The Fish Rots from the Head - Anonymous employee 3 Birds Employee Review

1. The company was caught by the NC Department of Commerce to be misclassifying a number of workers as contractors rather than properly classifying them as employees. When the company was informed, they subtly switched the classification of around 20 employees with no explanation, no apology, and no financial restitution for unpaid wages, overtime, or benefits. This misclassification had been going on for at least 3 years. 2. The three founders are a mess - The President regularly and without apology yells at people beneath him. He has no consideration for people in the company, often raising the volume of his computer to max, so that everyone in the main room of the office can hear his phone call/music, desks vibrate, and it is impossible to concentrate. He also has "ideas" and derails the dev cycle so his pet projects can get work while necessary projects get sidelined. The CEO is constantly battling her husband and father for control of the company that she is CEO of. She puts off dealing with pertinent issues in the company, then gets mad when people come to her when a problem she put off is finally at a breaking point. The CFO has a constantly rotating 1 person finance team, but when finance issues come up, he will claim he's working on "more important things" (like seeking out more investors to save the dying company) than making sure employees are paid properly. 3. Finances are Bad - Payroll was missed several times in 2017, along with significant layoffs. Evaluators were not paid full paychecks in July 2018, and didn't get their full payments until the next pay period. 3 Birds is constantly courting investors and behaving like a startup even though the company is more than 7 years old. It seems like they are getting new investors to pay for their old debts to previous investors. (This was even mentioned during a recent Forum Friday) Vendors go unpaid until service is about to be canceled and even then, vendors are not paid the fully owed amounts. At the end of 2017, they changed healthcare and benefits providers to try and save money on expenses (two months after the open enrollment period in October), and provided worse plans. They also switched from Salesforce to Zoho in an attempt to pay the least possible for CRM services, and in doing so have created a mess. The only way to get a raise at 3 birds is to threaten to leave. Valuable employees are told there's no money for raises while mediocre employees with job offers elsewhere are given significant raises. The upstairs was recently vacated with talk of "subletting" the space for extra income. The snacks promised on job descriptions and the company website are next to non-existent. If the founders are in a good mood, a client is coming into town, or a new contract gets signed, there might be snacks for a week, and then they run out and are not replenished for months because of lack of funds. 4. 3 Birds is an email marketing company that can't get emails in inboxes. The deliver-ability rate is abysmal. They can't even send emails from their own email addresses without the messages going to spam. 5. Management is Driving People Away - Many people leave with no signs of being replaced. An executive team member left, and management did not inform anyone or her team, instead asking her to do some after hours work while employed elsewhere. At the end of the day, 3 Birds cares more about pennies in the bank than the employees that keep the company going. 3 Birds will work you to the bone, and then ask for more. The pay is too low and the benefits too sparse to justify the regular mistreatment employees receive from management. A complete overhaul of the executive level or being bought out might be able to save 3 Birds in the long run, but while present executives remain, financial mismanagement, verbal abuse, and an inability to see when a product is failing will no doubt lead to the inevitable end of 3 Birds.