Gaslighting indeed - Anonymous employee BetterUp Employee Review

2.0
29 Nov 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Unlimited coaching for yourself and a +1 is a really nice benefit. Many of my co-workers are awesome people that I like working with. Having a company-wide week long summer and winter break makes for a great time to decompress without feeling like you are missing something.

Cons

Leadership is all over the place. There is an incredible lack of consistency in vision and execution from the top. It's just thought leadership vomit. Leading by slogan that somebody read from some famous founder in a tweet. e.g. "hard is our moat", "feedback is a gift", etc. Everything will change month to month or quarter to quarter. There is no real sense of how to actually organize and operate the company or prioritize and resource projects. Anything that requires cross-functional work is a mess. You'll operate in this environment and then be evaluated on ambiguous "values" and "high impact behaviors". This is where the gaslighting comes in. Maybe you didn't "do less and deliver more" or exhibit "extreme ownership". There will never be acknowledgement that you weren't put in a good position to succeed. You just need to "get comfortable with being uncomfortable". Very sad bottom line quote I heard from a co-worker: "I've never worked somewhere that made me feel so bad about myself". That's pretty damning from an employee of a company selling "clarity, purpose and passion".

Explore other reviews about BetterUp

5.0
10 Apr 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High achieving (but friendly, collaborative) environment, great for driven professionals looking to uplevel their skills and career, flexible work schedule allows me to prioritize school pick ups and personal life, company wide summer and winter breaks every year plus "inner work" days off and volunteer days, career opportunities for advancement (at least in my dept.), You'll work with some of the most capable, driven, kind individuals. I've been here for 3+ years and have no intention to leave, I like the work I do and the team I work with.

Cons

High achieving, high performance culture isn't for everyone (clearly). If you're looking to coast, this is not the place for you. There are pockets in the org with bad managers or poor leaders, and I agree they should be weeded out ASAP because they're clearly bringing down the majority of the org which is filled with decent people who want to do the right thing and do good work. I wish they had a 401k match.

1
4.0
29 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great client pool - smart, motivated leaders and would-be leaders in large organizations worldwide; little need to do independent business development beyond keeping public profiles up to date; billing and tracking payments one master client instead of many individuals; learning opportunities now with CEUs; opportunities to network with other coaches

Cons

AI emphasis is resulting in fewer sessions and lower client engagement and satisfaction overall; developmental science behind coaching being dumped as primary product selling point in favor of giving superficial, cookie-cutter responses to vague corporate behavioral buzzwords, fees low with continual downward pressure; no longer sustainable for highly trained coaches as primary piece of income stream so best coaches leaving or reducing available hours. Like a couple other platforms, it's becoming outsourcing of shallow upskilling at scale for all but the most senior leaders. That senior work is still quality coaching but too underpaid for it to make sense as anything but a way to fill excess capacity.

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