While the mission is inspiring, the leadership team uses it to manipulate you to work crazy hours. It’s not uncommon that you’re expected to work until 8pm, respond to slacks at 10pm and work weekends. It’s nearly impossible to have a healthy work-life balance. They also require everyone to go in 5 days a week with zero flexibility to work from home. There’s a toxic intimidation culture that stems from the top: the CEO will wake up one day with an idea and force the entire company to stop what they’re working on and shift gears. He often yells at employees, and justifies it by saying that “rebuilding healthcare isn’t easy.” He aspires to be like Elon Musk and has said so during all hands. Other leads don’t have much of a say, very few are known to push back on him. Most of them are just yes men and women. Almost everyone who works there (outside of a handful of folks) are completely miserable. There’s even an alumni slack group that’s pretty negative about their experience at Forward. And it’s quite sad to see how much talent Forward has wasted and just how many people feel burnt after leaving there. I’d think twice before joining this company. The salary and benefits (including medical!) are quite terrible. The mission is inspiring but once you weigh everything I’m not sure it’s worth it.
