- Unfortunately, the People Team's efforts to build good culture are undermined by the Founder/CEO.
- At least 20 people have said he is difficult to work with, or a synonym, and that is just those who have outright said so directly to me or in a conversation I was a part of. Not everyone will say it out loud, and there are many people in the company I do not interact with regularly. 20 is a majority of the ones I do.
- For someone who considers himself a big thinker, he is close-minded, out of touch, and intolerant. Whatever he says goes, even if it does not make sense. He does not even feel comfortable with you expressing disagreement. He calls it "resisting." He wants yes men, exploits the power dynamic to create that environment, and then he will turn around and ask "why is no one thinking for themselves?"
- Sometimes it feels like you are talking to a child who could fire you if you do not comply.
- I have seen him pull power moves, like stress tests and loyalty tests, across departments. He is disrespectful to people. He also disregards instead of trusts their expertise. He struggles with empathy and people skills, despite being an extrovert.
- He either does not know how to be a good leader or takes pride in being a tyrant, and I am not sure which is worse.
- The pay is below market and leadership keeps telling everyone we have so much cash and are keeping levels high as though we care if it is clearly not being invested in us. Stingy and tone-deaf.
- Little career growth. People constantly disappear (fired) or leave for huge pay bumps at other companies.
- Several people I know are actively looking for new roles.
I am writing this for the jobseekers, not for any hope that he will change. You will see some themes echoed across other reviews, and he reads and responds to them.
This is a company full of good people, but many have tried to make progress here and quietly moved on after realizing the core issue is not changing. Who do you report the CEO to?
He thinks his way is getting him results, but look at how this company lost its first-mover advantage. Look at how he is trying to recover it by shoving his new strategy down customers' throats. Look at the turnover. People brave enough to disagree with him leave, get threatened, or get fired. The founder has asked why people are not thinking for themselves without recognizing how little room he leaves for that thinking to matter.
I wonder if he just thinks they were all holding him back as opposed to going through the perhaps uncomfortable exercise of introspection. Or maybe he outsourced that critical thinking to ChatGPT, too.
