The Bad
-Compensation: They pay notoriously below market, and have every excuse in the book when you try to negotiate (that is if they even respond to you when you try to initiate a negotiation), when other company compensation is brought up they take it as an "attack" or just laugh in your face claiming it isn't real.
-PTO: They consider the two weeks (which is accrued) to be generous and client facing teams must assign coverage which makes you feel like a burden for taking a day off.
-The Product: Fuel Cycle's platform barely does the minimum it is sold as, client-facing teams are left to make up for the myriad of differences between what the platform is supposed to do and what it actually does. Tickets with simple enhancements will go unanswered and if they do finally roll out something new it is riddled with issues and bugs. Often times they’ll release a non viable product and it withers on the vine because the product team neglects to further improve or enhance it. -
Workload/Burnout: Because of the constant turnover (see more below), the decisions to resource teams within an inch of their lives, and demanding clients, one can barely have a moment to breathe because profit is out over the people.
The Ugly
-Man's World: Misogyny was clear and present in my time at Fuel Cycle, leadership's willingness to let males with numerous allegations of harassment slide because clients liked them, the lowest paid teams being entirely women, and female employees being told they were “emotional” when giving feedback or “demanding” when making reasonable requests. Both myself and another female colleague attempted to negotiate our salaries and we were ignored. Inappropriate comments about women in the office were a dime a dozen, including comments by a leader who is now in the C-Suite. On top of that females in leadership positions do not last long - either they get fed up with the misogyny and leave or they’re quickly shown the door. If you’re a woman at Fuel Cycle the only way you’ll last is if you keep your mouth shut. So it’s no surprise when men are often given more opportunities and trust than their female counterparts, which of course means men getting promoted faster!
-Turnover: Constant and only ever increasing, at least 3/4 of employees were fired or quit. The average tenure of an employee here is one to two years. Workload here is simply not sustainable, you will be doing the job of two people at minimum as teams can never quite catch up to full roster and workload as the burnout keeps sending folks to the door. Turnover issues are usually unaddressed and the consequences of turnover fall on the lower level employees who were not responsible for the turnover in the first place.
-Leadership: Or lack thereof, the CEO is largely absent, the entire C-Suite and most of the VPs are out of touch with the lower level folks, and they expect to be worshipped by everyone else - they're put on a pedestal who can do no wrong. The CPO will frequently hold the entire company hostage in what are supposed to be informational meetings around company updates only to use them instead to stroke their very hungry ego. The only concerns are profit which comes on the backs of their undervalued employees.
-Diversity: As in its limited, especially as you make your way up, the C-Suite is all white cis-folks whose only actions are merely performative (inclusive pictures on the platform, social media posts, BS diversity awards). The DEI workshops they have are led by unqualified employees and are an absolute joke that are not even mandatory. I witnessed many comments that I were present for that were simply not ok and had to address on my own.
-Gaslighting: If you're not drinking the koolaid you feel like you're being brainwashed, any complaints you make to anyone in a leadership position remain unaddressed and there is a constant stream of positivity from leadership determined to paint the rosiest picture imaginable. One member of the C-Suite proudly said we had 55 new hires in the past year and incorrectly attributed that to the growth of the company when the majority (at least 2/3) were backfill/replacement positions for those who left.
