First-time CEO doesn't make the cut - Anonymous employee Dictionary.com Employee Review

1.0
Mar 17, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good location downtown Oakland, near Bart and lots of restaurants. Stocked kitchen. Gym across the street. Decent healthcare packages, but nothing exceeding standard Bay Area packages.

Cons

There are many ways a leader can cut expenses, reduce staff and pivot a company to a new strategy with dignity, integrity and transparency. It happens everyday and any professional understands that it's part of the business world. The problem with current leadership is that the opposite has happened. This CEO has no capacity of leadership at this level. There is no clear pivot and no meaningful, innovative, long-term strategy. The way staff reductions are happening is haphazard, opaque and always leaves more questions than answers. We've also been taught (inadvertently) not to ask to many questions, as we may lose our jobs. If that isn't bad enough, it's been proven through many projects that leadership has zero confidence in the staff that remains to have talent. It's constant micromanaging or outsourcing, which leads many to believe that there is no value in what they offer professionally. Job security or feeling of meaningful contribution as a result is 100% non-existent. All of this further deepens the rampant distrust between staff and leadership, and there seems to be no end in sight. Couple all of this with no clear, exciting future strategy and you get a place that is pretty grim.

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Jun 6, 2024
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Pros

Collaborative team of amazing engineers Transparent Engineering Leadership (Directors and VP)

Cons

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2.0
Aug 7, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Overpaid for the work, which was mostly meetings.

Cons

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