MO Reviews

3.9

74% would recommend to a friend

(23 total reviews)

Jeff Scheire

Not enough data to show CEO approval

66% positive business outlook

MO has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 23 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The MO employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

23 reviews
1.0
3 May 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay is good for civic tech. That's it.

Cons

Awful, toxic environment. The CEO is constantly looking for others to blame for issues instead of taking a look in the mirror. Health plans are a joke, and are really the only tangible benefit aside from unlimited PTO. There is no culture, no structure, no sense of direction. People leave in droves because they're sold on a pipe dream and quickly realize it was a mistake.

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MO Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. We wish you had a better experience at MO. We’ve improved a lot as a company and wish you could experience the new and improved MO. Hopefully you’ve found a company that’s a better fit for you.
1.0
15 Nov 2022

Do Not Apply

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The opportunities made available to MO Studio were incredible - working with the VA and organizations who are truly making a difference. If you desire to be in a position where your work can positively affect hundreds of thousands of lives, government contracting is an excellent place.

Cons

Leadership: There is none. If there was any, it was corrupted and ruined by the owner who is just "playing CEO". Growth: There is VERY LITTLE chance of growth due to the nature of how the company is operated; much focus is on the appearance of the company rather than substance of its employees and trusting in their abilities. Culture: If the CEO is removed from the equation (and any "advisors"), it could be great. But it is simply awful. Pay and benefits: No amount of money is worth working here. Turnover: People will leave this company without having a job first, which is a very bright red flag to how folks feel they are unable to be successful at MO Trust: There is none

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MO Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. To address the bright spots you outlined: - We agree, the opportunities we have to make an impact for Veterans and Digital Services in the federal government are great. We, MO, have been a leader in this space working tirelessly for 7+ years to provide exactly these types of opportunities for our team—in partnership with our great customers of course. To address the pain points / opportunity areas you outlined: - Leadership is hard, growing as a leader while scaling a startup is incredibly difficult, especially during a global pandemic. It sounds like you didn’t have the best experience at MO, which we do feel bad about. MO and government digital services is a great place but not necessarily for everyone—it’s a very fast moving and challenging operating environment. Our customers have incredibly high expectations, which turns into very high expectations on our team. Since yo were at MO, we’ve transformed our entire leadership team. Also the CEO has spent a lot of time working to grow as a leader. - With growth comes a lot of opportunities to grow as a leader, we celebrate and reward people that model our values, step up into leadership roles and deliver impact for our customers and Veterans. - We do have amazing advisors, similar to a board of directors in any large corporate organization. These external leaders help to drive accountability, open up doors, and help us realize our aspirational goals. Not all members of the team would ever be able to interact with this board, similar to employees at any company (i.e., only the executive team or senior leaders ever interact with a board). That said, we’re very proud of the external leaders that help and guide us. - We have faced turnover issues in the past and we’ve done much work to address this. We had a long period of not having the right leaders in the right seats building their teams. That issue is now in the rearview mirror and ownership of the company is removed from hiring outside of the executive / leadership team. Thanks again for the feedback and we hope you’re in a role / on a team that’s a better fit for you!
1.0
16 Aug 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Full remote work environment and an exciting book of work in civic tech. People that I worked with at the time were passionate and smart. None of them work there anymore. The recruitment pitch was successful in building the idea that the company was on the cusp of greatness, that they valued their employees, had an open feedback environment, and that people were in it together. It turned out to be an incredible lie.

Cons

This is the most toxic work environment that I was ever been a part of and easily ranked as one of the worst when I shared with friends and family. Intense micromanaging on the simplest piece of work that translated into a fundamental mistrust of employees expertise, professionalism, and on-the-ground assessment of project work. The CEO continuously undermined myself and others, and when presented with feedback was hostile and demeaning. It was not uncommon to see someone berated and humiliated during feedback sessions. Obviously created a fearful environment. MO Studio has had a brilliant team of proposal writers and are very good at convincing organizations, people, and the government that they are competent. Unfortunately, the routinely fail in delivering on contracts won. They should consider just being a proposal writing company, and scratch trying to deliver on work completely. Retention shows how awful this place is; few last longer than a year. Within a couple years the staff has turned over almost 100%. Deep, fundamental issues too long to get into: gaslighting, bullying, poor professional boundaries, leadership inability to take accountability and acknowledge fault, unclear roles and responsibilities, expectation to do everything perfectly and wordlessly accept nonsensical demands to redo work at the 11th hour, hypocrisy in mission and values at every turn, trashing partners in internal calls and failure to take responsibility, hiding critical information from clients that didn't cast MO in a good light, no management accountability and happy to throw employees under the bus, gaslighting employees. It goes on and on. Work days averaged 10-12 hours a day, expectation to work weekends often, in case that's not your thing and your some how still considering working here.

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Glassdoor has 23 MO reviews submitted anonymously by MO employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if MO is right for you.