I didn't want to write this post but there are blatant fake reviews here, one of which has been removed/deleted. I know this because my first draft was directly written in response to it, and that fake review with five stars discrediting former employees and lauding the CEO is now gone. I'm not making this up; below is a draft where I was picking it apart:
"iterate and roll out cool new products." Read that one more time. Who says that unless you're writing a desperately defensive Glassdoor post or writing a job description?
"20 years of brand history and visibility, support from a large corporation (IAC)"
Hey that doesn't sound like corporate speak at all! That's what I said when I bragged about working at Dictionary to all my friends! - said no one ever.
"They mostly blame the CEO who began the reinvention of Dictionary." Yeah, that doesn't sound self-appraising. The CEO reinvented Dictionary like Al Gore invented the internet. All in less than one year! Impressive. It was all her and her awesome ideas...that came from people hired outside of the company because she is not a product person.
^^ All the quotes were copied and pasted, but they were in a review called, "Growing company, lots of opportunity" written on 3/10/16 and it is now gone. Like the review, the management is fake and painfully oblivious to it but now they were finally smart enough to delete it. I'm sorry not sorry for the sarcastic comments but read the quotes again; they're so ridiculous and patronizing. The CEO is fake and painfully unaware of it. Nothing I'm saying is libelous because it's the plain truth. The fake review attests to it, and the fact that it has been deleted attests to it. I know the CEO talks about employees disparagingly behind their backs but pretends to be so nice to them. She lies, and encourages people to lie. If your nature is fake, you will inevitably build a fake, poisonous culture. This is what you reap when you're disingenuous, patronizing and arrogant; no one wants to work with you or for you. I would rather work for a janitor whom I can respect and trust rather than work for the smartest person in the world who has less than admirable character. That's what it boils down to: respect and trust, and no one I know respects, trusts or likes the CEO.
Good, competent people get fired (two of them as recently as 3/18/16) and management thinks having a meaningless all-hands, or team outing or even a box of donuts will make everyone drink the Kool-aid and be happy. Mmm! Donuts! (Chocolate tastings, which weren't her idea to begin with, and donuts were mentioned as awesome perks in the deleted review! I hope a certain someone upped her game and started bringing in Dolly Donuts and Donut Savant at least.)
You know what the funniest part of the deleted review was? I quote: "Ignore bitter reviews from ex-employees." Every ex-employee I talked to is BETTER not bitter. If Dictionary is such a great place to work, why did people quit and go elsewhere, like to Fitbit and Pandora, where they get paid a lot more? (Dictionary pays next to nothing.) And why did people quit with no job in place? Because it's that bad! One new hire left after two months. That doesn't look good no matter how you spin it.
Is the product exciting? Nope. Dictionary.com is just a domain serving obnoxious ads. CEO will tout it as a resource and "language success platform". I think she clicked on the marketing jargon generator for that one. They will say they're innovative, but Dictionary.com is always trying to catch up because it is years behind.
Also, Dictionary and Ask have wannabe startup cultures. They have a "fun crew" to make things um, fun, by having costume /dress up contests but they're lame. The prizes are even more lame; it's kind of embarrassing truth be told. Despite the existence of the fun crew, I heard there had to be a morale crew instated for Dictionary.
And why is Ask being bundled up under IAC publishing? I can't tell you how many restructuring and new groups there were in the year that I was there; it made my head spin. It's dysfunctional. There are other innovative companies out there actually creating value and aren't dependent on an ever diminishing revenue stream created by annoying ads and a saturated mobile market.
In summary, work at Dictionary.com if you:
1) want to be bored and frustrated.
2) don't want to be respected or valued.
3) just want to be comfortable and not work on anything challenging or innovative.
4) want to work at a company that moves as fast as a glacier.
5) enjoy donuts and washing it down with company Kool-aid.
6) need the money and don't have any other options.
7) don't mind being paid way below market rate.
8) don't go crazy over typos in the dictionary.
9) like to work with limiting, old technologies.
10) work well in inefficient processes, "pivots" and "ambiguity."
I know ten more positive fake reviews with five stars will be mandated after this but I trust that you, dear reader, can sniff them out. Just watch how many reviews will attack this one. The deleted review also attacked another review where someone said the CEO micromanages, saying that that was ironic because it was the fired managers who were micromanagers. Just start taking screenshots of fake new reviews because they will disappear after people realize how ridiculous it sounds.
If I sound angry, it's because I think Glassdoor should remain as the source for truth and I have to call out the fake reviews. I'm much happier after leaving the company and I hope that you think carefully about joining the company, especially under the current CEO. Much luck to you on your job search!
