Highly Toxic Environment - Senior Software Engineer Compass Employee Review

1.0
Jan 27, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

CEO seems like a nice guy. It was a friendly place to work. Decent initial compensation. Some competent colleagues haven't left yet.

Cons

The first thing to know is I saw at least 2 teams have 100% turnover of senior level engineers inside a year. The culture is extremely toxic. Managers have directly betrayed even robbed employees. (lawsuit pending) HR is viciously hostile towards victims. Incompetent long time employees constantly blame others for their mistakes, One staff engineer had to rebuild the same core service 3-4 times in less than half a year, then the engineers maintaining dependent services got negative reviews for lack of productivity because they were constantly catching up to the rewrites, and that staff engineer contributed to those negative reviews which affect salary and bonus. So this person screwed up, repeatedly, but got other people's pay cut to cover for his own incompetence. No wonder turnover is so high. They used COVID to cover for layoffs for what turned out to be a planned restructuring, with no empathy for employees let go, and heard they did it again after I left. Actually, repeated restructuring and offshoring lots of jobs, sometimes entire teams - no team is safe. Offshoring only got slowed by the COVID spike in India. If you're an older employee, you're first on the chopping block. Especially if they notice you're approaching that 50 year mark where the government starts paying attention to age discrimination. I've seen several almost 50 year olds let go. Don't expect a long career at Compass. A lot of this toxic culture is management's fault. Robert (CEO) seems like a nice guy when you meet or have dinner with him, but he has no control over those under him. People ignore his entrepreneurial principles no matter the rhetoric. And he relies too heavily on bad former Amazon managers. It's like he sought out the most toxic possible source for managers. Good luck trying to get a raise or promotion or those huge add on bonuses they dangle in front of you! LOL

Explore other reviews about Compass

5.0
Jun 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Forward thinking tech company exploring the cutting edge

Cons

Focused on expansion by any means necessary

2.0
Jun 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

People are smart. Very much a “move fast and break things” culture which can be refreshing compared to bureaucracy-heavy corporate life. I don’t agree with their values (if they have any) but what they’re doing is unquestionably working - business outlook is strong.

Cons

Leadership will tell you there’s no ego or self-interest involved in their strategy - that is untrue. It’s an extremely heliocentric culture around the CEO. A lot of the work is based around what people they're guessing he’ll like, but there’s no alignment at the outset and something you worked on for weeks/months will be trashed after one look from him. Their mission is ostensibly about empowering agents but they are solving a problem that pretty much no one was complaining about before they started, and which just so happens to work highly in their favor in terms of market share. It’s just business but very disingenuous- don’t believe the hype that it’s altruistic somehow. Also the CEO loves to share his sob story about his single mother upbringing, but simultaneously enacts some of the most anti-parent policies you could think of.

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