Choke hold on employees - Anonymous employee FairWarning Employee Review

My name is Kurt Long and I am the Founder and CEO of FairWarning. Glassdoor is an important tool for career seekers and FairWarning’s reviews are generally outstanding. Recently, this particular post from a past anonymous employee is really negative about FairWarning so I want to respond while being as transparent as possible. Team Members In my response below I use the term “Team Member” and I view employee as an antiquated term. At FairWarning we all work together toward common goals together so we are one big team. FairWarning is Growing – Yes, FairWarning is growing again this year, up 70 % year to date. Growth creates a lot of opportunity for the company and for all of us. But growth also creates stresses for team members who do not welcome change and learning quickly, so it may not be as fun as it sounds. Growth is one of our core values and we are planning more in the future. Plus I think it’s fun. Stock Options vs Stock Appreciation Rights – The post is correct, FairWarning offers Stock Appreciation Rights to high performing team members. I take a long term view with FairWarning and Stock Appreciation Rights better align all of us toward my long term vision. We encourage team members to think of Stock Appreciation Rights as something that could really pay off some day. but everyone should base their decision to join FairWarning and stay at FairWarning more so on other factors such as career opportunity, potential for personal growth, overall compensation, work enjoyment and quality of their teammates at FairWarning. No Good Reason to Leave FairWarning® - At FairWarning® we all work together, invest in each other and count on each other so being immediately disappointed when someone leaves is natural. But after getting over the immediate impact, the only time I am truly disappointed is when some takes a sideways job, or even a job with lesser opportunity. That means we either hired the wrong person to begin with, or FairWarning’s management team failed to grow that team member and put them in a position to succeed. Having been CEO of high growth companies for twenty years, there is no greater satisfaction and pleasure than telling someone about a former FairWarning team member that went on to do great things. A long time from now, at the end of my career, this is what I will be most proud of. If you look around at former Team Members of FairWarning on LinkedIn, you will see that for many years, I have been a big fan in their recommendations. Talking About a Team Member After They Are Gone – I hope we don’t do this but if we do, someone should bring specifics it to my attention. It isn’t fair to the departed team member, and it is not good business in a high growth environment because we have to be forward looking. My management philosophy that I teach at FairWarning is to put people in a position to succeed with knowledge, tools and training, and if you have a problem with a team member, the manager should feel nearly exhausted before the team member is let go. Meaning we have exhausted everything we know how to do to help that person succeed. Pursued or Threatened by Lawsuits - We have no employee lawsuits, we have no threatened employee lawsuits and no internal discussions about employee lawsuits. This fits into the category of, if someone has specifics I really hope they bring them to my attention Outside Jobs - We know everyone has outside interests and encourage outside interests, however, we invest aggressively in our team members and reward performance lavishly. So we absolutely expect team members not to hold positions that conflict with their normal work, or to attempt to operate businesses from our work environment using our computers and resources. We are a very open, and transparent company that values integrity and honesty, so if someone has information which contradicts my responses above send them to Kurt@FairWarning.com.