Overall great experience, grateful for the supportive team and the learning experience
Pros
I've been working at Empowerly for ~4 years, and have previously worked with a couple of competitors. First, what I love about Empowerly: flexibility (I set my own hours), work-life balance (80% of the time, I am working a normal 40-hour workweek, and team members respect my days off), and many opportunities for skill development (as is the nature of working at an early-stage startup). The team is made up of sharp, kind people who all share the same mission: departments are always willing to collaborate with each other, and Sales doesn't have the cutthroat competitiveness I've seen at other companies, etc. I also want to acknowledge the empathy and understanding that the leadership has shown. When team members are overwhelmed, they make changes to ensure that workloads are manageable while still achieving goals. Personally, I've had to step back myself several times and ask for less work, and my manager and the leadership never made me feel like I was now "unreliable". I've also made a few pretty major mistakes over the years, and the team always communicated their dissatisfaction but gave me the benefit of the doubt and worked with me to prevent these things from happening again.
Cons
It's certainly not been all positive. I've read other Glassdoor reviews that call out "horrible" leadership, and while I can't speak for everyone, I believe that many of those reviews are very, very exaggerated. Yes, there have been times when I strongly disagreed with leadership's decisions, and especially in my first year here, it was difficult to gauge whether they would be receptive to honest, critical feedback. However, over the years, I've seen the founders truly grow as leaders and become more responsive to employees. Given the amazing hiring choices leadership has made, and Empowerly's overall growth, it's my opinion that most of the complaints about leadership are largely unfounded and come from former team members who were simply not a good fit for this company. One major con that has prevented me from referring a couple of my friends to Empowerly - we're a fully remote company, and that can be very isolating and demotivating especially for young people in the early stages of their career (like me). I would love to see leadership tackle this problem now that covid is more or less over - and not just with one or two company retreats a year. We have an early-stage startup culture, which may not be for everyone. It's normal for there to be some chaos and changes as the company grows and evolves. What matters most to me is that there's a supportive culture, opportunities for growth, and a shared mission that I believe in. I've seen the company grow a lot, and I'm proud to have grown with it. If you're looking for a place to work that's fast-paced, mission-driven, and open to feedback, Empowerly may be a good fit for you.
