Lavalife Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

Very laid back environment
Entertaining calls

Cons

Was only part time
I and many others were laid off
headsets sometimes didn't work
didn't get my own cubicle had to go in a different one everytime

Advice to Senior Management

Be more organized. Have working devices at all stations and offer cubicles to all workers.

Pros

They pay well and have relatively low expectations.

Cons

Its hard to get anything done. They have a very deep set corporate culture that prevents them from being adaptive to the market. They're business is sinking. Not a ship I'd recommend getting on board with.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up to the realities around you. Your company could be fantastic, but you're seriously lagging behind your American counterparts both publicly in the market and with the internal culture. Get rid of that one remaining founder.

Pros

Neat industry, lots of challenges in different dating verticals (voice,web, mobile).
US, Canadian and Australian markets offer plenty of challenges for a person.
Strong developer team with good foundations that keeps it all together.
Last couple years has seen a big cultural / management shift in company. So far results are less than stellar and morale is heading south fast. Good people are leaving, layoffs include personal grudges so people are getting fed up.
No compensation, bonus, incentives applied to keep team cohesive - poor communication down to the troops from Senior Mgmt.
Lack of true leaders.
Bottomline: Neat industry, cool challenges - ruined by poor senior mgmt.

Cons

Management - if you were part of the "in crowd" you could walk on water.
If you weren't blessed with this - your issues / proposals / suggestions would fall on deaf ears.
Only a handful of management actually grasp the business details - but are not in a position to fix the problems with the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Oust the CEO - She's killing the culture and potential of the company.

Pros

Very cool market to be in. Groups of good, motivated people.

Cons

Lack of direction from top down. Almost as if the top management is clueless on where to head this company. Sr. Management would like you to believe that they have it under control. However, the lack of motivation, direction is evident on the work floor. Middle management is average, with a bunch of people just trying to do their job. Way too many egos, personalities to deal with. No job security - you are just a number, and that's it. Serious lack of honest and frank communication within the org. Way to political for a company this size.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your act together or perish.

Pros

Its a fun and challenging market. Alot of change occuring providing alot of market opportunities. Web, voice, advertising, magazines and cell phone products Lavalife has alot of cool things going on. Never a dull moment with very unusual "customer needs" to build for. Fun diverse group of people from all walks of life and experiences.

Cons

Stuck with a 20 year old culture that is risk averse. Status quo is always preferred to experimenting. You are only as good as your last month's results.

CEO has her favourites and ignores the rest - so if you happen to be in the "it" group - anything's possible - people, budget and tech team attention. If not... forget any radical projects that might really improve the company... Since the Top Down communication is really horrible its very hard to appreciate if this favourtism is to the companies benefit or not.

Advice to Senior Management

Too many "pet projects" not enough focus on real business and real mission at Lavalife. Listen to staff for feedback - go beyond the senior mgmt party line. This lack of real communication is marginalizing good people make them rip targets for head hunters.