Steer Clear - Don’t get trampled by a Hippo
Pros
Interesting challenges related to using outdated technical infrastructure and putting bandages over tech debt.
Cons
Never in my career have I experienced this level of hostility when making basic requests to partner teams. The leadership team encourages a culture of jira stonewalling, using project management tools to dehumanize every aspect of a working relationship, where you are unable to have person-to-person conversations with others. Instead you are being asked to follow a script of “file a task”, “I don’t have capacity”, “make a document”, or “escalate this to my manager”. All aspects of traditional human decency and respectful communication are thrown out the window when working at Hippo. During tech all hands, individuals are prized during the “kudos” section for staying up all night, consistently working outside of their time zone, or working on the weekends. Due to this, many early employees have quit due to burnout, being shamed for taking vacation, and not getting financial compensation for their years of hard work. Meetings are full of yelling and blame gaming in between teams trying to foist all their work into other teams. Cronies of the CTO from “Globality Inc” are the worst offenders. These folks create documents and jira tickets but do no other work than arguing and introducing onerous IT security practices that make it impossible to do work. Due to unforeseen investor redemption of the SPAC, the stock is currently trading either below or close to the strike price for many employee options. The company has also decided to go against industry norms and not offer refreshers or raises until 2.5 years of tenure. The idea that the average employee would stay for 2.5 years is laughable. The company is demanding that employees go in 3 days per week in the office starting in December or January. Remote work is not going to be allowed. The IT team is setting up desks packed together in unventilated spaces as the office cannot hold the amount of employees who would be coming in. This will create a super spreading situation especially since the CEO has said that the company will not engage in contact tracing, deeming this behavior “for children”. Meanwhile, some employees who started in 2021 are allowed to work remotely.
