Overall, there's a pervasive toxic & unethical culture where employees are mistreated, juxtaposed with public declarations about the company's "growth" & success. I honestly wasn't going to write a review, but felt obligated to share my experience after noticing a stark contrast between the public image they're trying to portray and the fact they are quietly downsizing/restructuring teams behind the scenes. A total lack of transparency, accountability, empathy and integrity from their leadership team.
- They "let people go" individually without any warning instead of admitting to downsizing or layoffs, likely to avoid the negative optics. It seems that AssemblyAI chooses to disguise layoffs by individually firing employees under the pretext of "performance issues". I assume this strategy helps them maintain a public facade of stability and growth, but at the cost of their employee's trust & well-being.
- They claim to offer employees maternity leave, but don't be surprised if they decide to "eliminate" your role while you're out - there is no guarantee your job will still be there when you return.
- There is one leader in particular who exhibited completely unprofessional behavior on occasion during 1:1 meetings with a couple of other employees, including myself. This "leader" has a short temper, makes assumptions without allowing you to speak, and has a tendency to lash out while demeaning and berating you - completely unhinged. I've only heard of them doing this during 1:1's, so most people likely aren’t even aware of this happening... there’s not a lot of casual office talk at a remote company, so if this happens to you during a 1:1 you’re just left isolated feeling like crap, believing you're the one in the wrong. Speaking to anyone like this is utterly unacceptable, especially coming from a member of the leadership team. It's a level of disrespect that I've personally never experienced at any other workplace setting.
- Lack of transparency and communication around expectations, leading to sudden terminations of employees for allegedly "not meeting expectations" that were never clearly defined or explained.
- There's a good chance they won't give you a legitimate reason for letting you go - and will likely dance around the question without providing further explanation or examples of the expectations you supposedly did not meet. Prepare to be left in the dark, doubting your performance & abilities while they refuse to offer any concrete feedback or justification for their decision to let you go.
- Forget about work/life balance and prepare for burnout
