Changing work culture. For worse. - Anonymous employee Vault Platform Employee Review

Vault was founded with a mission to turn every organisation into a safer, healthier, more equal & diverse place of work. We are looking inwards constantly, and working to build the culture that we are championing with our product. Culture is everything to us. I know that we can't get everything right, but we sure do try, and we sure do learn. The biggest privilege I have as a founder is to share the dream of Vault with the most incredible human beings I know and together make it happen. We're a truly mission-led company, which, on top of all the challenges that every startup faces, is also trying to prove that true impact and growth are not mutually exclusive. We are in our very first years and a small team (<20 and now scaling!). This is the stage in our journey where we build everything about our business from scratch, ranging from our culture to our product. We invest an enormous amount of time in learning, both from our employees and our customers, and our vision is to create places of work where people can bring their best selves. It’s an incredibly exciting time to join; it’s also when we need most to be adaptable to change and open to discovering new opportunities and ways of working. Not all of our assumptions personally and collectively have or will play out in the ways we expect. We embrace and need the dialogue and different perspectives that come with that, but it's deeply disheartening to learn that some of those feedback loops weren't properly closed for you, and at times you didn't feel heard. We can be more mindful and will do better here. Startup life is, no doubt, intense. That is a choice that people make when they enter this world; it is also, however, extremely rewarding. Some periods are more intense than others, and we're blessed with a team that rises to the challenge. 2020 was also a year of heightened pressure as we as individuals and a company responded to life in a pandemic. Yes, we froze compensation reviews to prioritise retaining jobs. This was a decision made known to everyone on the team, and we stand by it.. But, I would absolutely not accept that Vault has a culture of "working over-hours”. Firstly, members of our global team get to choose when to start and finish their day. We're all adults here; we trust our people to get the job done on their own terms. Secondly, we don’t pay lip service to the importance of mental health, wellbeing and wellness. We make a concerted effort to remind, check-in and also lead by example. Most recently, we introduced Recharge Days (2 extra days of holiday for the whole team to be taken together, to give a true sense of "pause") to reinforce the importance of taking time to switch off and take care of ourselves. We are also great believers in personal development: the opportunities to grow and the path ahead are real. We put our money where our mouth is - every Vaultie (Vault Employee) gets a generous personal Learning & Development budget to invest in themselves in the way they see fit. We’ve designed minternships (internal mentor/internships), have external mentorship opportunities (from our founder networks and VC groups), lunch-and-learn events and trainings (internal and external experts). We work hard to learn with and bring everyone along on our journey and have always been proactive, personal and collaborative in addressing gaps and opportunities at every phase of our growth. That’s not to say we’re done or doing everything, we’ve got lots more work to do here as we grow, but I’m proud of what we’ve done so far to support our team and their growth and successes that we’ve celebrated to date. We’ll continue to make those opportunities and paths clearer and broader for all Vaulties. As a final note, privacy is of material importance to us, and we absolutely do not read private messages. There is not an option to do so on our Slack plan. If those conversations were shared with us, it’s because someone involved in them spoke up and gave us the opportunity to address the concerns being discussed; behaviour we value at our core. If we failed someone or failed to see something and left someone behind, no matter how singular the experience, then we’re grateful for the chance to take this back, reflect and do better as founders and as a leadership team. So, thank you for sharing this. At the same time, of the handful of people who’ve left our company, I’ve been fortunate to be able to and have taken the time to ensure we remain on good terms and keep a relationship with each of them. From the conversations I’ve had with ex-Vaulties and Vaulties to date, I can’t help but feel that this review was written with an exaggerated lens. I would be very grateful to understand better what I missed if you’ll give me the opportunity to understand better what I missed if you’ll give me the opportunity to discuss. I hope you’ll reach out.