VIDA Select

1.0

6 Oct 2023

Account manager/matchmaker

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Remote work, interesting clients, okay training

Cons

This company requires you to work 6 days per week, with your hours spread out throughout the day and night so you can never have much of a life outside of work due to needing to be back by your computer in an hours time, etc. You are essentially on call, all day and night. The worst thing is you are only paid for the time you log, so whilst you may have spent the whole day in and out of scheduled work, you may have only logged 3-4 hours of paid time. Outside of client calls, your day is filled with minute long tasks that you log and if you spend longer than a couple of minutes doing a task, it will get flagged. It can be very exhausting doing and logging 2 minute tasks all day, and sometimes you feel panicked if you take too long drafting a tricky email with a client simply because you just need time to think about the issue. I was severely burnt out and underpaid throughout my entire time with VIDA. I couldn't understand how I was dedicating my whole day to them, day and night, but only getting paid for a few hours work. On top of that, all your time working must be billed to clients, if you have to tidy your emails up or do admin and you log that time without billing it to a client, it will get flagged. They hire staff from the Philippines on horrifically low pay (like $3 an hour, and that's the higher rate!) and then charge the client $25 an hour for that work. If someone is spending too long on a client account, management get involved and it's investigated. They essentially want robots who do a huge amount of work in as little time as possible, which they bill the client to at 50x the price. Truly no different to a sweat shop. If your a mom who has the school run this job could be a good fit, as your work day is broken up throughout the day and night, but for anyone else I would not advise. Very exploitative company with questionable practices. Squeezing and stressing their low paid workers for not working fast enough for the peanuts they're paid, while the CEO has a private helicopter. Says it all.

VIDA Select Response

Thank you for sharing your perspective about your time at VIDA. We believe in fostering a transparent work environment and appreciate the opportunity to provide clarification, as there are some specific points we feel the need to address. Regarding the working hours, our matchmakers have two flexible shifts per day, with ample time in between. There’s no requirement for anyone to be “on call”. Every team member is compensated for any and all time they log, so we don’t understand how it’s possible someone could dedicate “their whole day to the company” but only be paid for “a few hours of work.” Unless time is not being logged properly, there is no way this could happen. Matchmakers are entrusted with meaningful tasks, not minute-long assignments. We use CRM and tech tools to facilitate their work, so there are shorter administrative-type tasks. However, most of the time should be dedicated to client communications, client onboarding, team management, strategy, etc. We expect our matchmakers to spend more than 2 minutes on their client emails, as effective and prompt communication with clients is a primary responsibility of theirs. In fact, for “tricky” emails, we have an entire Customer Success Team to support matchmakers as they navigate these scenarios. We are a company that provides a deeply personal service to clients, and it requires a lot of excellent people to perform that service seamlessly. This reviewer is not accurately representing what we charge our clients and what we pay our team, not to mention failing to factor in overhead and any of the other myriad costs associated with running the company. The hourly amount quoted for our team in the Philippines is completely inaccurate, as is the statement that our CEO owns a private helicopter - he does not. As a fairly small and close-knit company, we are confident we know who wrote this review. Unfortunately, this former team member had a negative communication style, to the point where multiple colleagues across various teams expressed challenges in collaborating with them. Our company is 100% remote, so effective, respectful, and consistent communication is fundamental to success in any role within our organization. While we won’t go into the details here, this was another area where basic standards were not met. Ultimately, this led to the decision to part ways with this team member. We are committed to creating a positive and growth-oriented environment for our team. There is a clear support structure in place for all team members, including free sessions with a certified life coach. If someone begins to feel overwhelmed or burned out, we expect that they address it with the various leaders who are ready to support them, and/or make use of the various anonymous feedback channels we have in place. Every piece of feedback offers an opportunity for reflection and improvement, and we thank you for the time you took to provide yours. We wish you the best in your future endeavors and thank you for your time with VIDA.

Exploitative company and pay structure - unpaid on-call 24/7 - Account Manager/Matchmaker VIDA Select Employee Review

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