Don't believe mission before team, team before self! - Anonymous Orchard Employee Review

1.0
May 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great employees overall Very smart people We move quickly and have a strong business model Interesting work Results oriented culture

Cons

Hiring can be slow Leadership can take themselves too seriously. This takes the fun out of coming to work. We recently had layoffs. It was understandable because of the pandemic, only a small % were actually laid off. I used to think very highly of leadership until it was disclosed by the CEO during a town hall after the layoffs that the executive team has a bonus incentive. So not only did the exec team not take a pay cut, but they also have an end of year bonus they are incentivized to achieve. The exec team stands to profit from laying people off without putting their teams first. Every business in the news has noted that execs were taking pay cuts. Why didn't our do the same? Using your bonuses and equity doesn't seem like the morally right answer. You can let people go compassionately, but this response does not seem like the right answer. Lower level employees lost their jobs that potentially could have been saved if execs took a team first approach. A small pay cut across the business could have saved all those jobs. Many employees aren’t happy about this news. Execs will get bonuses and stand to gain more financially and the rest of the company will not even get a pay raise from this pandemic. Does the rest of the company get bonuses by helping the exec team navigate this crisis? If it doesn’t benefit the exec team, the employees won’t benefit either was how the message was perceived.

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Orchard Response
6y
Thanks for your feedback. Nothing is more important to me as CEO than living all of our values, all the time, as we achieve our goals. As discussed in the town hall this week, there is a bit more context here than your post suggests and I'd love to discuss it with you live if you give me a call. Part of our value of "Treating People with Respect" is creating an open culture of feedback where we are all generous with and grateful for feedback. So thank you - I'd welcome the discussion if you are up for it. Best Court

Explore other reviews about Orchard

5.0
Feb 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good Company Culture, Transparent management, work/life balance. Decent Pay. Love working from home and not being micro-managed.

Cons

Can be stressful. Start-up environment so need to be able to adapt quickly to changes!

1.0
Jun 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some of the tools and branding can be helpful

Cons

My experience with this company was disappointing due to what I felt was a lack of transparency and accountability from management. Agents are often assigned highly distressed sellers and difficult situations, then held responsible when those clients do not convert. In many cases, I was expected to work with homeowners who were significantly upside down on their mortgages, and if I could not convince them to move forward with a sale, it reflected negatively on my performance. I was repeatedly told I was on track to receive the volume and quality of leads that had been promised, but in practice it appeared that lead distribution was far from equal. Easier-to-convert opportunities seemed to be directed toward favored agents, while more challenging clients were distributed among the rest of the team. I also found the company's value proposition to be unclear. Many of the services presented as proprietary or in-house are actually facilitated through third-party providers. Programs similar to what is offered can often be accessed directly through companies such as HomeLight or Homeward, yet the distinction is not always made clear to consumers or agents. My biggest concern arose after leaving the company. Despite being told that my client information would no longer be used, former clients, friends, and family members have continued receiving outreach from the company. One of my current clients has informed me that they receive emails on a weekly basis. If accurate, this behavior is inconsistent with what was communicated to me and raises serious ethical concerns. Overall, I found the culture to be one where responsibility was frequently pushed onto agents while leadership avoided accountability. Based on my experience, I would advise anyone considering employment here to thoroughly research the company's practices and ask detailed questions about lead distribution, client ownership, and post-employment policies.

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Orchard Response
1w
Thank you for taking the time to share feedback about your experience at Orchard. We are committed to hearing feedback and continuously improving the experience we provide for our agents. I’m sorry to hear you were disappointed in your time at Orchard. We know that high-quality seller appointments are a big factor in many agents’ decision to join and stay with Orchard. We continually refine our approach to appointment distribution, with the goal of matching each customer with the agent who can best serve them while also balancing opportunities across the team. I am sorry if the quantity of leads was not what you expected. Our model involves both in-house custom services and programs as well as working with best-in-class external partners to bring our agents and customers the widest range of buying and selling options on the market. While we work hard to ensure both agents and customers understand how each program is structured, we are always refining communications and training with the aim of continuous improvement. I appreciate your feedback, and will incorporate it into our continued review and refinement of our offerings and the communications around them. We take our commitments to departing agents extremely seriously. I would ask that you please reach out to me directly, or email broker@orchard.com, with more detail and specifics on your concerns regarding outreach to current and former customers, so that we can look into this and address it appropriately. Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback. We wish you all the best in your next chapter. Best, Jonathan, Director of Brokerage
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