The veneer and reputation of a great company, but not what it seems. - Anonymous employee Intercom Employee Review

As I said in the title, you join Intercom and everything feels right. The reputation of the company is great, the office is a dream, the location is as convenient as it could be. However, as time goes on you start to realize that all is not as it seems. There's an immense, ingrained pressure to be at your desk at all times from early morning to late evening. I am routinely the last person to arrive in the morning and one of the first to leave. Sounds bad on me, eh? I arrive at 9:10am and leave after 6:15pm. People generally take 20-30 minutes for lunch and then it's right back to their desk, that's if they didn't eat their lunch at their desk while they work. I'm all for working hard and I don't mess around when I'm at my desk, but I wish there was a clear instruction around working hours. Nobody can actually give a clear answer on when we're expected to be in the office. This leads to everyone just sitting there at their desks, a lot of people working, a lot of them not after a certain point. There is a serious cut throat mentality when it comes to the perception of people. They'll say the right things to cover themselves from a HR perspective, but as soon as you are seen as 'not enough' in the eyes of some management, then you're done. There's no coming back in their mind. You just have to look at how Eoghan responds to each of the negative reviews posted on here. How many of them does he go into a rant about how the person was not a regrettable exit? An odd, warped response to someone giving their legitimate feedback on the company and their experience. As if he's saying that because they weren't missed by the company, their insights are completely invalid. How early does that mentality creep in? Do their insights not matter only after they've left? In my opinion, no. Once you've shifted into that 'non-rergettable' category, they're not interested in you anymore. They want you to be the perfect employee, while giving you no guidance. The 'Draw the Owl' internet meme comes to mind. 'This is what we want you to be / do. Do that.' Only for them to tell you that you're not in line with their expectations despite offering no guidance. I've heard this from countless individuals who I worked with here that either left willingly or were let go. The onboarding that I received was one of the worst I've had. You're just not set up for success from the outset. It's like it's some sort of test. Like an animal throwing their newborn into the wild, it only wants the animals who can survive that experience and anyone else is expendable. It doesn't have to be like that, not everyone thrives under this extreme level of 'ambiguity' (ie. poor/lazy organization and expectations.) There is an absurd amount of trash talking about people who aren't at an event, or a gathering. I often get some sort of messed up version of 'FOMO', whereby instead of worrying that if I don't attend something that I'll miss something fun, I actually instead worry that if I don't attend, I'll be the subject of the trash talking for that evening simply because I wasn't there. Get a few drinks into most of the managers that I worked with and they'll spill their guts about the performance of others, issues brought up in 1:1s, etc. It's incredibly disheartening and toxic.