Was a quiet dictatorship, now a loud one - Anonymous employee StraighterLine Employee Review

1.0
24 Aug 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most of the people doing the actual work were talented, enjoyable to work with, engaged in helping students, and so creative in the ways they solved problems. The mission to help students was very fulfilling.

Cons

- C-level controls work down to the lowest level, top down decisions for nearly everything - String of incompetent and inexperienced leadership that has come and gone, including the new junior, first-time CEO and her friend she hired as a CGO, even though he doesn't have the experience or qualifications, and it shows in how terrible he is at managing a team, let alone trying and failing to do everyone's job for them - When older leaders left or were pushed out, the ship changed course over and over again with no stability, while each one of them said, "the old leaders didn't know, but now we know what to do" - Leadership kept hiring consultants and agencies to do their thinking while freezing the budget for everyone else, instead of investing it in their people - Shutting people down so they can control the story, so there's basically no open dialog - Siloed work - Product hasn't been updated since before I started, so it was hard to feel good about giving students something so outdated

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StraighterLine Response
3y
I appreciate your honest feedback, and agree the people here are talented, creative and engaged in the mission to help students succeed. I took on the role as a new CEO because I truly believe in the mission. Since I began in March of this year, it's true, we have experienced many changes, and change is difficult. There are many ways we can do better. I want you to know I take your words to heart, and will work hard to better serve our employees and our students. This week I began reaching out to people at every level to open communication and learn from our talented people, how we can make things better. Siloed work is so often a challenge in a remote workforce. I am encouraging our teams going forward to get to know our colleagues across departments and create cross-functional teams to get input because we do better, together. And finally, product is a top priority and we are working to address those needs immediately. Everyone who has worked for us has been an instrumental part of our story. Thank you for all of the contributions you have made to help our students. We wish you well in your future.

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Pros

Great work/life balance Good training Doesn't micromanage

Cons

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4.0
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Pros

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Cons

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