Pros
The individual contributors at REACH are genuinely kind and hard-working people who are always helping each other out. Similarly, most of the clients are the same way. My client interactions were always pleasant and collaborative, which was my primary motivation to do the best work. The entirely remote/WFH operations saves commute time.
Cons
When first starting at REACH, there seems to be an agreement among management, to constantly praise your efforts. It's evident that some people really love this eerie period of time, because it's done to every single new hire. Every single thing you do will be perfect. You'll be reminded to take your breaks, not to check your email after hours or on the weekends, and to let them know if you "need anything at all." After it is believed that your trust is gained, the behavior completely changes. The amount of negative reviews should alarm you and you might doubt the authenticity (we all did at first). But notice how specific and consistent the negative reviews are, while the positive reviews are vague, contain little detail, and their Cons section are just copout responses. When a negative review is posted, current employees are encouraged to cover them up under the guise of “we’d love to hear more thoughts about working here.” Over the past year, over a dozen employees have been terminated without reasons specified besides “fit”. With team members constantly being fired, morale understandably stays low year-round. Everyone is basically working with the thought that they could be next. It’s as if management shoots a hostage periodically, to remind the rest of the hostages what can happen if they don't fall in line. If I mention all the cons, I’d hit the character limit, so here are my observations of three major issues at REACH, with examples: Project Management and Performance Expectations It's true what others have said about project tracking. Management has an unhealthy obsession with Asana and tracking projects. You'll be told to create Asana tasks for mundane actions like responding to emails or deleting files. Projects are assigned in Asana, but are updated in every other platform you could think of. Each Asana task also contains an arbitrary due date. These due dates are continually missed because every deliverable goes through 3-4 rounds of internal review. There are periods of time where the CEO absolutely must review everything that's about to be delivered to a client. I've intentionally left errors on my work to be reviewed. They've come back as-is, claiming to have been reviewed. Regardless of roadblocks, your deadlines are strictly enforced. But you'll wait for weeks when you assign management a task. Most projects are assigned without guidance, or examples of what “good” looks like, Your work is unacceptable if it wasn’t done exactly how management would have done it. You can ask for help, sure. But receiving more lackluster guidance, delivered with a negative attitude, is not worth it. I once asked for clarification on a project, and was responded to with an employee counseling notice where I was told that since I “asked for help,” it was “obvious that I had not started on it.” Working Hours and (Lack of) Flexibility Salaried WFH roles typically come with some flexibility. But unfortunately, many of those benefits do not exist here. At REACH, your time is tracked daily down to 15-minute blocks, which is claimed to be for billing clients. During your weekly 1:1 with your manager, you have to explain why tasks took a certain amount of hours and how your calendar has scheduling gaps. It’s hard to take half an hour to run an errand, or even eat lunch, during the day. And if you don’t answer your Slack or emails promptly, you’ll receive an earful. My questions to management on Slack were ignored frequently. I had to visit the DMV on a Friday afternoon and it was counted as 2 hours of PTO. The employee handbook even explicitly states that performing child-care activities during work hours is prohibited. During an internal meeting, the CEO was caught doing some personal shopping, when a cashier asked him if needed a bag for 10 cents. The subject was quickly changed and this was never addressed. I'm sure he tracked it in his timesheet though. Management Behavior and Hypocritical Orders I was frequently asked if I had started projects that I was already working on. “Did you see that email?” is a common question, minutes after an email hits your inbox. I’ve been asked about specific colleagues and if it “really takes that long” for them to do their job. At one point, I was told to share my screen to prove that I had been working because my “calendar looked empty.” Honestly, no one can fully avoid micromanagement tendencies (myself included). If it happens infrequently and it’s addressed, completely fine with me. Great managers have no problem acknowledging their own flaws.. Unfortunately, I never witnessed that self-assessment at REACH. And speaking of self-assessment, mandatory weekly “Pulse Checks” make you rate your weekly performance with a percentage. Management claims that the purpose was to give your manager feedback and be transparent about anything you need help with. The times I explicitly said that I needed some task guidance, and there was too much work assigned to me, resulted in my being written up, and terminated, respectively.
