If you value your mental health, stay FAR, FAR AWAY - Development Sharpen Employee Review

1.0
24 Jan 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you get fired, I'll buy you a beer and we can talk about it There are two cool people left at the company (I hope they escape soon)

Cons

I can't stress enough how thoroughly this company shattered every aspect of my self-esteem and undid every ounce of progress I made with my anxiety and stress. Since leaving, my blood pressure has dropped a full fifty points and I've lost thirty pounds. Being let go was the best thing that ever happened to my health and I threw a party that very night. It's taken a while, but I finally enjoy programming again. Management is full of toxic people. They champion the Silicon Valley trademark style of trying to eliminate work life balance, enjoy micromanaging every aspect of an employee's day, and love making sure you feel like a bad person. I was afraid to ask for time off for medical treatment. If you make a mistake, they will hold it over your head for the entire duration of your time at the company. If you do something really well, they will act like you only did the bare minimum. There is no praise unless you're a brown-noser in development. There is nothing fulfilling about working on their product. It's just software that makes underpaid, abused call center employees hate themselves a little more each day. There is virtually no advancement. There was a full year of no one in my department getting any sort of promotion. I worked in development. I took time off to deal with a nervous breakdown and cardiovascular incident (caused by fear of having to spend even one more day with them). They didn't believe me and fired me the following week. Employees that spoke up about the toxic people at the company were fired for doing so. Pay is significantly below average. 80k is the Indianapolis average for my field, got paid much, much less.

Explore other reviews about Sharpen

5.0
31 July 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Sharpen is a small company with big experience. They have great people with years of experience in the CX arena. They believe in what they do! Consistent with the industry they serve, they place customer experience at the center of everything they do and everything they create. They pride themselves on an employee first/customer first orientation and it shows. Sharpen was recently acquired, and the company that invested in them (Teleo) embraces their same culture and orientation. Besides bringing new ideas and perspective, Teleo also brings investment money to the table. This is already proving fruitful with a handful of fast contributing new executives and complementary technology acquisitions. Sharpen is already a great company, but is poised to do many more great things moving forward.

Cons

A con to some, Sharpen is a David in a sea of Goliaths. They are surrounded by a number of extremely large and highly recognized players in the space. Thus, they struggle early for name recognition. That said, once they get in front of a prospect their experience and their technology speaks for itself. Secondly, due to circumstances beyond their control (prior to 2019), Sharpen has struggled to obtain investment capital. With the acquisition and Teleo investment, that situation has been totally corrected.

1
1.0
1 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There really isn't any pros here. They try and lure you with equity options that are worthless.

Cons

You will get laid off and worked so hard with a skeleton crew. This is probably the worst company I've ever worked for.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All