•Spyware & Micromanagement
Management has deployed ActivTrak spyware to "boost productivity" and assured that teams would not be micromanaged and that it would not be used to make employment decisions.
While leadership has recently claimed that they are open to variances of up to 5 hours in employee reports, the inaccuracy in the data that AT provides continues to be leveraged as a means to eliminate otherwise productive and high-performing individuals - as most meeting times, prep work, or etc are considered "inactive time" regardless of what work was ACTUALLY being done.
No other metrics, such as employee reviews, actual work output, or manager feedback have been considered despite claims that the new spyware was only one method to examine employee performance.
Moreover, numerous employees have been questioned about taking regular breaks - such as time to use the RESTROOM, get WATER, or take care of SICK CHILDREN at home. These employees were forced to justify themselves and their work activity, all while being encouraged to spend as much time as possible at their desks. Any "break time" that was used is expected to be "made up" at the end of the day.
•Soft Layoffs & Mass Termination
As a direct result of the spyware software, TA has "totally not laid off" nearly 20% of its staff in the last calendar year, despite stating that layoffs are "not" happening.
A majority of those affected were either not given a reason for their termination or told "it was because they didn't agree with management's decision to employ employee spyware" - that's right, you can be terminated here for raising concerns about leadership! The same value of "challenging mediocrity" that they claim to promote.
US staff is also being replaced by Philippines workers at an alarming rate, likely due to the fact that the company seems to be facing resource struggles.
•Leadership
The executive team, namely the CEO and owner, Rob Bellenfant, is out of control. His primary leadership strategy continues to prioritize 3 specific values: egocentrism, fear tactics, and greed. This strategy seems to have become more present since the departure of the former CEO, Krystal, who seemed to act as the cooler head in business decisions.
Rob has made numerous vaguely threatening statements to the entire staff in the last 6 months, including statements such as :
"We only employ the highest performers that go above and beyond here, so, if you aren't ready to give 120% every day you should go work for a 'mediocre' company, there's tons of them out there."
He insists that all staff be on camera for the 5 mandatory all-team events (Kickoff and 4 Stakeholders meetings) and every staff member is forced to come - even if they are on PTO. TA doesn't care if your wife is in labor or your grandmother is in critical condition, you better be at that call.
Also, these meetings often stretch across multiple days. In my multi-year tenure with TA, these mandatory calls often stretched across 2/3 days with nearly no breaks. During the most recent call, we were given 10 minutes for lunch during an EIGHT hour call.
The exec team also refuses to take any accountability surrounding poor business decisions, including acquiring at least 3 new companies in the past year and a half despite internal struggles with existing businesses, including very noticeable resource limitations.
What's more, many of the employees who were let go received threatening letters from TA, threatening legal action for taking a new position.
I CANNOT stress enough how morally bankrupt this company is. The rest of the exec team drinks the Kool Aid, despite excellent managers available at lower levels.
•Benefits
Pay is noticeably under market rates and most benefits have a tremendous amount of red tape surrounding their usage. For ex: the "flexible work hours" perk is no longer existent and never really existed to begin with. There's "flexible" PTO, sure, but you're discouraged from ever taking it.
But, hey, as long as there's ping pong, right?
•Culture
If you haven't already had a taste for the deplorable culture at TA, please understand that employee morale is at an all time low and that a work life balance is no where to be found at TA. Employees are forced to spend more time wondering what new devastating and immoral announcements from leadership will drop rather than focusing on their jobs, which is a shame, as there are extremely talented people at this company.
