Toxic high-control group in sheep's clothing - Anonymous employee Ramsey Solutions Employee Review

For most of the time that I was at Ramsey Solutions (RS), I thought I had a dream job. But I’ve come to recognize many of the practices I perceived as healthy & normal were actually manipulative & harmful. It started w the interview process, which spanned several months. Eventually, there was a “spousal interview,” where my spouse was asked their view of the job. We were then asked to submit a household budget, ostensibly to show we could live on the salary RS offered (Salaries used to be much lower than market avg. The justification was to make sure employees were there for the “mission,” not just $. They’ve come up a bit in recent years). My understanding is that this is still how it works. I now believe this process is designed to groom employees to accept repeated boundary/privacy violations & weed out anyone who sees their invasive requests as red flags. For one, it is an EEOC violation for employers to inquire about an employee’s marital status. As for the budget, it gives RS insight into your other sources of income, including your spouse’s. Imagine how inappropriate it would feel for any other employer to request your spouse’s salary during an interview. But RS sets this up as normal. Once you’re in, boundary violations continue. At my 1st staff meeting, I was encouraged by HR to share a little bit about myself, including where I went to church (another EEOC violation). This was common practice, in my experience. RS also has a strict “no-gossip” policy, which they define as “negatives go up; positives go all around.” In practice, this means you can’t voice concerns to ANYONE except your leader. If that concern IS RS Leadership (RSL), you’re pretty much stuck. I know people who lost jobs for voicing concerns to friends after unproductive meetings w RSL. Effectively, if you’ve gone to RSL & they did nothing, my perception was there are 0 people you can talk to about how you feel w/o risk of losing your job. Meanwhile, for all RS’ boasting that their turnover is low, it’s not uncommon for someone to be around 1 day, then gone the next, cutting all ties w people still there. (I know several who were pressured, via leveraging “severance,” to sign NDAs when they left, prohibiting them/their spouse from EVER speaking negatively about RS. My understanding is that this happens a lot.) This is so common that it’s internally referred to as the “Ramsey Rapture.” When my coworkers were “Raptured,” it wasn’t unusual for our team to not be told why they left until after their departure. The reasons given for “Raptures” are not always true; I’ve had several friends whose reasons for leaving were drastically misrepresented by RSL. I’ve also personally known RSL to blatantly lie in some cases, using false info to paint ex-employees in an extremely negative light & discourage employees from maintaining relationships w them. While I was there, Dave/RSL often referred to employees as “rock stars” & “thoroughbreds,” implying that no other companies measure up to RS. (RS has been awarded “Best Place to Work” numerous times; what they don’t tell you is employees are strongly encouraged to put ONLY positives on the surveys that determine these awards. If they have critiques, the survey is “not the place” for it.) But I heard those who take issue w RS or Dave’s personal stances (including things unrelated to financial matters, such as his views on guns or COVID-19) derided in staff meetings as “stupid,” “liberals,” “atheists,” & “wusses.” When RS was criticized in the media/online, RSL encouraged employees to trust only what RSL was telling them & no one else. “Loyalty” was expected. Dave often referred to RS as “blessed by God” & to his plan for money as “God’s plan.” The takeaway as I understood it was clear: to be a smart person/good Christian, you must support Dave & his empire. If you have doubts or concerns about him or RS, you are not only a weak, disloyal person lacking intelligence; you are going against the very will of God. It is my belief that RS exhibits many characteristics of a high-control group (Google this term for more info). There was an “us vs. them” mentality which was reinforced in many settings, including the weekly all-staff meetings & mandatory devotionals. I often heard criticism of Dave or the company painted as “spiritual warfare,” w critics portrayed as agents of Satan. What’s more, after moving to a different company, I’ve realized that much of my professional experience at RS wasn’t as beneficial as I thought. I often spent time on tasks outside my job description, negatively impacting how much relevant experience I got. I was discouraged from engaging in any sort of critical thinking that would lead me to question or improve our methodology or strategies. I never learned to negotiate salary (whenever I questioned compensation, I was made to feel ungrateful & that I was “there for the wrong reasons”). For much of my time at RS, I thought I was so fortunate. I was proud of the work I did, believed in the mission, & truly thought we were changing the world. But I now recognize my time at RS was deeply harmful for me & my family. It normalized toxic practices & warped my understanding of healthy boundaries. It damaged my relationships by making me paranoid about confiding in friends. It wreaked havoc on my spirituality by tying the messaging from RSL directly to the will of God. And it was not nearly as valuable professionally as I was led to believe. While much of my experience at RS felt positive at the time & some of the friendships I made were genuine, I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone take a job here. Yes, some people are helped by Dave’s system, but there are other financial wellness companies that aren’t toxic or controlling. Go work for one of them; RS isn’t worth the price you pay.