TED Conferences Reviews

The organization is riddled with cultural and structural issues from top to bottom. They are far too top-heavy and fail to invest in their people. Do not expect any career development, professional development, or room for advancement. No structured feedback whatsoever. And the management/director roles are occupied by people who entirely lack "people management" skills. The compensation is not competitive and the benefits (with the exception of healthcare) are far below industry standards. How a company that preaches work-life balance and future thinkers in business/work can offer their employees 5 PTO days is almost offensive.

It's rare to see real advancement or mentorship. While TED regularly hires its interns, the practice locks these new hires in at very low salaries that help the company save money and make it difficult for them to negotiate competitively. Salaries vary wildly across the company, even for the same positions. TED's status as a nonprofit is used to explain away salaries that haven't increased in years, while senior leadership typically makes six figures. The fact that TED's Head curator does not take a salary (he also owns the organization) is used to obscure the fact that other members of senior leadership make nearly half a million dollars a year. TED is a nonprofit only when it wants to be. There is strong pushback against anyone who raises labor concerns, from salary transparency to concerns about diversity, racism, classism or retaliation. TED talks a big game about its culture but fails to make actual changes that make the workplace more equitable. Policies around remote working, paid leave, flexible hours and vacation days are not enforced fairly across the company, leading to a disparity in how management is allowed to behave and how the rest of staff are treated and penalized. Management skills (or a lack thereof) are also an issue at TED. Problematic, inappropriate and abusive managers remain at TED for years without incident even as staffers flock to HR in droves to complain, or just quit. While some departments are great to work for due to their leadership, other departments have deep systemic issues with bullying, favoritism, intimidation and retaliation. Each department is its own kingdom with its own culture, and it's rare for leaders to face consequences for their failure to retain staffers or meet goals. Certain teams are well-known revolving doors with departure rates as high as 80%. When the sexually inappropriate behavior of executive level leader was exposed in the press, he was quietly removed from his team but not fired and is still a prominent member of the TED community. He continues to complain about his unjust treatment and make inappropriate remarks around staff. The sad fact is that TED has strong talent but doesn't know what to do with it. Senior leaders remain at the company for years because the TED community is also their social life and they are well taken care of financially. The blurriness between TED as a community (of attendees, speakers and company leadership) leads to biased decisions made constantly about what "ideas" are important to highlight. Everyone outside of senior leadership leaves once they realize the hype of TED as a "family" doesn't extend past a dozen or so people at the top. This lack of change at the top of the company means there is little room for growth past a certain level for other staff, and creative thinking stagnates. Strategy changes are only taken at the whim of the CEO, with new initiatives announced every year that lack appropriate staffing or resources to succeed. This leads to the stretching of existing staff to accommodate an ever-expanding demand, and a serious issue with mission drift. Burnout is dangerously high and there's a large exodus of staff about once every two years. Staff concern about burnout and unmanageable workloads are met with eye-rolls and excuses from leadership. TED could be a thriving, successful company if leadership were willing to embrace change and recognize its own role in holding the company back.