One thing I learned from my time at RS is that the ideal team member is hungry, humble, and smart, and that someone who is only hungry and smart but not humble is a dangerous person. He will destroy anyone who gets in his way on his path to personal success. He will use and manipulate people for his own gain, and he will lie and blame to cover up his mistakes. You can identify such a person because there is a trail of dead bodies behind him. He may try to hide them in a closet, but eventually they start to stink. Everything I experienced at RS indicated that the CEO, Dave Ramsey, is hungry and smart, but that he is not humble.
When I first read the reviews here, I initially decided not to apply. Later, a friend who worked there already convinced me that the negative reviews were all from disgruntled ex-employees with an axe to grind. I have since learned from RS leadership and personal experience that many of the surprising things written here were actually true. RS brags about how they only hire the best — “thoroughbreds” — yet when their top-notch employees leave and share the truth about their experiences, these people are discredited by the fact that they no longer work there. I wish I had not believed this characterization and had really considered the negative reviews. I have my own story to tell, but I will only say this: before applying to RS, take ALL of the reviews to heart.
Cons:
* When RS told employees to return to the office in early May 2020 during the pandemic, an employee anonymously reported them to OSHA. I heard Dave Ramsey, the CEO, angrily yell during a staff meeting that he would personally fire that person if he found out who it was. This was followed by cheers from much of the team. I felt bad for the person who was probably at that meeting when the CEO and many of his/her team members were shouting for his/her termination because s/he reached out for help.
* In the past, employees have lost their jobs because they didn’t agree with Dave — even on issues that were not finance-related.
* A red flag I noticed early on is that the CEO is defensive about being a cult, saying that if they were a cult he wouldn’t ask people to leave if they disagreed with him. Hearing him say this made me think that everyone who had told me there was a cult-like atmosphere there was actually right. I heard him say in multiple staff meetings, “if you don’t agree, get out!” and, speaking to team leaders with a smile on his face, he would say, “we need to help these people leave.”
* I have heard talk in staff meetings and on LinkedIn about RS being the “best place to work in the nation”, but when I was there, we were told by leadership to only put positive responses on the survey that gave them this title (FYI: they are currently only on one national list, and they are not #1). Leadership would use the phrase “act like adults, which felt to me like they were trying to shame us into doing things they wanted, as in this case. I remember feeling like I couldn’t speak openly to leadership about any real concerns for fear of losing my job, but I was also strongly discouraged from speaking out about concerns anonymously in a survey.
* Good people I know have been fired over the vague code of conduct which only references to “Judeo-Christian values” without explaining what those values actually are.
* I have discovered from multiple sources that leadership have lied about me to current employees after my departure.
* The pay is sub-par for technology. I got a significant salary increase as well as cheaper and better benefits when I changed jobs with the same ranking I had at RS.
