Formlabs reviews

3.2

49% would recommend to a friend

(470 total reviews)
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Maxim Lobovsky

58% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Formlabs has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 470 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Formlabs employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

470 reviews
2.0
Sep 3, 2020

Churn and Burn

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Great experience to take to a company that will pay you closer to what you are worth. -Food and the usually start up "perks" if that's your thing. -Everyone is there because they have a passion for the company. -Unlimited use of 3D printers

Cons

-Changing insurance every year to keep costs low. -Most of the managers are fist time managers. Some don't even have experience in the field they are managing on the Sales side of things. -Huge turnover rate for employees and managers. this makes getting promoted almost impossible as you switch managers before any of the goals for a promotion are finished and have to start over with the new manager. -With every manager switch comes an expectation redesign. This is another way you are prevented from advancing your career by Formlabs. -One manager set metrics and gave an outline of what metrics to achieve in order to get a yearly raise, with higher expectation meaning a bigger % raise. Then the new manager realized they couldn't afford all those raises and had squad captains alter reviews to match the raise budget last minute. This translated to a lot of people not getting any negative feedback until their review where they were expecting a raise. -They will string someone along that is working ard and thinks they will get promoted for as long as they can. I watched the person running the chat openly talk about plans to develop a team and managers play along for over a year before -They revoked the "Unlimited Vacation" policy and fired people for using too many days off in the same year this plan was revoked. -The documents they present for signature when an employee leaves the company are not even close to legal, and any employees leaving on any type of terms should refuse to sign it.

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Formlabs Response
5y
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback. We understand and are sorry that you had a difficult time. We’ll do our best to address your concerns. We appreciate the challenges to employees that come with changing health insurance providers. While it’s true that cost is a big factor, it’s the cost to employees as much as the cost to Formlabs that we look at. We don’t want to pass higher premiums or deductibles on to employees, so there’s a significant amount of analysis that goes into the benefits decisions. We start our review early each year so we can be extremely thoughtful in our decisions. Because we strive to promote from within, that does mean that we often have first time managers who may need more guidance and support than they had previously received. POps HR, in conjunction with the division HRBPs, has designed a new manager training program for new and newly promoted managers to ensure they have all the tools they need to be effective in their new roles. We understand there was not clear alignment on the Formlabs Flexible Time Off policy across all departments. We maintain and encourage a flexible time-off policy that relies on team members and managers working together to accommodate individual and business needs. We continue to work on improving communication regarding the policy so that departmental expectations are clear. At departure, we present an employee leaving Formlabs documents that may include a separation letter, COBRA information, unemployment information, and possibly a severance agreement. All of these documents have been prepared in conjunction with our internal Legal department; when necessary, Legal consults with outside employment law specialists. Every employee is given time to review the paperwork before signing. An employee is also welcome to consult with their own legal counsel before signing. We do not know what specific documents raised your concern, but if you wish to reach out to us, we are happy to address it with you directly. Again, we are truly sorry that you had such a difficult experience. If you have any additional questions or concerns, we would be happy to speak with you in an effort to resolve them. -- Lisa, POPs HR Team
2.0
Nov 18, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart, interesting coworkers. Very cool offices, yummy free lunches. Work with tech that your friends will "ooh" and "ahh" about at parties.

Cons

Was pushed to the worst burnout and mental breakdown of my life attempting to meet insane deadlines, predicated on the working pace of someone who almost quit and was transferred because it was too much for them. The pressure is immense, and has caused a lasting productivity anxiety that I am still trying to undo, years later. Only work here if you have extremely strong work-life balance and boundaries. Otherwise, this is a burnout factory where you will likely last two years or less and leave with lasting psychological scars. Safety practices are typical of an engineering company working with advanced materials-- widespread ignorance and a false sense of security at normalized exposures. If you work there, read the SDSs and approach the materials with a healthy sense of skepticism. Protect yourself, no company (especially a startup) will. The "path to profitability" is necessary to grow this company up, but also seemed to be slowly stripping away the fun benefits of working there.

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Formlabs Response
1y
Thank you for your feedback. We’re glad you love our products and technology, enjoyed working with talented colleagues and appreciated the office perks. It is true that we have placed significant focus on getting better, faster, and more efficient so we can continue to lead our industry – and we’ve made a lot of progress. At the same time, we recognize the challenges you faced as we raised our talent bar and made changes to teams. We know this left some areas understaffed for a short period of time as we hired new team members. We’re surprised to read about your comments on safety practices. We prioritize safety - we have teams focused on this who developed and documented robust protocols that are pushed to all employees to ensure the well-being of everyone and we run safety training on all areas of our protocols, materials and equipment with all new hires. We have safety focused posters all over the offices, we encourage all employees to call out violations of our protocols when they see an issue, and we provide everyone with PPE. We also make it very easy to report any incidents and take action to remedy problems immediately.
2.0
Apr 14, 2024

An honest review

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some remnants of the original Formlabs whimsy remain in tact. A lot of naturally curious and unusual people are attracted to the company. Once you push past the barriers of varying social abilities work can become enjoyable. The technology is fairly interesting. There’s enough to learn to keep your mind occupied.

Cons

Low pay, toxic, gossip, limited upward mobility, diminishing original culture and values, diversity is a joke, technology is not stable, limited finances for r&d, and customer feedback is overlooked. Leadership is more concerned with leaving their imprint on the company and jargon than advancing the company’s mission and cementing Formlabs legacy. CEO is not very engaged with the majority of employees, not a great source of inspiration and that’s unfortunate.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 470 Reviews

Glassdoor has 639 Formlabs reviews submitted anonymously by Formlabs employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Formlabs is right for you.