Hack the Hood Reviews

Even though more structure and resources are coming as HtH scales, the pace of work and expectation of the team is still high. Trying to do too much with too few resources and staff right now. I hope a new ED can help with this.

I started at HtH when a few others had just started or were a few months in. The org was all over the place and the interim ED was on his way out. Come Jan 2020, we have no ED and the team is trying their best to figure everything out, as the Board directs us to not do or plan for anything new. Come June, the new ED starts and we were in desperate need of leadership. BUT THE NEW ED IS NOT A LEADER. First, the new ED told everyone that she is not the type of leader to lay anyone off, then proceeds to lay half the team off a couple months later. Second, she bullies you and degrades you for not doing the work as compared to other organizations (when we were without a leader for 6 months and the board directed us to stay put). Third, she talks to you in a condescending tone and berates you in Slack, email, and meetings, sometimes in front of your colleagues or community partners. Also, the ED only wants to work with her friends. I was in interview panels when she was looking to hire Sr. Directors. We had one candidate that 4 of us (including the ED) interviewed who was a former colleague and friend of the ED. We all recommended to the ED to wait for new applicants as we weren't impressed; even the candidate admitted that he didn't feel he did well on the interview. About 2 weeks later, us 3 were laid off and that candidate, the ED's friend, was brought on to replace all 3 of us. Last I checked, every single person the ED hired has a personal connection to the her. I would not recommend anyone to work here with the new ED as leader of HtH. This year alone, my colleague (that was laid off) served over 100 students in programming in just 2 months after the ED started, and that was not enough for her to keep my colleague on the team. Literally all of the team members that were there when I started are no longer at HtH because the new ED either pushed them out with her bullying or laid them off. Also, the ED forced me to take a week off work because she insisted I needed it, and then laid me off the next week. Oh- and the Vice Chair/Treasurer of the Board would come to the office (pre-quarantine and new ED) proudly wearing her Bloomberg 2020 pin, which: is 1) supporting a problematic candidate due to his racist, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks and actions as a politician; and 2) putting the entire organization's non-profit 501(c)(3) status at risk by having presidential candidate propaganda on site.