Pros
While working at Grow, you’ll have the opportunity to wear many hats and develop skills like you would in any startup. The office space is clean, open, and there’s a variety of snacks and amenities. Everyone is passionate about their jobs and work hard to deliver results. Some of my greatest friends have been made while working at this company. Along with that, they commonly hold work parties.
Cons
Even as a tech-company, Grow is overly focused on a sales driven culture and revenue stream. Salespersons receive large bonuses for grabbing sales, even while many of those leads might be thanks to the Product or Marketing teams, not to mention that the Customer Success team often has to work hard to keep those clients. As a result, it leaves many employees feeling underappreciated. Other teams are given smaller budgets and lower priority. Even though the company is willing to pay for large parties and office amenities, they do not invest in their most loyal employees. Many are paid well below market-average. Even those who have been around since the beginning were not fairly compensated while the company was hitting its goals each year. It is a very “bro”-like culture and few women represent the company. Your respect within the company is often dictated by how well the CEO likes you. While I continued to receive new responsibilities and increase my productivity/value, I did not receive a fair salary adjustment during my entire 2+ years here. Along with that, upper management often makes rash decisions that result in laying off employees with little warning or logic. Leaders are terrible at giving feedback or communicating your worth, so anyone could be on the chopping block without any knowledge about what they did wrong. An employee may had been given promotions, but were not trained or given expectations, setting them up to fail in the company. It’s my belief that a majority of the leadership got their promotions through loyalty/friendship, and not by the merits that they have. Some leaders obviously shouldn’t be in the position they are in, but are allowed to continue to destroy the company and its employees. Even newly hired leaders are selected quickly and rashly while there are strong candidates who have been with the company longer, and have stronger skill sets. I’d like to think that all of these problems stem from a startup culture that’s still developing, but after working 2+ years at Grow, it’s obvious that every single problem with the company starts with the CEO, Rob Nelson. He is a very controlling and unappreciative leader who doesn’t value the lives or experience of his employees. Grow has a lot of potential to be a great company to work for and build a career, but it’s ultimately being dragged down by poor management, misogynistic culture, and non-existent HR.