Total Chaos - Anonymous employee Yellow Pencil Employee Review

1.0
7 Dec 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Colleagues are great, projects are interesting. Initial interviews and application process were very laid back and gave a very positive first impression.

Cons

Working at YP is total chaos from start to finish. There was massive churn after the pandemic where 90% of senior leadership left and when I arrived about half the workforce was brand new. This meant that approximately 6 people in the entire company knew what was happening or needed to be done at any given time. When asking for clarification leadership would just reiterate that we need to do "billable work" without actually providing billable work to do. People were fired frequently for reasons that had a lot to do with their ability to respond to the chaos of this workplace. I.e. No guidance was given and they were scapegoated for making 'incorrect' choices. Work will sit for months at a time and then be sprung on project teams to complete within 48 hours. Any attempt to address the systemic issues that are creating this type of task management are met with "we need to do more billable work". Direct supervisor was abrasive and along with other leadership talked poorly about my peers to me. I cannot recommend this place to anyone.

Explore other reviews about Yellow Pencil

1.0
25 Dec 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Easy to get hired. Low standards

Cons

They basically churn inexperienced developers, and have no senior employees as they started laying off everyone with 5+ years experience as they have bonuses that supposedly kick in at 8. but good luck working there for 8 years. Crazy, hectic schedules with boring outdated tech for boring clients. The owner is also a rather unfortunate passive aggressive nasty individual. The topping on the cake is I was here for over 5 years and didn't realize how bad the salaries were. After being laid off all my offers were for over double what my salary was here.

2
2.0
29 Jun 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some truly talented and well meaning people here. The owner is well intentioned and genuinely seems to want the best for the employees.

Cons

Yellow Pencil is weirdly top heavy but leadership doesn't contribute to work being done. Leadership, especially the person that was in Ops and is now CEO, talks about everyone behind their backs. The number of colleagues I heard criticisms of from her was mind blowing and so unprofessional. Way too much meeting time, esp at leadership. Clients get away with too much and take advantage. New people coming into LT think they can fix everything and blow up everything that's been built to pursue their "better" idea. Then they get frustrated when it doesn't work. Staff complaints are not taken seriously and no effort is made to retain good people that get fed up. Everything seems to be working to soothe the egos of the leadership team and make sure none of them feel overlooked to the detriment of the rest of the organisation.

6
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