Where the performance ratings are made up and the reviews don't matter - Anonymous employee Handshake Employee Review

2.0
Jun 29, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- flexible environment - good benefits, although they are slowly getting chipped away at - pay "transparency" in that you can request a market review whenever you want - generally hands-off management and freedom to pursue what you want. don't pursue too hard though (see below). - genuine mission and actually making a difference in these areas - great coworkers, there are no real dead weights or under performers here in my experience

Cons

- general disorganization and shifting priorities leading to wasted efforts and confusion - people disappearing left and right - hazy vision - the accuracy of review metrics is questionable at best and downright dishonest at worst. This isn't a dig at direct reports, but more at the overall review culture and goals. I think many people outside of HR kind of have their hands tied in this system. For your first review at 6 months, HR has instructed that all employees should be expected to "meet expectations" regardless of their performance or responsibilities and how those responsibilities relate to their original job description. If you exceeded expectations within that time, that would mean they overhired... and nobody wants that, right? So just don't record that it's happening and all the metrics and numbers line up, problem solved. Look at the last review cycle around mid-late Jan and you'll find a number of reviews with a similar sentiment, there seems to be little confidence in the accuracy of performance reviews.

Explore other reviews about Handshake

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work at your own pace.

Cons

Task limit when new to project.

2.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's flexible and sometimes the money is OK. I got paid most of what they owed me.

Cons

Generally disorganized. The task I was on was one of the more highly paid ones but it was almost impossible to actually do in the allotted time. You aren't supposed to use AI but I think people must. The tasks run far over the time they are supposed to take. The human review system also seemed almost arbitrary. Reviewers did not have the subject matter expertise they claimed to. You will make less than the advertised hourly rate because the tasks routinely take longer than they say they will. If they have averages that are lower, those people are either not submitting accurate hours (there is incentive not to) or are using AI to train AI, which is a bigger problem (but not yours).

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