Headline sums it up. I earned 4s on all of my performance reviews and was baited with promotion talk for over a year, to keep working harder without increased compensation. My manager didn't even have the decency to tell me I wasn't being promoted during my performance reviews. She waited for a strategic time, in front of her manager, to tell me no growth opportunities were available to me, right after I pushed back on a project for the only time in my HubSpot career due to unsustainable stress levels. I am still recovering from the hostile treatment I received from her manager after pushing back.
The worst part about HubSpot for me was the culture. I disagree with the common sentiment that once, HubSpot had a great culture. It is my feeling that HubSpot was always a culty startup selling an average product. They succeeded with internal marketing. A lot of people want to work there, or did. HubSpot probably always had a toxic culture, but the illusion of a great culture (perks, swag, smiling grads eager to work, and lots of free alcohol) has now faded. I think that is why more employees are speaking out on Glassdoor.
One of the worst feelings during my daily work was never knowing if my teammates or manager were trustworthy or even actually liked me, despite the false enthusiasm and positivity that is endemic to HubSpot. I witnessed regular gossip and hostilities between employees and teams who just wouldn't give marketing what they wanted, mostly because it was a poorly calculated idea or simply unfeasible given other priorities. The level of narcissism in several marketing managers was shocking, the infighting felt terrible, and middle and senior managers did not hesitate to throw associate level employees under the bus to “manage” these conflicts so they wouldn't have to.
If you work at HubSpot, you may be gaslit without any process to seek justice and feel like you are walking on eggshells every day. And if you leave, you may be treated like an outcast. People will not want to “touch you” because even being seen talking with an ex-HubSpot employee could somehow tarnish their allegiance to HubSpot.
I was raised in an actual cult. In many ways, working at HubSpot felt like deja vu.
