FiscalNote Reviews

Cons

Not really - it's well run

Cons

The owners' obsession with going public led the company to become a public company far too early. Now they are seeing the consequences of that decision. Stock prices are low and when the company performs poorly the go-to is to lay people off (even if a few weeks before that management tells you no lay offs are planned). Middle management is woefully inadequate. They seem to be in constant fear of the C-Suite and will bully their subordinates to make themselves look better. Panic around trying to make themselves look good to leadership leaves their employees in a nanny state as they are being asked to constantly vouch for their existence in nearly every one-on-one and internal meeting. Meanwhile, the C-Suite is completely disconnected. Whereas in the past FN was a "flat" organization where the CEO sat at the same level as every other employee, since COVID meeting rooms have been taken over as personal offices and the vast majority of the C-Suite could be anywhere in the world as far as the employees can tell.

Cons

Uninspiring, anxious and terrified leadership. CEO is missing in action. No more cash for expenses, group events or even team lunch. Layoffs happening in secret every 6m or so to make numbers rosier for Wall Street. None of them seems equipped to navigate the to what’s next after a series of fragmented and disorganized acquisitions with little to no synergy with each other. It’s like a private equity firm now.

Cons

Biggest issue really is management. SDR Director & Chief Commercial Officer have had massive failures in initiatives to scale business and often rely on layoffs to fix the problems they create (both SDR-side and AE-side). Should be noted that Chief Commercial Officer has a very nonchalant attitude towards interviewees. Low career growth opportunities. Manager of New Business is also notorious for strong communication issues (publicly humiliates people to set example on team, makes threats about job security if any criticism). Outside of sales leadership, C-suite is probably biggest bunch of frauds that you will encounter. They have been in lay off mode and telling employees that sacrifices will need to be made, while they have little to no visibility. FiscalNote used to brag about horizontal leadership structure and now C-suite works from offices separate from everyone else and is almost never visible. The CMO is attempting to run an internal PR campaign where C-suite leaders do the very basic (say hello, congratulate sellers on wins, etc). All taste is in the eye of the beholder but would recommend watching for CCO/Manager of New Business & wary of C-suite leadership overall.

Cons

FiscalNote was the most meeting heavy company I ever worked at. There are tons of unnecessary, recurring meetings that either could be an email or duplicate information already shared in another meeting where 90% of the attendees were also in attendance. Many of the products have terrible churn problems that remain unresolved, and there's no plan in place to try to figure out why the churn is so high and how customers can be retained. The company makes a big deal out of asking for feedback, but it implements almost none of the feedback provided by employees. Some examples of issues employees have raised that remained issues over the entire time I was at FiscalNote: -Performance feedback is not given throughout the year; only when something has blown up and it's nearly too late to pivot -Employees are laid off without any explanation given to the rest of the team, even a broad reason; oftentimes, the rest of the team doesn't even find out that a direct coworker has been laid off until that person mysteriously does not show up to a meeting -Product/Engineering needs more resources (employees, money) to maintain and expand the products -Employees receive mixed messages ("take more ownership" but also "that isn't your lane" or "be more assertive in showing off your contributions" but also "be more collaborative"), and it's difficult to navigate the very political culture and know when to act how, what to say when, etc. -There's no career roadmap, and there are few opportunities for growth unless someone above you leaves; salary raises without role promotions are paltry, even laughable Another thing I found challenging was that there are very specific processes in place, and the company is dead set on following them, even if they take tons of time and are frankly oftentimes unnecessary. I could have moved a lot faster and gotten a lot more done, more efficiently, and probably more effectively, without some of the very detailed processes and repetitive communications that were required. I often felt uncomfortable sharing constructive criticism / suggestions around these processes (or other things), firstly because it was received poorly by leadership (it seemed that suggestions were not welcome) and secondly because it wasn't worthwhile to make any suggestions as they were never taken into consideration (in other words, it was a waste of time). If you're the type of person who is content just keeping doing your work and keeping your head down, speaking up only when you have something positive to say, and/or speaking up frequently about how appreciative you are of your role, the company, your colleagues, etc., this won't be a problem for you. If you actually want to put into place better systems, FiscalNote is a hard place to do it. Finally, I was not unhappy with my salary but from talking to friends in my same geographic area who have very similar roles to mine, I did note that my salary was quite a bit beneath theirs. (I justified the difference because I felt much more comfortable taking time off than they did, and I did not work well until the evening or on weekends, as many of them did.)

Cons

Post-Covid: Sky-high stress, less engaging managers, confusion about overall company direction and lack of communication throughout.

Cons

When I interviewed for the role, the final meeting was with the c-suite leader of my department. I asked if layoffs / downsizing was a concern. They assured me that budgets and company stability was fine. Six months later, right after the holidays I was called by the same officer out of the blue and laid off. I know life and business is unpredictable. I also know I have strong emotions about how this situation made me feel. At the end of the day, it made me lose a lot of respect for senior leadership and the way the company is run. Integrity is so important -- in the end, I don't think I witnessed that.

Cons

As other reviews indicate, FiscalNote is on life support. Countless employees being laid off while the worst decision-makers at the company are receiving promotions. Toxic doesn't even begin to describe the culture - gas lighting, intimidation, and hostility are three core elements of how this organization is run. Do not expect fairness or coherent decisions: a very desirable internal promotion was given to someone with a personal connection to the C-suite over multiple employees with significantly more tenure and product knowledge. As FiscalNote continues to bleed money it doesn't exactly have in the first place, the brain trust at the top continues to make some of the least intelligent business decisions you can imagine (look at most recent acquisitions). Just a horrific place to work.

Cons

HR, or what they call the “people team” is absolutely terrible and dysfunctional. This includes all parts of the department, like the benefits team etc. they don’t care for employees and employees aren’t their priority. Not sure what HR does during work hours, maybe they take naps or do those scripted onboardings every week (a job that requires them to just read off a slide every week), given that they have high turnover they need to do this every week. I decided to leave before even finishing a full year because of terrible treatment from HR and their complete disregard of my concerns.

Cons

In a weird spot after going public