Work Hard, No Play - Anonymous employee Harness Employee Review

2.0
22 May 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Grubhub lunches 2-3 days a week - Some great people left in the company - A few best-in-class products

Cons

- Sales were composed of about 50% new people (within the last two months) at our sales kickoff which shows their commitment to retaining employees or talent - It is a very complicated platform that takes most salespeople 9 - 12 months to get comfortable with and understand but if you don't hit your number in the first year you will likely get laid off and they tend not to promote from within which leads to a revolving door of employees and missed targets - Most were let go due to very unrealistic targets that the company continues to set and continues to miss by a large margin - It doesn't matter how well you have done in the past at Harness. Management makes it feel like your job is always on the line every quarter - Major "boys club" which is a very real inner circle that you are clearly in or you're not in the Harness culture - Of these new salespeople almost all of them have worked with the CRO in the past making it for an extreme culture of "nepotism" from his career tree - When I first joined the company it was an amazing mix of work hard, play hard where we encouraged to put in extra hours and work super hard and they would do tons of stuff to keep employee morale high... now employees are expected to work even harder but other than GrubHub the rewards have been taken away. Hybrid work-life balance, is gone. Happy hours, non existent. - The CRO holds meetings on Fridays to do a wall of shame for the whole sales org on a mandatory call to highlight those who didn't reach their weekly meeting goals. They put the people picture big on a slide - Turnover is very high because "the remember the human" aspect is completely gone - Instead of a celebration of everyone getting together at SKO we were given homework making for 14 hours a day. Which would have never happened when the company was thriving, we would have been able to enjoy some after-work down time with all the employees in one centralized place. - Not a promote from within culture - Management treats everyone as a number - CRO made everyone return to the office but the offices are all empty other than Mountain View - Constant shift in strategic goals and priorities making it hard to get somewhat comfortable or see things through

Explore other reviews about Harness

5.0
13 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Executive Transparency Fast Pace of Innovation Benefit & Wellness Programs Leadership Space Employee Engagement

Cons

Pace may not be for everyone, there is a lot of work to do. Scaling to become a mature company can be challenging at times.

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Harness Response
1mo
We’re glad you had a positive experience with our teams and appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback.
1.0
13 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

No pros. The company has potential but it is doomed.

Cons

Harness the worst place I have worked during my career: toxic culture, terrible managers, and poor decision making. Performance reviews are unfair and opportunities are given to a few favorites from management; look down and do as they say and they will love and praise you; challenge (poor) decisions and you'll be treated like a second class citizen: no 1:1s with managers, no career advancement, no salary reviews, no recognition. It does not matter if you are competent and a proven track record with consistent deliveries. If you fall from their grace, they will let you go. The product is based on "modules" and that translates how the teams are structured, working more like silos. Projects are not planned and usually come with a deadline already set, no matter if it is feasible or not. Often, multi-team projects start without any alignment and become a surprise - managers don't talk to each other to set priorities. Everything is urgent and comes with massive pressure to meet made-up deadlines. If you are part of a company acquired by them, get ready to throw away everything that worked and adopt their flawed processes. A module acquired recently lost 90% of the original leadership in the first year and around 50% of long-tenured engineers afterward (some left, some awesome people were let go because they did not fit the "company's future plans"). The product is built "with spit and chewing gum", facing constant outages and incidents. Appropriate work is never prioritized, leading to a vicious cycle of "build quick -> cut corners -> deal with incidents -> no time to build". You will be overworked. We use our own product internally and are constantly blocked by issues. Stay away, if you can. It's not worth it.

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Harness Response
3w
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear your experience does not meet expectations. We strive to create an environment where employees feel supported, heard, and empowered to raise concerns openly through their managers, People Business Partners, and other internal channels while they are here. While we recognize every employee experience is unique, feedback — both positive and constructive — helps us continue to improve as we grow.
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