Talented people hindered by a disconnected Leadership
Pros
There are genuinely talented, hardworking people throughout the organization who want the company to succeed. You'll learn how to work in constant ambiguity because you'll have no other choice. If you enjoy wearing multiple hats and solving problems with limited resources, you'll gain experience quickly.
Cons
The biggest disappointment was the culture. From the outside—and during the hiring process—the company presents itself as a collaborative, transparent, people-first organization. That wasn't my experience. The culture felt performative rather than authentic. Leadership spoke often about trust, accountability, transparency, and employee experience, but those values were not consistently reflected in the way employees were treated or how decisions were made. I did not have confidence in the COO's leadership approach based on my experience working with him. In my experience, employees who challenged decisions or raised concerns often did not remain with the company for long. This created a culture where many people became hesitant to speak openly or offer dissenting opinions. As someone working in HR and People Operations, I had a front-row seat to how leadership operated. There was a significant disconnect between the company's stated values and what employees actually experienced. Micromanagement was a recurring issue. Rather than trusting professionals to deliver results, there was an excessive focus on monitoring employee availability, activity, and time. It often felt like leadership was more concerned with whether employees appeared to be working than whether the business was moving forward. Leadership also appeared disconnected from one another. Priorities shifted frequently, communication was inconsistent, and employees were often left trying to understand the direction of the company after major decisions had already been made. The company went through multiple layoffs during my time there. Each round created more uncertainty, lower morale, and less confidence in leadership. Instead of providing clarity and rebuilding trust, communication often left employees with more questions than answers. From my perspective, the company spent too much energy reacting to problems instead of addressing the underlying issues. Rather than building sustainable systems, developing leaders, and empowering employees, the environment often felt driven by short-term decisions and constant course corrections. During my time with the company, I personally witnessed conduct and decision-making that I believed reflected racial bias. Those experiences raised serious concerns for me about fairness and equal treatment within the organization. Perhaps the most frustrating part was watching leadership talk extensively about culture while making decisions that undermined it. Culture is not a slide deck, a company value, or a recruiting message. Culture is how employees are treated when business becomes difficult. Unfortunately, those two things did not align.