Healthline Reviews

Pros

Real opportunities to effect change and process that will contribute to the company's continued rate of growth. Collaborative work environment with a team of dedicated professionals who want the company to succeed.

Cons

The company is achieving success on so many levels that it can sometimes be difficult to address each and every opportunity. Which priority is the first among equals?

Advice to Senior Management

We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?

Pros

Decent pay and a good office location. Employees at the manager level or below tend to be nice and reasonably smart. Good snacks in the kitchen.

Cons

As other reviewers have pointed out, management at Healthline is terrible. They have no real interest in improving access to good health information. Management's primary interest is in short-term revenue aka 'the ends justify the means'. They are completely disorganized, do not set clear goals, lack a coherent vision and truly could care less about customers or employees. Even though the company has existed for over 10 years, Healthline is not even close to being in the top 10 in terms of popularity amongst online health sites.

The founders had little previous Web experience before Healthline. Meanwhile, Healthline has recently brought in some cocky new VPs & Directors from Yahoo. After dealing with these former Yahoo employees, It is now clear why Yahoo the company has experienced such a dramatic decline. The general assessment from Healthline employees is that things are only getting worse. Meanwhile, there is no training or continuing education provided to employees.

Note that the one positive review of Healthline on GlassDoor was written by one of these VPs. Does this sound credible to you?

While salaries tend to be OK, the benefits are mediocre. If you interview at Healthline, you will notice how 'blah' the office is inside. This is actually very representative of the overall mediocre nature of the company. Turnover is high - though management will publicly say otherwise.

In summary, if you just need to pay the bills, Healthline is not the end of the world. But if you hope to learn, innovate, enjoy your job or be respected - do not work here.

Advice to Senior Management

Sell the company to an organization with better management. If no one will buy Healthline, fire yourselves. If you must continue running the company, stop focusing on short-term revenue and invest in building products with real value. Treat employees better so the good ones will stick around to help you build those products that have real value.

Pros

Healthline received several rounds of venture capital and employees can skate by without doing any real work because the exec team is clueless.

Cons

Exec team has zero focus on any real business objectives. There is no business model other than CPM arbitrage. Average age of the exec team is over 50, and no one above the manager level has any knowledge of the internet.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire yourselves and save the board some much needed capital. Hire replacements that actually understand the internet. Stop convincing yourselves that the company will make it because the venture capital is almost gone.

Pros

Healthline has a young, fun and energetic staff. The location couldn't be beat and there are some perks (plenty of snacks, on-site workout facility/trainer/RMT, monthly company breakfasts).

Cons

Energy and creativity gets stifled by lack of guidance and constant shifts in direction from upper management. The company is very short sited and doesn't invest in the professional growth of its staff. This is dependent on what team you work for, but the general culture of the company plays fast and loose. As with any small company, gossip rules.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on the positive contributions of employees. Actually encourage employees to voice opinions instead of stifling them if there isn't consensus. Most of all, give employees the freedom to control their work instead of monitoring them at every step or redoing work without communicating it to team members. Be more forthcoming with long term company goals.

Pros

Good company with a nice life work balance. Dogs are encouraged. Get out of work at a decent hour. Socialize with co-workers is encouraged. The company has real intellectual property that can be leveraged -- is being leveraged -- and can make a difference in consumer's lives. The staff is now leaner after a series of layoffs and the head of product -- a nightmare -- is gone. If people can help company focus on a few things then the company can make some money and become a greater force in the business. Oh, the offices are pretty nice and convenient location.

Cons

It is a cult of personality of CEO who thinks he knows EVERYTHING. He's a good guy, but not an operator and mingles in everybody's business, changes forecasts on his own, does not respect any chain of command.

Advice to Senior Management

Push CEO to a sales/company spokesman position, hire a real president, and run the business like a business.