10+ Years at Ancestry and this is the worst I've seen it - Anonymous employee Ancestry Employee Review

2.0
Jun 26, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Margo joined the company recently as the CEO and within her first 2 weeks was able to sense that things were a bit tense. Since that time, she has been meeting with groups of employees to gather feedback on their experiences and why there is so much dissatisfaction. She is working on a plan, with the rest of leadership, to work towards regaining employee trust and bringing back a culture that makes people want to stick around. Ancestry is currently reviewing all employees, including contributions, skills, performance, as well as pay. The rumor is that they are looking to increase pay to be competitive with other companies in the same area, in the hopes that people will stop leaving for other employment opportunities. I fear this may be too little, too late however. The services that Ancestry provides are invaluable and have changed many lives, we constantly hear stories from grateful customers. This is why I have stayed on for so long and why I'd previously planned to stay indefinitely - that now depends on how leadership decides to address the current state of the employees.

Cons

With the exception of Margo, remaining leadership has been shocked and confused at the results of the most recent employee survey. How so many in leadership can be so disconnected from the people the "lead", I will never understand. All you have to do is walk through the building and you can feel the dissatisfaction. The changes that have come over the last 15-18 months have changed the company so drastically, that it will be years before it recovers. The changes have affected employees satisfaction and enjoyment of working at Ancestry to the degree that people are leaving in droves - Ancestry is bleeding people, so much so that many teams are shorthanded which in turn, is affect not only the quality of work, but the quantity.

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Pros

Good culture and amazing tech managers

Cons

Low salaries need to increase soon

2.0
Apr 22, 2026
Recommend
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Pros

The work-life balance is pretty good. I have never had issues taking time off when I needed to. The pay and benefits are on par with other, similar jobs in the area. There are many long-time employees at the company.

Cons

The company is product-led, so leadership is more concerned with shipping new features than they are with making sure what they have already shipped works well. Restricted stock unit grants always come with a one year vesting cliff, whether an employee has worked at the company for two years or twenty years. They do not appear to trust that long-time employees will continue to stay at the company, even though they have many long-time employees.

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