just another dysfunctional tech company - Anonymous employee Glassdoor Employee Review

3.0
Jun 5, 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everything in this review, except comments about the recent layoffs and the long term incentive plan, should be considered independently of the effects of coronavirus on the business. My Glassdoor colleagues are kind, and don’t hesitate to help each other when put in a position to do so. The compensation is probably slightly above what would be expected at a company of similar size and industry. The work life balance is excellent, and always has been. The sum total of the work we do is ultimately positive, insofar as we help people find jobs. It’s way better than working at some pathological social media outfit, or selling cheap trash no one needs.

Cons

The first major con should be roundly apparent from reading positive reviews. “No Cons!!” Believe me, there are Cons. We have hemorrhaged talent in the last two years (I will float some ideas why a bit why lower down), and responded with questionable hiring decisions. While there are few, if any, hard-charging bullies and alpha-types at Glassdoor, there are many obsequious and uninquisitive employees. The long term incentive plan (“LTIP”) is probably broken. Coronavirus has exposed how the incentive scheme as structurally uncredible. Personal performance is uncoupled from our business performance. That's how it's supposed to work, perhaps. But even aside from coronavirus, the LTIP is confusing and probably broken, with lower grants occurring after higher performance ratings, ostensibly due to some sort of adjusted coefficient nested into the grant calculus. My manager was not able to explain the LTIP to me during my performance review. I felt bad for her. I was in a meeting a few weeks ago, part of which my husband overheard. He later told me, “I think I know what mansplaining is now…” I laughed. It’s true. Meetings often do sound like a fact auction, with enthusiastic participation by men talking over each other. Speaking of meetings, there are too many of them. Rare is the meeting with any kind of agenda or plan. It happened once a while ago; I remember that meeting. Meetings are constantly called, often ad hoc, and sometimes after work has been completed, because those involved have to figure out what was done and why. Often we will reprise a meeting the next day because the previous meeting solved nothing. It’s a negative feedback loop. It’s not clear what Product is doing or is supposed to be doing; they come across as some kind of wannabe C-suite. The decisions about what Glassdoor's products look like and feel like seem to grow out of wishful thinking, or caricatures of job seekers that don't generalize. My manager told me in my last performance review that the reason I was not promoted was “politics.” When I asked her what I could have done to earn a promotion (or just a high rating), she mumbled something about visibility. That was disappointing.

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Glassdoor Response
5y
We want to extend our deepest appreciation for taking the time to share your feedback. It's encouraging to read that your experiences with fellow Glassdoorians was positive and memorable. We feel fortunate that our people conduct themselves as a phenomenal representation of our company values, and we're proud to watch what they accomplish together for job seekers around the world. No doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic has made a profound impact on businesses and on Glassdoor. Saying goodbye to so many colleagues and friends was an enormously difficult decision. Recently, we rolled out several new initiatives surrounding our pursuit for radical transparency in the workplace. Among them is a pledge for greater Pay Transparency for Glassdoor employees. We’ve made the choice to publicly release our compensation philosophy, and later we will be sharing our pay bands for roles across Glassdoor. As these efforts march forward, we will also be keeping these and our other programs and policies in mind as we look to ensure an eqitable workplace for all. Your feedback regarding how we can strive to better allocate our time during the work day (you cited initiatives such as No Meeting Wednesdays) are the first steps of an ongoing journey, especially as we've responded to communicating with one another remotely. To gather additional feedback about these changing needs, we've sent out Pulse surveys specific to working from home, and also given additional flexibility to our employees who are juggling their work responsibilities with parenting. Thank you for your feedback, and we hope to build on the areas of improvement you shared.

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5.0
Feb 12, 2026
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Pros

- Amazing management & team - Growth and learning opportunities - Flexible with work-life balance - Meaningful work

Cons

I cannot think of any cons.

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2.0
Feb 11, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The benefits and culture were probably the best I've ever had. Even better than the benefits were the people I worked with. I enjoyed coming into work and doing my job and really stood behind the company tag line of helping people find jobs they love.

Cons

During covid things started getting bad. Like many other companies layoffs came around and how the company handled those were terrible. You show up one day and next thing you know you lose access and cryptic email and then your'e gone. This happened again in 2025. They brought in person whose job it was to basically get people to leave. They didn't care about the content on the site, or any of the efforts in place to promote integrity and transparency and instead just wanted to shove AI down everyone's throat. What's sad is that Glassdoor was once a great company that I was proud to say I worked for. Now it's just like everywhere else, AI, AI, AI and trying to get people to quit before the next round of layoffs.

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