Anonymous - Anonymous employee Etsy Employee Review

Etsy is still a great place to work compared to a lot of other companies. Some recent negative reviews are exaggerated and dramatic, which is more of a reflection of the company putting too much emphasis on "culture" and not always hiring the best and most experienced workers for the job. There's a lot of entitlement, which continues to shock me, as not all companies are going to give paid health benefits, very generous sick and PTO, and a terrific work/life balance. I hear everyone talk about the "old" Etsy a lot which included poor product planning, subpar engineering, and major lack of communication across the company. We're finally stepping in the right direction, but I don't feel like Josh is the right fit for Etsy. He has the business expertise, which we desperately need, but it's clear he lacks the ability to manage a company that's so protective of their culture . He's alienated a lot of employees and excelerated attrition, which at one time was curtly referred to as "natural". While we've improved GMS and attracted new members to the site, a lot of products are broken and need to be addressed. Engineering time is now impossible to get because of the wave of attrition in engineering. The loss of a lot of people has in itself pros and cons, but since they arrogantly didn't think this many would actually leave, HR has been super slow to backfill the positions leaving the remaining employees with having to pick up the extra work. Josh and the executive team at one point made it seem as if we all werent willing to pitch in and we needed to essentially grow up to act like adults, which also turned a lot of employees off and gave them an extra push to leave. Unfortunately, this alienated a lot of hard working employees who had been picking up the slack, so I'm not surprised "natural" attrition has drastically increased. It should've only been addressed directly to the employees with a bad attitude, not to the entire company.