Pros
Talented, smart, nice co-workers. Great product.
Kontras
It used to be a nice place to work - a small group of people who were passionate about building something great. Yes, there were challenges. Not enough people, not enough money, long hours, NO process whatsoever; the usual startup woes. Results definitely mattered, but customers, employees, our product; these things mattered, too. People stuck around through hard times because there was hope that once we had proper funding, we truly could fix our challenges and be the great company we had the potential to become. Then we got a new investor, and there was so much hope and promise! AbsenceSoft 2.0! But quickly, it became all about growth, money and numbers. Lots of hiring, lots of spending, a new office, a video arcade - not for the employees but because it was cool and hip and looked good on Twitter. Popular perks like flexibility to work from home were phased out. We got a bro culture. It became not about building something great, but hitting our numbers and having the right image. Today a significant portion of the company was laid off. We were invited to a meeting and told that our positions were eliminated. Ok, this happens. Overgrowth happens, and it needs to be corrected. It’s not fun but it’s the responsible thing to do and the right way to run a business. But the way that the meeting was handled was, to me, disgusting. We were told that, unfortunately, this meeting was not to provide support; we could get that later from our friends. HR was there, but largely silent. It was a 12 minute angry rant about the CEO’s reckless spending and how that led to this, a couple of questions, and then we were told we’d be mailed stuff on Monday and the meeting was abruptly ended. It was awful. People were upset, crying, totally blindsided by this with very little support or compassion. Welcome to AbsenceSoft 3.0.