Toxic, Backstabbing, Non Transparent, Micromanagement are the new values - Software Engineer Abnormal AI Employee Review

1.0
Mar 24, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The ICs that keep the company operating, systems running, making sure customers are happy.

Cons

As many other reviews also have brought up: 1. Micromanaging CTO that is unable to take any feedback well, yet has to make every final decision due to all eng/product/design rolling under him. Leading to missed horizontal communications between teams, misalignments, thrash in development speed but yet it's the ICs that are scapegoats and managed out/fired because CTO reports are all yes men. 2. Culture has changed for the worse, company values non existent. Employees are always worried about company health, runway, given all the mixed messages and actions from senior leadership teams. 3. For engineers: We run into production issues frequently because of how our tech stack is built and running into scaling issues or some times frankly lack of code review rigor to "get it done". Previously we hire experienced engineers that wanted to improve the platform, but they all either quit or managed out due to conflict with our CTO for something so trivial where because he doesn't have Golang experience, he enforced the team to use Django/Python and then forced out the tech lead for questioning why. 4. Email Product is good, but the market is slowly catching up and also have similar solutions. Sadly company strategy keeps pivoting and trying to develop reactive/half baked features that then add to the tech debt over time. 5. Work life balance is terrible, lack of empathy from senior leadership, subjective performance reviews and last minute changes in bonus calculation formula etc... 6. Layoffs could've been done better, instead of saying at all hands the company is doing well, customers love us, and then the next week laying off people.

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Abnormal AI Response
3y
Thanks so much for leaving an honest review—we truly value your feedback. We are working hard to create a manager enablement program that addresses these issues. We’re committed to creating an environment where our employees can thrive, and we know that can’t happen without effective, well-trained managers to guide them. We’re sorry we didn’t get it right by you. We understand that being in a reactive state is never the ideal. The downturn in the economy has impacted many organizations, including Abnormal. As a result, we’ve made some incredibly difficult decisions in order to consolidate functions for greater efficiency and match our team structure to changing business needs. Moving forward, we are narrowing our focus in order to strengthen our strategy and build for durability so that all employees can feel confident both in the future of Abnormal and in their future with the company.

Explore other reviews about Abnormal AI

5.0
May 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- interesting problems - really talented people - opportunities for ownership - close to the edge of AI

Cons

- comp is good not excellent - remote culture

3.0
May 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

While pay IS competitive there were a few employees that were well underpaid even at the level they were at. Pro's - are that they educate you to use AI, the overall people team is great.

Cons

There was a shift in leadership last Fall and there have been cultural changes and not great ones. People are promoted without having the right experience required for the job aka senior manager roles. It seems like everyone is not happy and wants to leave. It is just a matter of time until turnover happens. There has been too many promises broken, broken leadership communication which results in a lack of trust, some managers are now micromanaging and it comes across as they fear for their jobs. They want to IPO which is great but ousting the entire GTM leadership sales team and head of people around the same time raised eyebrows.

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