-Irrational, unqualified management
-Active effort to underpay employees
-Manipulative culture
-Ineffective attempts at innovation
-Long hours
While interviewing, you may be told that Exela’s negative Glassdoor reviews are from disgruntled front-line employees and that they hardly apply to the Santa Monica office, the company’s center of control. This is false; low morale permeates the company at all levels, borne out of a troubling culture pushed from the highest levels of senior leadership down the chain of command.
HGM-level management pays little regard for employees’ work/life balance, personal obligation or career aspirations. Generating actual work product is often less important than creating the perception of working hard (i.e. sending an email at 2 AM).
Often, new hires are misled into accepting a below-market base salary in exchange for promises of “unlimited upside” supplemental compensation (typically a bonus). An equally hollow emphasis may be placed on career advancement, but the likelihood of getting your expected payout in either regard is low. Virtually all former HGM/Exela employees have a story on what they were promised, and it’s never what they received.
Creating presentations, putting unreasonable pressure on the employees of subsidiaries or poorly implementing the newest hot idea in business management make up the bulk of daily activity. Days are long and personal fulfillment is low. Even worse, the most loyal employees seemingly get rewarded with more work and less pay - I guess the idea is you don’t need to reward people who’ve shown a disinclination to leaving.
Unfortunately, your promised payout probably won’t be worth the routine abuse and outright absurdities you stomach each day. When they do come, bonuses may be delayed by months or quarters and payouts are sometimes stretched over as many as 12 weeks without warning. At the least, make sure you have a written basis to calculate any variable compensation you hope to receive.
Don’t be fooled by the modern office, overblown assurances on Exela’s technological capability or your potential upside; all prospective hires should run as far as possible from Exela Technologies. Your career, wallet and mental health will be better for it.
If you are nevertheless considering accepting an offer, deep dive into two final things. First, the company’s financials; how long will this company and its HGM management be around? Second, consider recent departures; why have so many exceptional people fled the Santa Monica office in the past 6 months?
