There's at times too much of a focus on big group events, alienating introverted workers who don't attend the big parties. The biweekly all-staff meeting necessitates standing in front of 150 co-workers and making a case for the projects each staffer is working on. It's a mandated, anxiety-ridden time for those who are more successful working with their heads down than standing in front of everyone, with knocking knees.
There's no Human Resources Department, making it difficult when there are questions about pay and career advancement. The Talent Manager sits in on performance reviews, which seem to be an opportunity for her to talk and not the worker. Sometimes these performance reviews are held for a second time without her to give the worker the chance to actually have a conversation about their past year with their supervisor in a non-judged way. It is very difficult to be promoted or receive a salary bump if you aren't what's internally called an Emma All-Star: These are staffers identified close to their hire date as being a stand-out and likely to move on from their entry-level position. I'd say it's a commonly felt understanding, and those who aren't All-Stars aren't given much motivation to work hard when they aren't tapped or accepted for special projects or given a clear path for career advancement. Some managers are so intent on hoarding their team members that those members are ignored for promotion opportunities, with the team manager and Talent Manager saying the focus is on hiring from the outside. There are no annual bonuses.
The Product Team, developers and engineers charge forward with new tools and features while the app frequently sees extreme slowness and has pieces that break weekly for 15 minutes to several hours at a time, loading down a stretched-thin Customer Support Team with unmanageable customer cases and angry phone calls. The goal now is to move up-market in terms of new, higher-dollar customers, and many current customers express feeling discarded and their needs unheard. Portions of the app (exporting split tests and triggers; new signup notifications, audience group member counts) haven't worked properly in more than a year, hindering the daily work by customers and necessitating customer support tickets each time the need arises. If we could take two sprints to fix things that are broken, we'd be in much better shape. Little to nothing is being done about current bugs, and the communication is lacking between the Support Team and developers, who seem not to understand the manual process of creating workarounds for customers.
The Support Team seems to miss out on every aspect of Emma's culture: Beer: 30, last-minute meetings, outdoor bike rides, pickup ping-pong games and going out to lunch. Their schedules are strict, and they work in shifts. If I want to have lunch with a friend from that team, I have to schedule it with them a week in advance so they can run it past the team lead, who will have them switch shifts with a co-worker to make that lunch time work. If we are late back from lunch by 10 minutes, they must stay an extra 10 minutes that day to make up for it. Sure, this is how it works at many offices; but not for full-time salaried workers like them, and not for anyone else at Emma. The Support Team has its own culture, and it's one of a call center, which isn't conveyed to potential hires in the interviews I've sat in on; instead, the team members in the interview (all interviews consist of a member or two from nearly each team) talk about the company's relaxed culture, without indicating that this team will watch others participate in them, from literally behind a closed glass door. I feel guilty each time I pass their room looking happy.
The communication is poor between upper and middle management, and emails can go weeks without being returned. The CEO's stance on projects does not always match what middle management has communicated to their teams. His micro-management slows progress, as work is tweaked to appease one individual's needs. This likely exists at many companies, with managers smiling and nodding at the big boss only to turn around and erase all they've been working on once he passes. This "two steps forward, one step back" seems more obvious at Emma, which still feels like a young company trying to get its act together.
Some staffers whose roles include selling paid services (like email template designs and strategy calls) receive 10% commission on each sale.
The open office is noisy and does not work for everyone. Germs spread easily, too, and workers fall ill in waves.
There are more perks at other local companies, but this is one place you can work without taking a ton home with you at night.