Pros vs. Cons - Anonymous employee Wishabi Employee Review

The people are awesome, very supportive, and really welcoming. The projects are very interesting and people who do well are given more responsibility and opportunity to take on more interesting projects. People who are doing a great job get recognized and rewarded. The flat structure means that everyone is in contact with the executive team and they can ask questions or get feedback without going through many levels of managers. There is a flexible work schedule, meaning that people can take time off when they need it or work from home without any prior approvals. The company perks are great too - Friday lunches, snacks, ski trips and tickets completely paid for by the company. When employees are struggling in their roles there is a heavy focus on helping them improve before any changes are made to the team. I've never worked anywhere else where the people were so consistently fun and highly skilled.

The company is growing very quickly, and because of the focus on hiring both for skills and culture fit, it can take a while to find the right people. This means that some teams are understaffed. However, Management is very understanding of this and the company is actively recruiting for these roles. Expectations on performance are high, and that means that some hires don't work out, or the company just simply isn't right for everyone. I don't really see this as a con, however.

Most of the people working at Wishabi are very nice, and that’s needed because you’ll be working so much that it’s good to know that when you’re working all the time, at least you’ll be interacting with good people.

Ping Pong and board games are a great idea, but no one really plays – playing games is frowned upon by management because “don’t you have work to do?”. I think I played Fooseball less than three times in three years at Wishabi. The work in the office is very hectic, and extremely demanding, however it doesn’t stop there. You’re expected to be “online” all night when at home, available to answer any questions or put out any “fires or emergencies”, which there seem to be a lot of at Wishabi. Google chats is normally an efficient way to communicate with co-workers, but at Wishabi it’s a way to monitor how much you are working. I’ve personally seen the CEO ask a developer “so I didn’t see you online last night, were you sick?” in front 10 other employees during a meeting. I’ve seen people put in 70+ hours during the week, and then more on the weekend. If they don’t do this amount of work to complete their tasks, they get in trouble, so the work needs to be done. When employees complain about the amount of hours they work, they get in trouble for not properly handling their workloads and assigning priorities. It’s a lose-lose, but in the end you have to get the job done or else pay the consequences. The result is people working very long hours with very little appreciation, acknowledgment or compensation.