Promising startup, but very poor leadership and toxic culture - Anonymous employee Brightline Employee Review

2.0
9 Jan 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-unique focus on pediatric mental health and commercial demand -unlimited PTO -good compensation and benefits -good professional development and learning opportunities -great teammates (pre-layoffs and recent resignations)

Cons

***Poor leadership. Executive team is unable to clearly articulate goals and they frequently change course, causing confusion for everyone else. Tons of micromanagers. ***Too bureaucratic. The company hired too quickly for an early stage startup, resulting in too many layers and redundant roles. Really hard to get anything done without writing a decision memo, making a deck, getting resources from other teams, getting ELT sign off, etc. Too complicated for an early stage startup. ***Culture of burnout. Employees are consistently overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed out. Leadership has an old school mentality of working long hours to prove yourself. ***Poor cash management. The company fundraised a lot of money, which helped us grow. But it also created pressure and expectations to perform from investors, without enough time to mature the business model. Because of this the company had to recently lay off many workers (including therapists). This could have been avoided if the leadership team approached fundraising, growth and hiring more responsibly. ***Unfair treatment of minorities. I know of at least 3 people of color who left because they felt their managers were creating a hostile work environment and they were being discriminated against.

Explore other reviews about Brightline

5.0
4 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everyone has been so kind and supportive during the onboarding process. The trainings and learning opportunities from leadership will equip me with the skills and confidence needed to excel in my position!

Cons

Navigating the EHR system is confusing and not very user friendly.

1.0
7 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are no pros working here

Cons

>Disorganized systems >Racist inequitable treatment among employees of color >Lack of work/life balance >Lack of transparency >Completely incompetent management >Lack of accountability >Blatant favoritism >Unfair and unequal salaries for employees who work the same position and have equivalent credentials >Turnover rate is very high >Very deceptive and dishonest marketing. They dismiss negative reviews as reviews that are simply disgruntled employees who need to vent and say that for every negative review, "there are so many employees that have positive experiences". They want a higher glassdoor rating in order to encourage more applicants to apply to this dysfunctional company >The Brightline NY glassdoor page is a misrepresentation of Brightline as a company as a whole. This glassdoor page is titled"Brightline company in New York" only and suspiciously mostly has the highest ratings. >I urge you to go to the glassdoor page that is titled "Brightline" and has a 3.8 star rating which is a much more accurate representation of the "Brightline" experience. Most of the negative reviews accurately capture the ongoing negative issues that persist at Brightline

3
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