mis-represented by the awards they win, and executive leadership has no accurate pulse on how their employees truly feel.
This type of behavior also personally impacted me under my leadership. Feedback I received was heavily biased and had nothing to do with my performance as an employee. My leader wanted me to be more like him/her, not more like Jesus, who seems to have been lost in the day-to-day operations of this place. When I escalated my concerns about his/her leadership, I was written off; from that point, each day became a more hostile work experience than the prior, as I was subjected to gaslighting, scare tactics/empty threats and passive-aggressive behaviors. I lived through frequent anxiety and/or depression (conditions I’d never experienced prior to this job), and I consistently dreaded going to work.
As others here have said, this job starts out wonderful--the opportunity to work for your beloved church home feels like a dream come true. Eventually, however, countless employees leave because problems aren’t addressed, expectations are unclear, and people get burnt out because they feel they are expendable (this belief is affirmed when hearing things like “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out” and “I could do this with only 100 of you”). Even though I required a period of un-learning following my employment at Life.Church, I am now truly thriving and am so glad I made the decision to leave...however, it does sadden me to know that others are going through similar treatment and that nothing has changed since I left.
