Employee Beware—Poor Senior Leadership & Lack of Employee Respect
Pros
Goldbelly is marked by a beautiful company mission to "empower small food makers to ship food nationwide." For anyone who is passionate about food & restaurants, this feels like a dream job on first glance: working with some of the biggest names in the American food industry, getting free samples of new dishes, company credits, teammates who are also passionate about food (and are highly qualified for their roles).
Cons
Company leadership, to put it nicely, is a wreck. Although they tout being a no-ego company, decisions are made behind closed doors, with only a handful of key stakeholders calling the shots, with little regard for company morale, employee bandwidth, or the statistics shown by consumer behavior (both on the company level as well as the industry-wide level). Company direction (whether it's creative direction, product direction, company priorities, our stance with competitors, marketing & promotional calendar, etc) changes at the whim of the two cofounders, oftentimes with distinct disregard for employees' work-life balance or mental health. Though the higher-ups tout transparency in company presentations, the reasonings behind decisions are rarely shared, and if an employee questions direction, they will be ridiculed, reprimanded, or at the very worst, terminated. Employees might be said to bear the brunt of the last-minute decision-making, but this also affects small food makers—when last-minute decisions are made about product features, marketing features, or otherwise, how can they best prepare to supply foods? Add to that the demands on the food industry with the pandemic, and you've got some pretty unhappy merchants. Furthermore, employees are not empowered to OWN their own work & mistakes. This is micro-management at its very worst. Employees are truly fearful to make the smallest decisions, yet when something goes wrong, higher-ups will publicly shame or ridicule employees/their decisions in Slack or on meeting calls. The toxicity of the company seemingly knows no bounds—whether its blatant favoritism of certain employees, encouraging gossip about other employees, or something as small as shaming someone for taking a sick day or vacation time. While this might be said to be contained to one department, when speaking to most any employee in the company (regardless of department or longevity of their employment at the company), almost every single one is looking for a way out, contemplating quitting with nothing lined up, or actively searching & taking interviews. This is further evidenced by an abysmal retention rate, e.g. the marketing team has lost 6 employees since the start of 2022 (in a team of about 15). This is a company of empty promises. Whether it's a new job description given at a review (which never comes to fruition), a new HR policy (such as mental health days, which are quickly doled out then forgotten), or incentives for recruiting new team members (which are never delivered upon). Titles within the company are essentially meaningless. Though compensation is competitive (and I'll admittedly say, that's why I stayed so long), it's not commensurate with being on call 24/7, weekends included. In sum, though there is passion, there is a strong mission, I cannot currently recommend this company to someone looking for steady, mutually agreeable, and beneficial employment. I have seen far too many highly-qualified people reduced to tears or truly broken by this company to recommend them in good conscience.