Packback Reviews

The existing negative reviews from years ago and recently are pretty accurate so I'll try not to be too repetitive. But here are what I perceived as pretty major cons from my perspective: -The benefits are mediocre. Compensation is low (at least from my end it was for the type of work I was doing. I know that there were a few people in non-technical roles making more than me and that was pretty disappointing). If you’re an SC you will have to wait a pretty long time to get your commission. They deliberately avoid telling you that when you’re interviewing. I know this because many new SCs would complain about it. Most people there are underpaid but they’ll try to make you feel good about it by emphasizing “culture”, hosting happy hours or giving shout outs in Slack and 15five. I think if you're fresh out of college then this is fine. But if you’re someone that cares about building a solid foundation for yourself and your family, this isn’t going to cut it. Packback is a place where you will have to be content with doing A LOT for very little. If you're not, the higher ups aren't going to appreciate or respect you. -I loved the product and believe it has tremendous potential…but I don’t think the business model is sustainable. There’s just too much hand holding required on our part to land the sale and also retain their business. The platform is built to be self-serving yet we have to do everything for the customer, and many of the operational responsibilities fall on less than a handful of people (I was one of them), which makes the margin for error high and also places a lot of stress on the person/people doing the work. Leadership preaches about efficiency and having an investors mindset but the business model directly contradicts that. -Change is inevitable in any startup and being flexible is important....but here it just seems confusing and rocky. The largest department in the company, sales, was performing the worst and it’s mostly because there was no solid strategy....yet it’s the employees that pay the price and not sales leadership. -Turnover is extremely high and they try to make it seem like it's perfectly normal but it is not. Many people didn’t even want to be there because of how unstable it is. It’s kind of ironic given how often leadership wanted to initiate conversations about what’s so special about Packback at just about every company-wide gathering. Sure, they will “grow” by hiring more people (particularly in sales), but they don’t know how to actually retain them. -There’s not much room for career growth outside of management here, especially if you’re in sales. Not many people want to go into management and would rather focus on their own career growth so I figure that’s worth mentioning. Another unfortunate thing about that is people that are very inexperienced end up in leadership positions they should not be in. Few have been able to transition out of sales into account management from what I saw in my time there but even that role is becoming more sales focused. Packback is a very sales oriented culture in general, which I didn’t care for since that’s not the type of work I did. If you’re looking for opportunities outside of sales then I’d recommend looking elsewhere. -This shouldn’t have to be said but don’t get too comfortable and share anything personal, or bother being too honest with leadership. For one, they don’t really care (unless you’re legit friends with them) and two, say anything that challenges their ego and they will do everything they can to protect themselves and get rid of you. Reveal anything personal and they will just use it against you. I realize a lot of what I’m saying here is pretty harsh and I may be perceived as a disgruntled former employee. I can assure you I’m not. This is just my truth from my experience. I actually wanted to see Packback become bigger than what it is probably more than most but there was no way I was going to make it without fully compromising my peace of mind and mental health. The dysfunction and nepotism became too much to ignore and that made it difficult to trust people and their motives. I can’t recommend working here unless there is a significant change in the leadership team, especially on the executive level. They have extremely high expectations but will offer you very little in return ( I'm referring to compensation AND professional development.) I’ve never felt more defeated, discouraged and disrespected in a work environment than when I was here. If you do still work here and you’re thinking about leaving, be “radically kind” to yourself. Don’t sell yourselves short when there are other companies out here that will do their part in making sure you feel respected/valued without just paying lip service and pennies for your efforts.

If you like pretending to be happy, this is a great place to work. Packback is a great example of the nonsense that plagues the startup world. Managers are inexperienced, sensitive, and charismatic. The latter is not a compliment. There is no appreciation of employees on a personal level even though it is preached often. No birthday cards! There is an overwhelming conversation buzzing at all times that the values and culture are "not just posters on the wall." The "active" culture requires (literally requires, as a job performance indicator) you to repeat the values verbatim in shout outs at least once weekly. You're encouraged to do it once per meeting. Speaking of job performance, they do not value performance unless it is used against you to remove you for personal reasons. Again, sensitive. I've seen it plenty of times. I see people who work their buns off and get no respect from leadership, and people who get praised for taking a 3 hour dump. Even though they "stress" how important their employees are, there is no support, no truth to the repeated claim that they want to help you with your career goals, and no consideration of getting an HR resource when it is clearly needed. When met with the very opposition they "encourage" to give everyone a chance at leadership, the ideas are inevitably shot down, followed by a tendency to hide new ideas from those who opposed them. One of many ways the leadership at this company is childish. They will probably disagree if they read this, but actions always speak louder than words. Lastly, they step too far into your personal life and make you feel guilty if you keep your personal life personal. If you want to come to work at Packback, you have to participate in the culture. Be prepared.