- Horrible work/life balance. They say they encourage balance, but often expect more than anyone can fit in a 40 hour week. Working overtime is the norm and I feel like it'll reflect poorly on me when I only work 8 hours a day. We often get pinged or meeting invites outside of work hours. Feeling burned out is the default and they have explicitly told us they aren't going to let up.
- MNTN's engineering culture has become rooted in fear. People get fired here often, whether they've been here for a month or ten years. While there are absolutely valid reasons to fire someone, I've watched multiple people get fired that I feel didn't deserve it. I worry constantly about doing or saying something that will land me on that short list. If you do get a job here, just know that the decision to one day leave the company will most likely not be yours.
- The company has a "flexible time off" policy that hardly gets used. We aren't encouraged to use it and its heavily implied that the company's needs and deadlines are always more important. Many on my team still sign on when they take sick days and it's uncommon to see anyone take a real vacation.
- I've experienced many different managers in my time at MNTN. Almost all I know are severely lacking in people managing skills. My manager couldn't care less about me as a person. I've never felt more like cog in someone else's machine than I do here. I've been in several meetings that include veiled threats of getting fired if you aren't willing to do everything they put on you. And leadership doesn't respond well to critical questions. After being generally dismissive, multiple recent responses have included a sentence that ends in, "then maybe this isn't the place for you!" If you don't feel comfortable talking to your manager for any reason, you're out of luck. There are no ways to give feedback anonymously. In my experience, HR will usually side with managers anyway.
- While the initial compensation here is a definite plus, getting ANY kind of increase after is basically a myth. They have a strict policy that you don't get a penny more unless you're "doing more" for the company. And yes, the criteria is that vague. For a full month, I worked overtime 7 days a week to keep up with their forced deadline. In my review later I was given a "meets expectations" score and told that was "just what's expected of me." And even after being saddled with more responsibilities later, it still wasn't enough. I asked what I needed to do to qualify for a raise. The answer was to take on tasks "above and beyond that aren't on the team's radar." Later I got in trouble for working on improvements because they weren't on the team's radar. There's literally no way to win. It's incredibly discouraging to be told how easy it is to qualify for a raise while it seems like they actively fight against how many people will make it. So negotiate well up front, because that's likely your number for years to come.
