FreshBooks Reviews

Pros

Emphasis on employee well being Great benefits Fun start up feel Solid transparency from top down

Cons

Struggles in transition from start up to larger business Starting to lose level of consideration for Support/phone line workers

Pros

- Great benefits. You get 100% health and dental coverage from day 1. If you're remote, they allow you generous a budget to buy what you need for your home office. - They give you equipment to work with from day 1 (a macbook air, display, keyboard, mouse, and headset). Just note that this is FreshBooks property and if you leave the company, you will have to return these items. So take care of the items. - This role can be done remotely (not just because of covid19). - I think FreshBooks is reasonable - during this covid19 crisis, they didn't hesitate to send everyone (all departments) home and transitioned everyone to remote work. - If you're working remote due to distance and have to go into the office for training, they'll set you up with an Air B&B stay OR they'll reimburse you your travel expenses. - They have plenty of snacks in the office that are regularly replenished. - They have a kitchen on each floor of the office stocked with beverages. The first floor kitchen has a variety of cereal. In each kitchen, they also have dishes, utensils, a coffee machine, and a dishwasher. You'll never have to wash dishes. - On Thursdays, you get free lunch if you're in the office (and it isn't just pizza. They regularly change up the menu). - The CEOs aren't hiding in offices somewhere. You regularly run into them, and I've eaten lunch with one of them at least on a couple of occasions. - Everyone is really nice and helpful. I hadn't met one mean person. And everyone is usually smiling - I haven't heard anyone say that they hate it at FreshBooks. - They really try to be inclusive/not discriminatory. In the office, I saw persons of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. - The salary for this role is $43,000 annually, which is pretty decent for an entry-level position. - In this role, they don't really care much about your professional background (e.g. if you've just done retail, or if you were teaching, or if you were a waitress, etc). All they care about is if you have a passion for helping customers, and willing to do what it takes to help customers. So you can come from any industry into this role. - The working hours are "flexible", meaning you have maybe 2-3 different shifts to choose from. But I think that's still pretty good - you should be able to find a decent time that works for you. - They have quite a few in-office perks: a small gym, private showers, lockers, a place to put your bike (if you ride in, quite a few persons do) and tools to help fix your bike, library/meditation room, ping-pong table, videogames, nap rooms. Although I never used a nap room (only half an hour for lunch - don't have time to eat and nap), I did appreciate that at least it was there and available. - Private washrooms, not stalls - the washrooms are clean, they give you very good toilet paper to use (not that cheap 1-ply stuff), an air freshener, and feminine hygiene products in case of an emergency. They REALLY try to make you feel comfortable here. - Beautiful open office layout and plenty of meeting rooms (large and small) to meet various needs. - Every new hire does a "month of Support" before going into their department, which I think is unique and amazing for a company to do. - Every week, you can have the opportunity to learn more about what other departments are doing and working on through a company-wide meeting. So you'll know in advance if any new features are being worked on or are coming out.

Cons

- This IS a call centre role (which isn't for everyone). Very phone-focused/phone heavy with the added bonus of e-mail. Although the job description listed this as being phone and e-mail, I was taken aback by how phone heavy the role is. - The $43,000 salary is non-negotiable (and as far as I know, no bonuses), so it doesn't matter if you have years of experience or speak another language, the salary is the same. - I didn't see much opportunity for growth in this role, and later heard from colleagues that it may be difficult to grow/branch into different departments. Unless you're fine being on the phone in a call centre for awhile, this isn't a role to consider if you're thinking of growing out of it in a few years. I mean, you may be able to become a team lead and grow in the Support department. But it seems many persons don't. (That said, a positive is that this role is fairly stable, and I think the benefits are great for a call centre role). - Although this role can be done remotely (I was remote), you have to go into the office for a month (about 2 weeks of training, 2 weeks of work). I've never had to go into the office for a remote role, so I was very surprised to learn I'd have to go into the office. (Due to Covid19, no one really works from the office. Unsure if they'll still require new Rockstars to go in office for training after the pandemic is over, but this was my experience from earlier this year) - If you're working remotely and have to go into the office every day for the month of training, the distance can be sucky, and you have to be there early (sucks if you're not a morning person - they do have coffee, tea, and cereal though). - Although FreshBooks has a gym, private showers, videogames and other amenities, as a Rockstar, I'm not sure how often you get a chance to use them - and certainly not during working hours. Perhaps other departments can use the amenities, or maybe I was just so busy in training, or maybe if I lived close enough I would've used the amenities after work. But I don't know how and when people have time to use those amenities. I never played ping pong once. - Although you have the opportunity to learn about what's new in various departments every week, as a Rockstar, I found I didn't have time to participate in that meeting. It's likely that after training, you'll rarely have the chance to participate and have to depend on meeting notes. - The open office layout isn't for everyone. For someone who was used to working remotely (like me), it's quite distracting. While working during my 1 month in office, I would regularly have to go into a meeting room to take calls. - Although they require every new hire to do a month of Support (which I think is amazing!), I found the level of training given to Support Rockstars/Support Specialists was lacking (it wasn't terrible. Just lacking). The current training is fine for those who are in the Support onboarding program (which everyone does), and then moving on to different departments. However, I think Rockstars should be getting MUCH more training on the product. When customers call in, they're expecting to speak with a specialist on the product and get the issue resolved quickly. I shouldn't have been struggling to answer basic questions about the product features. Additionally, since there are a few products/versions that the company has, Rockstars should be thoroughly trained on all of them (e.g. how the product appears to a new user vs how a seasoned/more familiar user interacts with the product, also should receive way more shadowing time). Although Rockstars can put the customer on hold and ask others for help, it would greatly minimize the need to ask for help if Rockstars had more training. - On top of finding the training lacking, I felt very pressured to meet goals that seasoned Rockstars were already meeting (e.g. amount of calls and emails, call availability), and it felt unfair that as a new hire (who expressed that I felt I wasn't trained adequately) to be pressured to meet those goals so quickly, and be reminded of those goals all the time. I was later informed that as a new hire, I didn't need to be available for a call during the entire shift - but I received that information much later and it was contrary to the information I had received in the beginning, and contrary to the pressure that I felt to perform when I had started. - When I asked for extra training/shadowing, and expressed that I didn't feel I knew the product enough to be answering questions over the phone, I didn't feel that I was taken seriously. As the only Support Rockstar in my cohort of hires, I do feel that perhaps more attention could've been given to the needs that I had expressed, or that I could've at least been given more time to familiarize myself with the product, or shadow a few persons for a few days (without asking questions, just listening in and watching their workflow). ^ These last 3 points are what caused me to leave after a few months - I felt that: - if every new hire was fine with the training so far, - my needs weren't being taken seriously regarding the training, Perhaps the reason I was struggling was because I'm not the right fit for this role. Perhaps it's not FreshBooks, and it's me. So I left after a few months of being hired, despite being in the middle of the covid19 crisis. I'm now hired with another company in a position much better suited for my skills and experience. Before applying to this role, please take all of this into account. As I mentioned, FreshBooks itself isn't a bad company. I also expressed multiple times how I felt about the interview process and training, and I do think that FreshBooks may be taking it into account for future hires. But these are the pros and cons just from my point of view. If you have been in a call centre role before with a sucky company, FreshBooks will definitely be a step up, as FreshBooks cares about their employees, the benefits are great, the pay is stable, and it's likely you can stay in the role as long as you wish. Additionally, if you don't mind being on the phone, and the training I mentioned wouldn't bother you, then please feel free to apply when this role appears again. Also - I do want to mention, although I felt the training was lacking, I did still learn A LOT during my time with FreshBooks. So it's not that you won't be trained or that you won't learn. I just felt there could've been more.

Pros

Freshbooks is filled with really intelligent folks. There’s tons of perks from free in house gym, free food/snacks free beer in the refrigerators! You get work from home and the environment is not your typical call centre. Management trusts you to do your job and there’s no micromanaging.

Cons

They hired me and a bunch of support in Nov ‘19 and then when Covid-19 happened in April ‘20 they laid a bunch of the workforce because they needed to cut down costs for the next 2 years. Not sure why the 2 year projection was necessary but this was an executive decision obviously and I was out of a job after 5 months.

Pros

Free Lunches Snacks Ping Pong Table Decent benefits

Cons

Many inexperienced managers No WFH opportunity which is a Joke since they are suppose to be a tech company. Getting to the office is a pain espescially during winter as whatever you take you will need a 15 min walk from subway or go train.

Pros

- Growing - Going Global - Culture - Moving Up Market - Leading Commitment on DIBS

Cons

- Co-CEO (2 in a box) not working - Too few women at SLT and Exec levels - Time, people, spent in mtgs & on decks