Ramsey Solutions Reviews

- "Core Values" are preached about constantly, but are inconsistently enforced. Revenue impact and position buy you a lot of "grace" - The "no gossip" policy might have been good in theory years ago. It prevented communication that tends to tear down relationships, however, it discourages people low in the org chart from seeing if their concerns are merited. The only person they can talk to, without fear of termination, is someone up the org chart. It turns out this policy extends to family as well - if your spouse publicly questions something the company is doing, expect to be talked to about it. People have been terminated because of something their spouse said. - Benefits are horrible, especially the health insurance. I didn't realize this until I left and got significantly better coverage with my new employer for less than a quarter of the cost. Combined with the pay cut that I took to work here, my total compensation took a huge hit. Thankfully, I found better pay and better benefits elsewhere. You will be on your own for dental or vision benefits, and a lot of inexpensive add-ons that you might find at other places (ex: supplemental life, AD&D) are also not offered. All of those go against what the CEO preaches on-air. But hey, at least they pay for your $60 Costco membership. "Free lunch" is a thing of the past, and the "subsidized" lunch at the café isn't any cheaper than eating out. - There is a notable lack of diversity. The CEO will say "Look at all of these women executives", or point to the racial diversity among the handful of speakers. The actual staff (excluding food service and building services) has very little ethnic diversity - overall the company is close to 95% white. Some departments are very heavily male dominated, but that, at least ,has started to improve in the past few years. Overall the company is about 60/40 M/F. - Employees are expected to follow "traditional Judeo-Christian values", especially when it comes to marriage. People who sleep with someone who are not their opposite-sex spouse have been terminated, with some high level exceptions ("grace"). - The company teaches other companies through its leadership products to have retained earnings so they can handle downturns in the economy. But during the pandemic, it felt like Ramsey Solutions didn't practice what it preached. They even talked about this publicly in videos put out on social: pause profit sharing, ask employees to skip a paycheck, push accounts payable as far back as the contract allows, to name a few. - The CEO has said in the past "If you disagree with how we are handling [whatever], you need to leave.". It has been said many, many times in 2020, especially around COVID. If you have a difference of opinion, you need to take it to your leader, and risk being asked "Do you distrust the leadership?" which could be lead to your being asked to leave. You can't talk to your teammates about your concerns ("no gossip"), and if your spouse disagrees publicly with how the company is handling things, you will get a talking to (or worse) about that as well. - Don't expect to work remotely. It was allowed for a few weeks at the start of the pandemic, and a handful of people have been allowed to continue to work from home on occasion since then. In general, the CEO despises remote work. The type of cult ure he wants to maintain is not possible if the team is not under the same roof. - Every year there is a "best place to work" survey we fill out. Though I never felt pressured to lie, it was strongly communicated every year that it was not a place to air one's grievances. I've worked at other "best places to work", and none ever pressured us as much as Ramsey Solutions did to not answer negatively. - Spouses are interviewed late in the interview process. If they later choose to join one of the private social groups for spouses, realize that they are administered by part of the company's social media team and someone from HR. If your spouse attempts to say something negative (gossip, which will be blocked my the mods), it might come back to bite you. - There is a strong us-versus-them mentality, where "them" is anyone that disagrees with the CEO and operating board. That includes (but is not limited to) other employers out there, who are described as being horrible, or even the "crazy spouses" who disagree with anything about the company. - The company exhibits many signs of a "High-Control Group"

For most of the time that I was at Ramsey Solutions (RS), I thought I had a dream job. But I’ve come to recognize many of the practices I perceived as healthy & normal were actually manipulative & harmful. It started w the interview process, which spanned several months. Eventually, there was a “spousal interview,” where my spouse was asked their view of the job. We were then asked to submit a household budget, ostensibly to show we could live on the salary RS offered (Salaries used to be much lower than market avg. The justification was to make sure employees were there for the “mission,” not just $. They’ve come up a bit in recent years). My understanding is that this is still how it works. I now believe this process is designed to groom employees to accept repeated boundary/privacy violations & weed out anyone who sees their invasive requests as red flags. For one, it is an EEOC violation for employers to inquire about an employee’s marital status. As for the budget, it gives RS insight into your other sources of income, including your spouse’s. Imagine how inappropriate it would feel for any other employer to request your spouse’s salary during an interview. But RS sets this up as normal. Once you’re in, boundary violations continue. At my 1st staff meeting, I was encouraged by HR to share a little bit about myself, including where I went to church (another EEOC violation). This was common practice, in my experience. RS also has a strict “no-gossip” policy, which they define as “negatives go up; positives go all around.” In practice, this means you can’t voice concerns to ANYONE except your leader. If that concern IS RS Leadership (RSL), you’re pretty much stuck. I know people who lost jobs for voicing concerns to friends after unproductive meetings w RSL. Effectively, if you’ve gone to RSL & they did nothing, my perception was there are 0 people you can talk to about how you feel w/o risk of losing your job. Meanwhile, for all RS’ boasting that their turnover is low, it’s not uncommon for someone to be around 1 day, then gone the next, cutting all ties w people still there. (I know several who were pressured, via leveraging “severance,” to sign NDAs when they left, prohibiting them/their spouse from EVER speaking negatively about RS. My understanding is that this happens a lot.) This is so common that it’s internally referred to as the “Ramsey Rapture.” When my coworkers were “Raptured,” it wasn’t unusual for our team to not be told why they left until after their departure. The reasons given for “Raptures” are not always true; I’ve had several friends whose reasons for leaving were drastically misrepresented by RSL. I’ve also personally known RSL to blatantly lie in some cases, using false info to paint ex-employees in an extremely negative light & discourage employees from maintaining relationships w them. While I was there, Dave/RSL often referred to employees as “rock stars” & “thoroughbreds,” implying that no other companies measure up to RS. (RS has been awarded “Best Place to Work” numerous times; what they don’t tell you is employees are strongly encouraged to put ONLY positives on the surveys that determine these awards. If they have critiques, the survey is “not the place” for it.) But I heard those who take issue w RS or Dave’s personal stances (including things unrelated to financial matters, such as his views on guns or COVID-19) derided in staff meetings as “stupid,” “liberals,” “atheists,” & “wusses.” When RS was criticized in the media/online, RSL encouraged employees to trust only what RSL was telling them & no one else. “Loyalty” was expected. Dave often referred to RS as “blessed by God” & to his plan for money as “God’s plan.” The takeaway as I understood it was clear: to be a smart person/good Christian, you must support Dave & his empire. If you have doubts or concerns about him or RS, you are not only a weak, disloyal person lacking intelligence; you are going against the very will of God. It is my belief that RS exhibits many characteristics of a high-control group (Google this term for more info). There was an “us vs. them” mentality which was reinforced in many settings, including the weekly all-staff meetings & mandatory devotionals. I often heard criticism of Dave or the company painted as “spiritual warfare,” w critics portrayed as agents of Satan. What’s more, after moving to a different company, I’ve realized that much of my professional experience at RS wasn’t as beneficial as I thought. I often spent time on tasks outside my job description, negatively impacting how much relevant experience I got. I was discouraged from engaging in any sort of critical thinking that would lead me to question or improve our methodology or strategies. I never learned to negotiate salary (whenever I questioned compensation, I was made to feel ungrateful & that I was “there for the wrong reasons”). For much of my time at RS, I thought I was so fortunate. I was proud of the work I did, believed in the mission, & truly thought we were changing the world. But I now recognize my time at RS was deeply harmful for me & my family. It normalized toxic practices & warped my understanding of healthy boundaries. It damaged my relationships by making me paranoid about confiding in friends. It wreaked havoc on my spirituality by tying the messaging from RSL directly to the will of God. And it was not nearly as valuable professionally as I was led to believe. While much of my experience at RS felt positive at the time & some of the friendships I made were genuine, I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone take a job here. Yes, some people are helped by Dave’s system, but there are other financial wellness companies that aren’t toxic or controlling. Go work for one of them; RS isn’t worth the price you pay.