Clarifai Reviews

Things are not as they seem. 1. Turnover This isn’t the typical start-up turnover. It’s incredibly high. People are either quitting one after another or being fired. Hardworking people leave and their contributions are not acknowledged. The excuse is “we are just too big now”. When people quit there is no exit plan, no plan for coverage, and the rest of the team is expected to take on all the responsibilities of that role. Backfills? Hah. Exit surveys? They keep them verbal. Better to not leave a trail. Its easier to turn a blind on to their own mistakes or create the narrative that the person quitting was toxic, when in actuality vilifying a hardworking staff member who is leaving is super toxic. When someone does quit, the CEO says, “they weren’t good enough anyway”. Interviewing? Ask about turnover. Ask what percent of the company is new. Ask what the average tenure is. Ask about the growth of your role. Ask why people are usually let go or fired. 2. Low-Performance and Lack of Accountability Managers tolerate low performers and overwork the high achievers. Accountability is nonexistent. It’s absolutely debilitating to work hard to then be exploited and expected to work long hours and weekends. Then be gaslit and told that you shouldn’t be working so much. The staff that works their heart out, looks up and is surrounded by lazy employees taking nonstop vacations each month, shopping all day, and managing their personal Instagram accounts. For a startup, I’ve never witnessed so many unnecessary meetings in my entire life. Days can be full of meaningless meetings with no agenda, no follow up, no accountability and the expectation that one of the high achievers can add more work to their load. But don’t worry, when you do the work all the underachievers will be quick to wipe out all your hard work in the follow-up meeting, talking in circles and not really making any real decisions. Not all job performance is made equal. Pride is a common sin here. If a manager is intimidated by you be prepared to be gaslit until you quit. Nobody, especially managers will admit they don’t know something. For a company who wants to attract top talent, they sure know how to waste it. If you keep suppressing the talent and continue putting the low performers on a pedestal, everyone will keep quitting. 3. Broken Culture 
The company has a party planning committee called, “The Cheer Enforcement Task Force”. There is literally no oversite. Most, if not all events are Happy Hours full of employees complaining about their jobs, or a poorly attended Poker Night. The events seem to only be what that group wants to do vs. what the company culture can benefit from. It’s mostly a free for all. Several company-wide events were planned incredibly well, and those events were not planned with the Cheer Enforcement Task Force. Nobody wants to do a company music video. Why is it OK to call the group, “The Cheer Enforcement Task Force”. Nobody can be forced to have fun. Culture is not drinking together all the time or cocktail hours. Its incredibly unhealthy to promote a culture of drinking, especially when the gatherings are in the office. 4. Disappearing Perks Culture is not free beer, lunch, and snacks. Those are perks meant to distract you. Unlimited vacation is a disappearing perk, although some people work the system pretty well. The perk of working from home isn’t granted the same way by all teams. Tuesdays and Thursdays used to be no meeting and work from home days, but not anymore. At least not for everyone. Flexible work hours depend on how your boss feels. Teams hardly touch the event stipend; unless someone quits. New policies around learning and development are disappearing but not communicated company-wide. Equity isn’t as it seems, so ask tough questions. Donation matching slowly faded away as previous employees who pioneered the development of volunteer and charity work left the company. Relocation is pretty much reserved for engineers. 5. Diversity & Inclusion Myth Staff is stressed, diversity and inclusion at Clarifai seems to only mean more technical women; or Females as they are referred to by the male engineers. If they like you, you can begin leading D&I interviews without any formal training. You just shadow a few interviews and that means you are now able to spot if a person will be a culture add. You know because that person, is someone you would hang and have a beer with and that equals diversity & inclusion. If the person you are interviewing is an engineer and you spot any red flags of sexism or intolerance in their interview these are ignored. The company NEEDS unconscious bias training BADLY. 6. Sexism The men in the office are praised for speaking their mind and go unpunished for making sexist comments. If you are a woman, especially a millennial woman, speaking up puts a target on your back. You will be labeled aggressive, and negative. Women are often expected to do more of the housework around the office. Cleaning up after staff parties, or expected to take notes for the rest of their male colleagues. If you are a woman who is looking at an engineering role, the men probably make more. They keep saying its so hard to find women engineers which isn't true. They exist. 7. Dirty Office The office is super unclean. People are always sick either from the unswept floors and dust bunnies or intense levels of stress. Either way working in an unclean office is unacceptable. The office space isn’t even a year old and hasn’t been actually cleaned since the construction ended. Bathrooms are not cleaned. If you are interviewing keep this in mind. The shower in the all gender bathroom is NEVER cleaned. A day porter and night porter are not the equivalent of a cleaning crew. If you care about your staff you’ll keep their place of work clean.