VES Reviews

OVERALL: No team work ethic, no real culture, filled with a good number of entitled, catty narcissists who prefer to compete vs. work with others in a way that allows the broader team to achieve its goals. Leadership approaches things in a way where it's all about things being crossed off the list vs. doing the right things in a high quality way that actually is helpful and meaningful in terms of supporting goals and objectives. - There are some who've been there for a long time who have gotten away with years of bad behavior and mistreatment of colleagues simply because of their strong ties to board and founding members. - There are some who are clearly not qualified to do their job who are in their role and protected because they have personal and family relationships with board and founding members. They also freely avoid any responsibility and accountability for all the ways they don't do their job are impacting other team members. - Among those who've been there and worked together for more than 3 or so years, there's a group think mentality that presents as compliant to leadership and in group settings, yet behind the scenes is very calculating, fake, creating rumors and spreading false truths, to protect themselves. As a whole the majority of the team comes off as extremely entitled. And, everyone is vying for the attention and approval of leadership that they are constantly talking bad about behind the scenes. - Lack of a strong team culture or approach to work. Projects that require broad and full team involvement remind me of what it was like to work on group projects in elementary school. - Leadership is out of touch with modern technology and how to effectively empower, support, and nurture a team. I remember when I started and I was supposed to take on work from other team members and this ruffling feathers because these team members were never informed. This is a key example of the lack of transparency and their overall management and leadership style. There's definitely a lack of honesty. - There's also a lack of trust from leadership as seen from a daily full team meeting where everyone says what they're working on while no one except for the two in charge are listening. This is in part due to the fact that there's a lack of accountability from team members and the team's inability to work seamlessly and efficiently as a team. - There are team members who will take credit for your work and also undermine your contributions - No meaningful raises or paths to promotion at all. I was there for several years and no one ever got promoted or got a good raise. - With the team so lean and everyone focused on a specific area of responsibility, I've never understood why the vibe is so competitive and not more team goal driven. Again, everyone is out for themselves and I believe this has to do with the key problem which is described in the key takeaway below. KEY TAKEAWAY Everyone is doing more than what's in their job description, they're being paid 25-50% lower than they should for that role, and they're expected to deliver 50% more than what's in their current job description WITHOUT additional pay. Even in my own role, I was told I would get support in my role which is a huge reason I stayed initially, only for it to NEVER happen.