Unprofessional leadership and a culture of disrespect
Pros
Some coworkers genuinely try their best and care about doing good work with very low pay, Pay is insufficient for SF life. Beautiful office, but employees are literally starving. Free lunch on Wednesdays, but the compensation is so low that employees act like they’re in a survival movie every Wednesday. People start hoarding food and labeling "seconds" before others have even had their first plate. It’s embarrassing to watch. If you pay people enough to live in SF, they won’t need to "steal" extra sandwiches for dinner.
Cons
Being in this environment made me doubt myself constantly for over 2 years. After leaving, I realized it was not a personal failure, this is not what a healthy company looks like. Not every workplace operates this way. The company was rapidly losing its values. Employee ideas and creativity do not matter, and feedback was not genuinely heard. Coworkers widely feel untrusted, uncertain, and burned out. There is no real sense of culture, no laughter, no energy, no psychological safety. The office environment feels heavy and joyless, which only accelerates disengagement. Leadership lacks accountability. The CEO frequently criticizes others’ schedules and time management in a passive-aggressive way, while positioning himself as the ultimate authority on priorities. When work does not meet expectations, responsibility is shifted onto employees, even when leadership-created blockers are the root cause. Concerns are dismissed with “I don’t have time,” yet unnecessary people are added to unrelated meetings, wasting everyone’s time. There is little respect for boundaries. Priorities are imposed top-down without context, and employees are judged rather than supported. Over time, this creates an environment where morale drops, trust erodes, and people stop speaking up because they know it will not make a difference.
