Noodle Reviews

Disorganized. Everything is last-minute. Zero transparency. New plans are announced suddenly so planning is almost impossible. It's completely unclear how work is handed out. Sometimes it's simply a last-minute mad dash. Other times, some people are picked for plum opportunities, or just as easily passed over and kept in the dark--as if these balance out. Irrational favoritism. Management has favorites--but you can never tell why. And then they're passive-aggressive with everyone else: demeaning remarks are followed by outlandish praise--as if you won't notice. Don't ask why you weren't considered for opportunities: management tells part-timer's 'you aren't ready,' but there are no instructions for getting ready. No real concern for you. The whole time I was there, no one bothered to check whether or not freelancers were paid on-time: we weren't, more than half the time. They're constantly telling you how great they are. And yet they are clearly doing things on-the-fly. Katzman might as well be "Our Dear Leader." You'd swear he walks on water--and yet leadership never knows what's coming next and can't manage to pay you on time.

Human resources is a complete s**t show - they don't return emails, they lose track of where people are in hiring processes, they are horrible with human relations issues and keeping things confidential (they are not trusted), and they have inappropriate relationships with employees and customers. But... their connections with CEO keeps them permanently protected. There is a huge lack of equity in pay that is not resolved despite the fact that they shared a pay equity analysis (performative) and said they would close gaps. Hiring isn't always made on capability and competence... If you know a leader in the org you may get fast-tracked and sometimes those positions aren't even posted. And that means a lot of great candidates (internal included) are missed who could advance the org. Some leaders care about employees and their own leadership effectiveness. But key leaders need to seriously work on their ability to lead. They literally never do 360 evals to collect feedback on your specific manager or the exec team -- that's clearly a sign. The workload is piled on without much attention to employee capacity... except on some teams. There is almost no data to actually make data-driven decisions. It's impossible to actually really take time off because there's too much happening all the time. The org structure can not function to sustain what is being asked of people. Yet there are some positions that are duplicative and/or not a priority compared to others but continue to be funded (see marketing, enrollment, and operations teams). Also, customers (universities) are allowed to treat Noodle team members horribly (rude, impossible expectations, etc.) and managers rarely push back. These two issues alone make me concerned about the trajectory of the company at least with regard to employee retention.