It’s taken a few months of reflection for me to process my experience at 98point6 since leaving and be able to summarize the numerous red flags into this one review. If you are considering a job there, please be aware that you are entering a culture that is extremely toxic to individual contributors. While 98point6 has a neat mission and some great people, it has some major cons that I’ve attempted to summarize below:
1. Lack of Change Management
Announces major leadership changes right before holiday weekends, when many are out of office. When they host AMAs, the leadership is defensive and not open to discourse. Little is done to support the employees struggling with the effects of the change.
2. Minimal Development of Talent
There is a very slow performance review structure which is annual and takes ~3 months to complete. Even for a start-up they pay well below the market value, and the salary increases are minimal with little to no role/title development. This was particularly noticeable for those in coordinator roles.
3. Incompetent Support for Employees
The COO does not have the competencies to direct the People Team to adequately support employees at this toxic company. When my team aimed to take the correct route and pull in the People Team for support, the People Team’s response was extremely slow and resulted in a solution that did more harm than good. I have heard similarly from many others in different departments, and other Glassdoor reviewers have reported this as well.
4. Lack of Accountability for Management
At many times I heard comments from people managers that were sexist, racist, and downright disrespectful to others at the company. There is little accountability for those in management or leadership roles. The combination of this with an incompetent People Team results in a culture that is victim-blaming and generally unhealthy for individual contributors.
5. Financial Instability Results in Deprioritzation of Employees
To meet our financial goals as a start up, the company implemented many measures which may have been financially wise but were extremely detrimental to employees. For example, in 2021 they entered a 6+ month hiring freeze which meant that even when a team lost multiple people they would not re-staff and instead would expect remaining team members to take on that work with no change in title or salary. Note that 98point6 refuses to make title or salary changes outside of the annual performance review even when this type of drastic change occurs. This has resulted in very high turnover (even when taking into account the “great resignation”) from those burnt out employees.
To summarize my experience at 98point6…Did I expand the scope of my role, take on new responsibilities, and learn new skills in the process? Absolutely! That’s what helped me land my next job.
Did I receive any promotion, increase in formal recognition, other rewards or support at 98point6 as a result of my new responsibilities? Not at all. That’s what drove me to the realization that if I didn’t want my career trajectory to plateau I would need to pursue a job elsewhere.
