Join if you’re desperate - Anonymous employee Equilar Employee Review

• Low morale company-wide. • The CEO rules with intimidation, a closed mind, and his emotions. 1/5 of the time he will join a meeting in a bad mood, resulting in uninformed and emotional decisions that essentially make the team as miserable as he was when he entered the room. As if the emotional roller coaster wasn’t enough, the CEO is also a naturally distrustful and controlling micromanager. Any executives with ideas and/or backbones were eliminated long ago, resulting in a team of yes-men that live in fear, longing for an earthquake drill so they can hide beneath their desks. • Low compensation is an ironic feature of working at Equilar, a compensation benchmarking data provider that specializes in helping organizations analyze whether or not they are paying for performance. While often promised, bonuses rarely pay out. This past year’s batch of young Research Analysts was bumped to salary right before the busy proxy season, depriving them of the overtime pay they were promised and counting on. • With the high turnover, you may be assigned the projects and responsibilities of departing employees. This would be fine if the expectations for your own responsibilities (which yes, did indeed serve as a full-time job up until that point) were also adjusted. But alas, I have seen multiple employees struggling on their own to do the work that used to be allocated to 3 full-time positions. In these instances, whether an EVP or a lowly analyst, the employee is set up to fail. • The company’s direction changes every time the CEO reads a new self-help book. This is concerning, to say the least. (See bullet point 2 for a reminder of why his whims rule the day.) • The industry itself is very dry. Don’t talk about what you do with friends, family members, or significant others if they are driving or operating heavy machinery as it’s quite likely they’ll fall asleep. If you take this job, prepare to become the queen/king of deflecting questions about your day at work. • What makes working at Equilar different than a normal job? Well, on rainy work days you pray for power outages; when you go to Target you fantasize about donning a red shirt and khakis and having a happier work life; when you leave the office during the day for a doctor appointment or an interview, you marvel that while the Equilar office feels like it’s being overwhelmed by a swarm of dementors, the sun still shines, babies still laugh, birds still chirp, and the world keeps spinning right outside the front door. • Ultimately, Equilar will always look out for Equilar so be sure you look out for yourself. They asked employees to be honest about their thoughts and suggestions but then fired those that came forward. Key takeaway: tread lightly.