There are a lot of cons but I'm going to address three.
1. The pay. All of these reviews will say things like "There's so many opportunities to grow!"- it's absolutely because no realistic person would stay and tolerate the absolute chaos of this place at their pay rates. The starting rate for CS is pretty decent for the role itself but when you are able to fill one of those many "opportunities" available here at Homebase, the fair compensation stops there. Moving from CS to another role, I was really shocked at how low the rate was and how there was NO room for negotiation. If you ask for more, they're going to tell you that you don't deserve it (you lack experience) but they had no problem with your experience when they hired you for the role and I believe they hire people internally in order to pay them less. And despite your low pay, they'll expect you to adopt their motto of "Goals over Roles" (aka "Do more work than we pay you for! And that you don't actually know how to do but we expect you do it but no we aren't gonna pay you more 'cause you lack experience!") But the worst thing is that this practice only seems to apply to some people because it seems they have money for external hires but not for their internal employees. Some people's salary is common knowledge, I'm not sure why some people are worthy of 6-figure salaries when people in the same department (doing most of the work, let's be real) aren't even worthy of 55k?
2. Toxic office culture. I have never worked at a company where I felt like I couldn't go to HR, ever. I have NEVER had to worry that when I go to HR about a personal matter that it won't stay with HR- but I did here. That's the reality here. It also doesn't help that length of service at Homebase seems to get you a pass to do whatever you want so even if you bring this issue up, nothing gets done.
3. Terrible work morale. Homebase is just another startup in their hyper growth stage that is willing to sacrifice quality and morale to keep that going at all costs. They make decisions without any care or concern about how they affect their employees, as long as it seems it might yield a profit. They want instant results over meaningful change, they implement them poorly and without collaboration from folks who ACTUALLY know what they are doing. And if you can't keep up, if you're confused about the expectations of your role, then YOU'RE the problem, not them. Goals over roles, baby! They will tell you that they are open to feedback and ideas but then weaponize any negative feedback against you. At this point, people aren't even willing to speak up after the "Get Happy or Get Out" meeting because of how feedback has been handled in the past. Those Decision Makers have the attitude that CS people should be grateful for their hourly rate and bonuses but they change the responsibility and expectation of their roles so frequently most people cannot keep up or keep track. The ones who do, they are expected to give and give until they burn out. Management keeps high-performing people in roles they don't want to be in because it's what best for their company, not for their people.
