Unfortunately, my experience at Hack Reactor was very traumatizing. It was portrayed as if it was me, that I was an awful, overly sensitive person, and I believed it for a short period of time.
First of all, anyone that was hired by the same manager as me will agree, the job was portrayed by him as something really different than it actually was. I know for a fact everyone in my department at that time was confused about what they got themselves into. There was no training, but god forbid if you did something wrong. The way I was talked to by my manager was something I have never experienced, and will never experience again. It really effected my time there. I was really hoping to come away from it with a positive outlook, but sadly that didn't happen for me.
This was something that started happening my first week, I should have known right away this would snowball into something awful. I was worked like a dog, told by direct management to "know my place" and not to ever speak to anyone outside the department for any reason. "Never talk to HR" should have been an extreme red flag. Seriously, what?
My manager talked to me as if he wanted to punch in the face, with his teeth closed and very fiercely. I never did anything to deserve that. I know I didn't. Employee's that were leaving when I first started warned me over and over again before they left. But I wanted to try and make it work out, I believed there was awesome in everyone.
It came to the point where I was afraid to come into work, and after I was abused again in a conference room I finally broke down. I just couldn't believe this was happening. The manager's anger and negativity just got to me, and affected my behavior as well.
I was sent to talk to "onsite" HR which was just the nice girl below the CEO, I could tell my manager already talked to her, and she truly didn’t understand what I was trying to tell her. She didn't ever get a chance to know me that well, and I found it confusing that she was also HR since she's so busy and didn't have time for this on top of everything else.
After that, things did get better, I thought my manager was making a true effort to be respectful, and I was happy for a brief moment in time, I really started to respect him for it as well. But after some time away from this job, and running into old team members, I found out it was not the case. It was a really manipulative thing what happened, pretending and acting a certain way so he looked good and positive in front of the higher ups. It turned out he just flat out hated me the entire time and it wasn’t real. A sad thing to find out later on.
My last couple weeks there I could tell something was up. Old habits started to form with this manager once more, he would bring up past mistakes from months earlier and try to hold it against me. He would yell at me on my lunch breaks to the point where employees from other departments would ask “Why, why is he yelling??”
Even though it was just a couple of us picked on, the general feeling of his employees was mutual. No one would sign the holiday card I got him. Some straight up refused. Red flag?
I was let go from this job due to inappropriate behavior with students. This never happened. The people that worked with me the most (counselors, class coordinators) would 100% agree that I never did such a thing. I rarely worked with management due to being on different floors. Emails were taken out of context in order for my direct manager to obtain his goal of getting rid of me. A co-worker with a hidden agenda knew what was going on, whispered at pointed at me with my manager, messed with me a lot that day, I was so upset already anyone from the outside observing my behavior that day would be like “yeah, she’s acting to emotional to be here. “ It’s sad how I slipped through the cracks. In the end that’s really what happened.
I would like to state that I could see what a great company this was and that was the reason I stayed through this painful experience. To the founders and CEO’s: thank you for always treating me with respect. Tony was in India most of the time but he was a rad guy. Marcus, Roger, Shawn, and Ruan always made sure that the little guy didn’t feel like the little guy. Also, previous employees were portrayed in a negative light by the manager I’ve been speaking of. Please do not judge these employees who were under this terrible reign, this manager never had anything positive to say about previous employees, and they loved you guys.
As for HR located at Core, you have to make it clearer that you are accessible to all employees. I believed what management said, that I should never speak to you. Looking back, man what a fool I was! But it was also made clear how buddy buddy you were with this manager, and that trying would be useless. It was easy for an employee in my dilemma to fall into a hopeless situation.
I am now working for a 4 BILLION dollar company and have been promoted twice in a short time., making close to six figures. Obviously something is very, very wrong here. It was validation that what happened to me at Hack Reactor was not my fault. It took me quite a while to start believing that.
I was encourage to write this review from current employees of Hack Reactor and my current employer.
