STAY VERY FAR AWAY unless you enjoy working long hours, nights, & weekends (60+ hour weeks) for little pay and 0 benefits only to get BERATED whenever you want to take time off
Despite having a handful of bad experiences, this is my first 1-star review and was actually thinking ~2-stars. But then John continued his abuse by falsely disputing my unemployment claim even after firing me without cause, warning, or severance. Now I’d prefer to give negative stars
Absurd things John has *actually* said:
- “$4k / month is plenty!” - pre-tax! in SF! the most expensive city in the country! where studio rent can top $3.3k! where $100k qualifies for HUD benefits!
- “I would earn so much more than you!” - no one asked you, mr. superiority complex. and since when is market rate for biz “so much” higher than engineers?
- “Then don’t take a day off!” - all hell goes loose if you ever take time off; it’s not like John can wait a day to make important decisions!
- “Why should I pay more for insurance?” - even 1 benefit is too many - imagine, caring about employees’ health!
- “There are consequences to vacation” - it’s not a vacation if there are consequences
- “You want me to pay taxes now!?” - how dare I ask to be tax-compliant, esp. when it’s my personal taxes
John throwing temper tantrums:
- “What do you want me to do about it!?” - ah yes, we all know how powerless CEOs are
- “I can’t promise I won’t blow up again” - asking your boss to not take stress out on you is too much to ask for
- “I guess it’s ‘attack John’ time now!” - As they say, “feedback isn’t a gift, it’s an act of war!”
- “Do whatever you want!”, “Fine!”, “You can quit!”, “I’m not perfect!”, “That’s sooo helpful”, etc
John lying / deceiving / misleading:
- “Sign where it says Lead Engineer” - no, you hired me as VP, per your job post and what we discussed
- “When we hire more engineers, they wouldn’t report to you, right?” - what??? that’s exactly what they’d be doing and what we discussed. I’ve led many teams and have exponentially more start-up experience than John, yet this is what he pulls?!
- “Of course I want you to get what you want out of this role” - why try to take away my management responsibility when I literally was not interested otherwise??
- “We will fundraise as soon as I hire this VP. We’ll hire engineers immediately after. Here’s my plan” - John did not fundraise and kept unilaterally changing plans
- “Goals aren’t meant to be hit” - riiight, convenient excuse for failing to hit revenue / growth goals by a 10x margin after saying it was easily doable
- “I’m not pressuring you! It would just make it easier on my budget if you deferred salary [beyond contract]” - 🤨
- “I’m a big believer in feedback”, “I want to improve” - why claim you’re being “attacked”? why only in-person?
- “I believe in minimum vacation”, “Of course you should be able to take time off”, “I care about work/life-balance” - why pressure me to not take time off? why repeatedly berate me for it?
- “I value empathy and care about teammates” - why all of the above???
John also:
- Lied to unemployment multiple times on why he fired me. Lying to a government agency is a **felony**
- Told them I “didn’t show up for work” when I took an *approved* day off after working 13+ hours the day before
- Even If it were true, would constitute unlawful termination under CA Labor Code 1198.3: retaliatory firing for refusal to work >40 hours
More Abuse:
- Yells / blows up at you in public, in front of a client at a gym, in an open office, and during your vacation & holidays like New Years
- Says “I regret that”, but will not apologize
- Will only ever apologize if you get **extremely** angry or upset
- After berating you repeatedly, will then thank you and admit you were right
More Hypocrisy:
- Often makes unilateral decisions, even when so drastic they violate your contract and have massive impact on your finances
- Expects and pressures you to agree, even when you're visibly uncomfortable
- The *instant* you even make the smallest decision on your own, even if he agrees and literally told you to “involve [him] less” and “push back more”, he will immediately & vehemently berate you for "being disrespectful"
More on Self-Awareness:
- Plays the victim constantly, despite being CEO: has total control and is able and **willing** to fire you at any moment
- Completely ignores subtle nudges, complaints, suggestions, etc regardless of how many times you repeat them
- When you finally bring it up in a 1-on-1, will claim he’s being attacked
- Comments like “realize your position” go completely over his head
I try to live life without regrets, but I sincerely regret working here, sacrificing and putting up with so much, just to get shown the door, not even given a severance package, and even have my unemployment claim falsely disputed. I sincerely hope I never have to see such an awful person again. I wish the char limit were longer so more people wouldn’t have to go through the abuse I did
