Netflix as a service is great, but I don't recommend them as an employer, at least, not at the Hillsboro call center. - Customer Service Representative Netflix Employee Review

2.0
28 Oct 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Like many of the reviews have already said, Netflix does offer some nice employee benefits, especially the employee stock purchase program (take a look at what Netflix stock has been doing, the last couple of years - you'll wish you'd bought in 2007) I've met some great people while working there, both peers and supervisors. For the most part, customer support is incredibly easy, because the service itself works pretty smoothly. When it doesn't, CS reps have the power to make things right for customers, which is fabulous. Unlimited time off (within reason, and when it's available) is awesome.

Cons

Ultimately, the cons outweigh the pros. I will be voluntarily leaving Netflix for a new job in the very near future. Netflix treats employees like they're completely expendable. I realize that no one is indispensable to a company, but Netflix uses up employees like I use up tissues when I have a cold. The turnover is ridiculous, and it doesn't have to be that way. For CS reps, the main statistic used to determine our "worthiness" is the DSAT. Customers get asked a simple question after contacting customer service: "Were you satisfied with the call?" A "no" response counts against the rep, even if it was something the rep couldn't control (I'm sorry, it looks like your bank declined your card for this month's service fee.), or the customer was making an unreasonable demand (I got a disc that won't play! Give me six months of free service or I'm cancelling!). Netflix's stance is that we should be able to sugar-coat bad news so well that the customer doesn't hang up unhappy. This method of measurement is incredibly flawed and has led to reps "gaming" the system to avoid "no" responses. Netflix does not give raises. Period. Not for cost of living, not for length of time employed, not even for outstanding performance. I have worked there 3+ years and my stats have been stellar the whole time. So stellar, I'm one of the people they have trainees shadow, to hear how to handle calls properly. I have *never* gotten a raise. Monetarily, Netflix considers my value to be the same as a new hire who just got out of training. No paid time off. (Unless I want to take a pay cut and bank that toward paid time off.) Mandatory overtime during the holidays. (They're promising it won't happen again this year, but that's what they said last year ... and we had mandatory overtime for three months last winter. And the winter before.) Extremely limited career options - unless you want to be a CS supervisor, you're pretty much out of luck at the call center. Narrow-focus hiring - Netflix hires people with EXACTLY the skills they need for a particular position. If that position goes away, so does the person. There is very little provision for cross-training or retraining a good employee to fit them in somewhere else. TRaSE - one exception to the cross-training policy has been TRaSE, which is a disaster, so far. TRaSE combined the department that handles streaming tech support escalations with the department that handles loss prevention: billing fraud, shipping issues, physical inventory problems and website content issues. They all received cross-training, and even though there's more people to handle problems now, CS reps can never get a response when they have an urgent loss prevention issue. Reps have to tell customers "someone will get back to you within 1-3 business days." What happened to "one call resolution"? There's a guaranteed "no" response for my DSAT. Thanks a lot. Workforce Management can't seem to forecast how much staff is needed; we will have weeks where they offer to let reps go home early every day, and then a couple of weeks later, they're offering voluntary extra hours and begging people to stay after their shifts. This is probably related to the fact that Marketing doesn't feel like they need to let anyone know about promotions until the last minute. Speaking of Marketing, they don't seem to feel a need to ask anyone what kind of impact various promotions will have on the rest of Netflix's operations. The "no credit card necessary for a free trial" promo was a fiasco, much of which could have been avoided by asking some seasoned reps a few key questions. The same can be said about some of the "tests" that Engineering sets up on the website. Isn't it logical to maybe ask a few questions of the people who actually talk to the customers before you try something out? I realize that we need to find out what works and what doesn't, but if a "test" makes the service unusable or unpalatable for a customer and they call to complain, CS reps can't remove them from the "test". Netflix is willing to lose the customer because that's a valid "test result". There has to be a better way. The Canadian service was launched prematurely, in my opinion. Many of the calls we get from Canadian customers center on the lack of content, especially newer releases. The Canadian streaming library will grow, just like the US library, but that's not a satisfying answer to Canadian customers. Thanks for another "no" response on my DSAT, Marketing department!

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5.0
10 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Career growth is excellent. Great benefits

Cons

Life work balance is not the best

3.0
20 Sept 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Paycheck - So many good people - Such a great service - Hope

Cons

I have been working for a year at Netflix. I've seen what was supposed to be very mature people, sharing absolutely almost no contact that anyone would qualify as "human". Sure, that sounds hyperbolic, let me develop (and maybe cherry-pick a little). Have you heard about our culture? The one about giving candid feedback? - I have seen people complaining of behavior they literally demonstrated themselves in the following days. But I have also seen these feedbacks resulting in tears both in the eyes of HR persons or fellow engineers. How human does that sound? Have you heard about our culture? The one about not tolerating brilliant jerks? I have nonetheless seen angriness and frustration, expressed in private, public and meeting. People rejecting new ideas by default, like, any ideas they wouldn't have worked themselves on for days wouldn't count. Even if those ideas are from the best examples in the industry or academics. How many publications/contributions have you seen from Netflix to computer science in general? How does it compare against any other company of that size in the Bay Area? Can you imagine either the real insecurity (x)or the lack of innovation that could lead to this situation? Except for a few managers, directors or VPs feeling free enough to behave at work in the same way than how they live, almost every engineer I have been interacting with, have shared as little as possible about their private life. The rare exceptions of interpersonal exchange ends up around some sort of competitive behavior: Who is the most geeky, sportive, owns the fastest car/biggest house/visited the strangest place. I've heard workaholic people complaining about ambitious peers who were over-managing, over-working to get even more work to do after. I feel like we're past workaholism at this point. Maybe there are a lot of shy people! Maybe there is a culture of fear, not only of being fired, but also a fear of interacting with people going to be fired. Maybe it's all in my head, maybe people giving 5 stars to their experience here don't care the human aspect of a company. And maybe they're right. What about your crush, your fears, your desires for the future, your appetite for life? I've been blessed to work in enough large companies to know that the behavior that I'm seeing in Netflix is not a healthy one. I've also been lucky enough to work in other industries more socializing than tech and I can tell that Netflix has a lot to do on that side, and off-sites or team meeting won't solve that problem. I am afraid about the tragic, but inevitable consequences of the ways people operate in this company: I guess that the day the worst will happen, it will be addressed in an impersonal memo by Reed; followed-up by 1 or 2 reminders during offsites. Possibly commented by HR in a Q&A document. And move on. This company seems as reactive in its management of people as it is proactive in its business operations. I still work at Netflix though, not only for the paycheck, but because I hope. I hope it will change. The needed change can't happen from a candid feedback, a Q&A, or only from inside. Change has to come from everyone, including people who take time to read comments like this one. Netflix has so many good people and offers such a great service. As a curious Netflix employee reading this review: think about your past, isn't there a big human thing that you would love to feel again in your current company that you've felt in the past? As a candidate: think about what would be a good question to ask to that HR partner once your package is almost here to be offered to you, think about that comment you make at the end of an interview when you're being asked by an engineer: "Do you have any question for me?" What Netflix needs is an inception, something that anyone and everyone would think about after leaving the call or the room they were sharing with you. Ask yourself, and then the others, the question you should ask if you think you want to spend a good amount of your life and energy in the place you're applying for. - Will I learn and contribute to the knowledge of other's? Even outside the company? - Will I see emotional responses from my peers? Will that be for other reasons than being fired or bluntly criticized? - Will I find a friendly environment that will nurture my appetite for life? - What is the amount of emotional interaction (celebrating, sharing, playing) to expect from a company whose service is the best to "entertain"? - Do androids dream of electric sheep?

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