5 ms·

The flip side: There are always bad apples at any company. The negative reviews may be legit, but not relevant to the manager/program you'd be working under.

The flip side: There are always bad apples at any company. The negative reviews may be legit, but not relevant to the manager/program you'd be working under. As someone who's worked at a 100k+ employees company, there were literally dozens of programs in the same building living largely separate/parallel existences. Unless the reviews called out a program/manager by name they'd be completely useless in gauging job satisfaction.

pierat 3y ago
Too true, and the larger orgs definitely have that as a concern. And some specific managers who would be better not leading people (aka fired) are a weird case where the in-person interview can kind of discern that. Basically, one has to learn what to ask and how to ask to suss out which team leads are good and which ones aren't. Then again, it's a definite problem where you are in an org can make or break you. However, we have to separate "shitty manager" from "shitty organization forcing managers to enact shitty policies". And this is where I think Glassdoor 1 and 2 star reviews can show policy trends (versus bad manager trends). And of course, you may get a company that avoids most of the reviews in scummy ways. I know that the company I worked for that got bought out had a clause they wanted us to sign that stated "no negative comments about us anywhere". What's funny is this is actually illegal under the NLRB. But to me this was a massive red flag to get the hell out (and I did).
- thx-2718 3y ago
  Personally in my experience, regardless of the size of the organization (small family business to thousands of employee orgs) if management is toxic, it's because it's tacitly approved from higher ups. Culture starts at the top.
  - dimitrios1 3y ago
    Culture is preserved at the top. It starts at the bottom. The problem is too many leaders read an Adam Grant or Simon Sinek book and all of a sudden think they are the latest incarnation of the tech leadership buddha and impose their will on the team.
- regentbowerbird 3y ago
  What questions should one ask to suss out the good team leads?
  - pierat 3y ago
    1. Efforts to conceal in an interview reveal potential toxic areas. NDA issues aside, this is more about concealing and making things look better than they actually are. 2. Ask "What do you like about working here?". If there's pushback or defensiveness, red flag. 3. Ask "If you were in my position, would you take this job?". Would they gladly take this job, or is there hesitation/defiance/pushback? 4. Ask "What does your organization know and believe about psychological safety?" - This is an institutional question about https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety 5. Ask "What are your values and how do you hold people accountable to live them?" (Does the org follow their own guidance, or is it just for show?) 6. Ask "What happens to employees who make mistakes?" - is this a 1 and done? This also pairs with psychological safety. 7. Ask "What happens to employees when they challenge the status quo?" (As an engineer or similar lead technological role, you will be continually pushing tech. How does the company respond to that?) 8. And for you to ask yourself: "Is the interview conversational or scripted?" 9. Was the interview genuine happiness, or faked? Would the people you would work with actually happy what they're doing? 10. How do you feel after the interview? Is there something that felt off? Can you identify it?
    - ARandomerDude 3y ago
      I hope this comment comes across as helpful rather than rude: if you asked me a couple of those questions (especially back-to-back) during an interview, I would not hire you. It isn't that any of those are bad questions per se, but the volume and forwardness of them would be a red-flag that this is a person who likes to show up, make trouble, and not be held accountable for it. Maybe that's not your goal, but remember that in an interview you only have a few minutes to communicate where you're coming from.
      - ethbr0 3y ago
JustSomeNobody 3y ago
It's still a huge red flag against the company that one team can be toxic and another great.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- somsak2 3y ago
  i mean, in a sufficiently large organization, this is essentially unavoidable
cortesoft 3y ago
It depends on what is driving the dissatisfaction. If it is something like how the company handles promotions and raises, than it doesn’t matter which department is providing the review.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
importantbrian 3y ago
This is very true. I've worked in an organization where most people on most of the other teams would negatively rate the company, but I was fortunate to have a great boss. So I look back on my time there as positive, although I recognize that most other people had a very different experience of that company.
byby 3y ago
[dead]
stemlord 3y ago
I don't think it's too difficult to infer that siloed irrelevance etc may be the case, doesn't seem like much of a flipside to critically studying negative reviews

pierat 3y ago

Too true, and the larger orgs definitely have that as a concern. And some specific managers who would be better not leading people (aka fired) are a weird case where the in-person interview can kind of discern that. Basically, one has to learn what to ask and how to ask to suss out which team leads are good and which ones aren't. Then again, it's a definite problem where you are in an org can make or break you. However, we have to separate "shitty manager" from "shitty organization forcing managers to enact shitty policies". And this is where I think Glassdoor 1 and 2 star reviews can show policy trends (versus bad manager trends). And of course, you may get a company that avoids most of the reviews in scummy ways. I know that the company I worked for that got bought out had a clause they wanted us to sign that stated "no negative comments about us anywhere". What's funny is this is actually illegal under the NLRB. But to me this was a massive red flag to get the hell out (and I did).

thx-2718 3y ago
Personally in my experience, regardless of the size of the organization (small family business to thousands of employee orgs) if management is toxic, it's because it's tacitly approved from higher ups. Culture starts at the top.
- dimitrios1 3y ago
  Culture is preserved at the top. It starts at the bottom. The problem is too many leaders read an Adam Grant or Simon Sinek book and all of a sudden think they are the latest incarnation of the tech leadership buddha and impose their will on the team.
regentbowerbird 3y ago
What questions should one ask to suss out the good team leads?
- pierat 3y ago
  1. Efforts to conceal in an interview reveal potential toxic areas. NDA issues aside, this is more about concealing and making things look better than they actually are. 2. Ask "What do you like about working here?". If there's pushback or defensiveness, red flag. 3. Ask "If you were in my position, would you take this job?". Would they gladly take this job, or is there hesitation/defiance/pushback? 4. Ask "What does your organization know and believe about psychological safety?" - This is an institutional question about https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety 5. Ask "What are your values and how do you hold people accountable to live them?" (Does the org follow their own guidance, or is it just for show?) 6. Ask "What happens to employees who make mistakes?" - is this a 1 and done? This also pairs with psychological safety. 7. Ask "What happens to employees when they challenge the status quo?" (As an engineer or similar lead technological role, you will be continually pushing tech. How does the company respond to that?) 8. And for you to ask yourself: "Is the interview conversational or scripted?" 9. Was the interview genuine happiness, or faked? Would the people you would work with actually happy what they're doing? 10. How do you feel after the interview? Is there something that felt off? Can you identify it?
  - ARandomerDude 3y ago
    I hope this comment comes across as helpful rather than rude: if you asked me a couple of those questions (especially back-to-back) during an interview, I would not hire you. It isn't that any of those are bad questions per se, but the volume and forwardness of them would be a red-flag that this is a person who likes to show up, make trouble, and not be held accountable for it. Maybe that's not your goal, but remember that in an interview you only have a few minutes to communicate where you're coming from.
    - ethbr0 3y ago

JustSomeNobody 3y ago

It's still a huge red flag against the company that one team can be toxic and another great.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
somsak2 3y ago
i mean, in a sufficiently large organization, this is essentially unavoidable

cortesoft 3y ago

It depends on what is driving the dissatisfaction. If it is something like how the company handles promotions and raises, than it doesn’t matter which department is providing the review.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

importantbrian 3y ago

This is very true. I've worked in an organization where most people on most of the other teams would negatively rate the company, but I was fortunate to have a great boss. So I look back on my time there as positive, although I recognize that most other people had a very different experience of that company.

byby 3y ago

[dead]

stemlord 3y ago

I don't think it's too difficult to infer that siloed irrelevance etc may be the case, doesn't seem like much of a flipside to critically studying negative reviews