Do not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors - werkgeversreview Anonieme werknemer bij Splash

Let’s start with the 7 Splash values. I’ll outline them below and then what they really mean once you’re actually an employee. Splash Core Values: “Co-Create”: We celebrate our ability to bring together diverse people and great minds around a shared purpose. ——Take a quick look at the C-suite for an idea of the makeup of the company—the diversity here is severely lacking. There are some moments of co-creating but most of that is blown apart by the frequently shifting tasks, priorities, and processes that come down from the upper management. “Show Up.”: We greet each moment with energy, courage, and a fresh perspective. ——Even when on vacation! Or when you have COVID! Or when you’re taking a Mental Escape day! “Stay Curious.”: Always be asking; we grow through our compassion and curiosity. ——Actually, this might be the value that is possibly the most true—but do it on your own time. “Love the Details.”: We know small things make a big difference. ——This is more of a warning because scope deviation and project overrun are under an intense amount of scrutiny. There isn’t room for learning or growth given the expectation to get everything right all of the time. “Be Real.”: We take pride in being our true, unconventional and authentic selves. ——As long as it’s always positive, enthusiastic, and doesn’t break out of what the C-suite considers ‘normal’, then definitely. “Find the Fun.”: Because holy moly, we’re alive! ——Fun is allowed within acceptable parameters unless you’re in the C-suite, and if you are, then whoa!, so much drunk and inappropriate behavior is tolerated. And if you’re a C-Suite member, it’s perfectly acceptable to have homophobic comments about customers in at least one of the Splash Slack channels you're in which will get laughs and no reprimands. "Take Care.": We want you to put your oxygen mask on first and love your life. ——As long as it doesn’t actually take time away from your work—that ‘flexible/unlimited’ PTO is actually capped (and they do not like it when you come close to the cap). New policies around what is considered ‘appropriate’ reasons for actually taking a Mental Escape day are being written. - - - - - The best benefit offered is 2 Mental Escape (ME) days a month, and the C-suite loves to give lip service to the Splash value of #TakeCare. However, the C-suite and managers complain about people actually taking those ME days so new policies are being rolled out as to what is an acceptable reason to take a ME day. Speaking of the #TakeCare value, this is patently false as, at a recent Town Hall, a C-suite presenter called in from their vacation to present slides. Vacation and ME requests are given the side-eye and many people work while on vacation or when they are sick or even have COVID. Oh, and I can’t forget that the CEO actually wrote that he didn’t want to say that ME days are a benefit guaranteed to stay as he might want to revoke them at some point. Additionally, when the CEO gives an internship to his son rather than opening it up for others to apply, that tells you a lot about the company and its actual values. Even worse might be that the C-suite allowed this to happen. There are definitely some other shady practices happening as well. If you want to hear a very “I have a timeshare to sell you” pitch about the company stock options from the CEO where he talks at you for 20 minutes about how great of an opportunity those options are, and how much they might yield should the company ever be bought, then just attend the yearly Splash-giving event. And let’s be clear that Splash doesn’t give RSUs, just options, so when they say that you own part of the company, that’s only if you shell out the cash to buy the stock in this privately held company with no possibility of selling it on the open market. Technical and Product debt is not being addressed, while the push for new functionality available only to specific high-profile customers takes up huge portions of the Engineering team. Much of the Engineering team has left over the past couple of years and Splash has thrown retention bonuses at them rather than the company working to fix the underlying problems. Several members of the Product team have left in just the past few months, including the VP. The product is plagued with bugs and the solution seems to always be for internal teams to perform hugely manual processes that don’t scale to ‘fix’ the problems time and time again. There is absolutely no thought given to keeping high-performing employees or those with institutional knowledge. And I can't forget to mention that a C-suite employee actually tried to get it written into a salary increase doc that the employee getting the raise would not be allowed to discuss their salary. Hint, that’s illegal. Splash likes to talk a lot about how they realize Splash might not be everyones’ last job and wants to help people grow in their career should they ever want to move to another job, but if you are courteous and actually give the C-Suite a heads up that you’re thinking of moving on from Splash, be prepared to be fired within a day or two. Not my story, but still a true one. So many people are getting fired with the reason being a generic “did not meet performance,” when in fact, those people were killing it but they were also high earners and Splash is losing so much new business and additional business from current customers that they need to drastically cut costs and have resorted to firing employees to do it. Most of those people weren’t given PIPs and no exit interviews are conducted—which should be a red flag to anyone reading this. Suffice it to say that while the flashy perks might seem like they make for a great opportunity, I think you will quickly see the growing cracks within the company structure.