Dead End for Most - Anonymous TransPerfect Employee Review

- The pay (more specifics below) - Lack of growth opportunities for many outside a very select few "One of the guys" types - Full in-office policy even though management doesn't seem to follow it - We've figured out the pattern. There is a raise year, followed by 2 raise freezes. - Lack of HR means no pay bands - Rampant favoritism and nepotism, which some managers truly see as a good thing General: I don't think any of the pros and cons listed above are outliers compared to other TransPerfect reviews at this office or in general when looking at the company as a whole. After speaking with other employees at different branches, It seems indicative of a very toxic company culture that starts at the top with the founder/CEO, a man who loves to post on LinkedIn that the company is doing great, acquiring other shops, and throwing extravagant parties/conferences in major cities around the world every few weeks, while freezing raises 2 years for every 1 raise cycle. This company seems to solely exist as a lifestyle brand for top management rather than an actual Translations organization. The Pay (with numbers!): I (and many other reviews) mentioned pay as a con and am going to elaborate more now. In many cases, one's potential earnings at TPT is heavily dependent on your starting pay which is HEAVILY dependent on if you know the Division President (DP) of this office before starting. Raises are based solely on percentages, so if you start at a low salary (many do, you can see this from the other reviews), you'll never actually get to even reach a "decent" wage because “X” percent of nothing is still nothing no matter how well you’re doing. However, if you know the DP, you'll start off higher and most likely be given preference for larger percentage raises. Fun fact: management discourages employees to discuss salary (which is bordering on illegal), most likely due to wanting to cover their terrible practices. Some examples of the pay stuff. We have/had software engineers starting in the mid 70s who came in not knowing the DP. One got promoted to make 90. The other worked for 3+ years and was still in the mid 70s. Both were reliable and great to work with and have gone on to better places (the bar is low). Another Sr Engineer who left a year ago was around the mid 90s with 5 years of experience. An engineer who grew up in the same neighborhood that the DP lives in started at 90 as a junior. We have solutions engineers who start in the low 40s and stay there for years while others come in starting at 80. Same instance above. One knows the DP and the other does not. Actually, the one earning in the 40s is doing software engineering work full time now and it seems management/DP is doing everything in their power to not push for a raise for them. There's actually a completely useless engineer making high 6 figures who comes in the office once every month maybe (the in-office policy only applies to everyone who isn't friends with the DP) and doesn’t bring anything to the table besides expertise in outdated tech we don't use but he's seen as an asset because he might've helped the DP once many years ago. When there is a raise cycle, it turns into a bloodbath. Some get 1-2% raises. Others get 20-40%. Numbers are again, solely at the discretion of the DP so you can see where I'm going with this. His friends get taken care of while employees he doesn't care for who deserve more are generally left out in the cold. I mentioned raise freezes in the Cons section. They happen often. However, the DP, during the last freeze, had the gall to call everyone in the office into an all-hands meeting, talk to us for an hour about how badly the company is doing (rumor is we made record profits), and capped it off by announcing no raises and no new hires for anyone that year (we hired 5 people since, 4 of whom know the DP or someone close to him). However, we've heard about certain employees getting "secret" adjustments, and many of them have a personal relationship with the DP or have managers with personal relationships with the DP advocating for them. Lastly, there is a "bonus" that is sometimes given out but this isn't given to everyone; it's used as an emergency to try to keep people happy that the DP has screwed over and suspects will leave. I've only ever seen it go to disgruntled employees who proved themselves (too little, too late in most cases) or the DP's favorites. It's easier to give out a one time heavily withheld 1k-5k bonus than it is to actually advocate for a raise in the DP's eyes. Morale is great. Morale: Speaking of morale, we've had instances of employees mentioning that morale is poor only to be gaslit by leadership saying that is not the case and those employees get called toxic. Leadership want things done at an impossible rate on the engineering side. I mentioned before that we lost 2 engineers; that happened in January and we haven't replaced them since (we're close to April) but now the rest of the team have to pick up the slack. Career Advancement: At other companies, managers interact with their direct reports, usually through one on ones. This can be cumbersome but it's good practice as the direct report gets a sense that their work is being "seen" and can get a general sense of career advancement opportunities from the manager. This doesn't happen here. Management locks themselves away in separate offices they all share and the rest of the employees are left wondering if what they're doing actually matters. I've only seen one manager try to actively advocate for his team with mixed results. The others aren't approachable (they just want you to work or refuse to acknowledge your misgivings/financial situation) or relatable as they're all making mid to high 6 figures contrasted to their workers, some of whom legit can make more as a cashier. Career advancement pretty much depends on who makes the most "noise" as they're seen as competent while silence/shyness often gets mistaken for incompetence. We have one engineer who spends his time just refactoring code and slowing development down saying everything could lead to production outages get promoted to senior. He's seen as a valuable tool to management even though all he does is nitpick/ego trip on code that isn't his and the things he has refactored has actually led to breaks. Ego goes a long way here. Lack of HR: A lot of these cons are probably consequences of having no HR. There are no pay bands, employees don't have a way to effectively vent frustrations as the only people with any power is the closed circle of managers and the DP. Conversations in the office are less reminiscent of a SaaS company numbering 10k employees and more similar to a construction site or a bar exclusively catering to sailors. One huge and noteworthy instance that is a result of no HR comes to mind. There was a very "loud" employee who was fired after many warnings for constantly arguing and berating others. This might've been the one time the DP did something useful except EVERYONE quickly found out that the employee in question was still silently collecting a paycheck because the P felt bad for him. This employee later went on to become the DP's godson. Naturally, the employee came back after a few months and has somewhat returned to form. I need to reiterate that: a FIRED employee was essentially given a 6+ months long fully paid vacation and came back only to resume bullying and berating others. Favoritism and Nepotism: If you know the DP or someone the DP knows, you’ll get a job with no real interview. Right now there are perhaps 7 (not an exaggeration) people in the office (around 40 total) whose interviews consisted of just discussing the same politics the DP follows, conspiracy theories, and talking about mutual friends in the same social circles. Others are made to go through a real interview process and I’ve seen the DP be extra hard on those when the positions are for his team. Final Thoughts: If you truly have no other career options and you don't know the DP, I hope you read this before applying. Almost everyone outside management are currently (march, 2025) putting in applications/interviewing to get out and the new employees are just waiting to get some experience to do the same. Use this place as a stepping stone before you become a lifer. If you know the DP, can't function in an actual office, are loud and incompetent, majored in philosophy/religion, and now decided you need real experience, you should apply. If you have all 4 qualities, you'll probably be a manager within 2 years.