Pros
- You will be considered as an overperformer at any other job after working at Elastify.
- You will be appreciating healthy workplaces more because you've seen the opposite.
- Resignation will feel like a second birthday.
Cons
My first time leaving a negative review on Glassdoor. This is the worst experience I've had in my entire career.
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*After-hours enforcement*
You have to be available 24/7. You will be bothered in the evenings, early mornings, on weekends, and expected to reply asap. We were constantly receiving "urgent" tasks after hours and were told to "drop everything and jump on it". No extra pay. Top management publicly praises for "grinding" on vacation and weekends.
Like many others, I was told to always stay on, keep my work laptop with me in the evenings, to always be ready jump in. Slack has a default function that turns off notifications after 6 pm - I was openly told to remove it. When I didn’t respond after hours, I was in trouble and had a 1:1 because of this. Sometimes they contacted my personal phone number if I didn’t reply immediately. Even my family was concerned about my constant Slack notifications at the dinner table.
It wasn’t a leadership or a senior-level role. I was a regular employee with an average Canadian paycheque.
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*Compliance and Visibility Obsession*
People are exhausted by pressure. But when after hours tasks came in, everyone performed: "On it tonight!" "Grinding on this immediately!"
They called it "visibility" and "optics" and this is the only way to survive. Don’t leave the office until the owner leaves. Send messages after hours to signal you're working. Fake enthusiasm and over-report every small thing. Always say yes and never question their decisions.
At some point, expectations became ridiculous, like reacting to every leadership message with an emoji immediately. If you don’t, you may receive a DM asking if you acknowledged the message.
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*Health Consequences*
The job affected my health. After only two months of work there, I needed medical help and was prescribed medications. My family and friends were worried.
Ironically, when this happened I had a 1:1 and was advised to work in the evenings more to increase my numbers.
Obviously, it affected sleep too, as well as some other employees. Checking Slack at 3 am out of anxiety became normal. There were weeks when I was sleeping only 3 hours per night - I couldn’t fully switch off even when I wasn’t working.
I was more afraid of staying than of losing the job. Unemployment isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. Recovery takes longer than the job itself lasted.
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*Failed onboarding*
No documentation, no specific plan, no clear handover on clients or processes, training was basic. I was thrown in at the deep end to figure things on my own. Instead, I was asked to read all the Slack channels (about 30 long unstructured conversations) and was expected to perform immediately. I had to ask a senior team member that eventually helped me understand the processes. You learn by making mistakes, not by being taught. However, mistakes are remembered longer than successes.
Feedback was humiliating rather than constructive. You feel watched rather than supported. New employees were afraid of asking questions for fear of being snapped at.
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*Unwelcoming environment*
The office felt tense. I've never worked in a team that was this stressed.
* Favouritism - some people were untouchable, others were easy targets.
* Judgmental environment. People said they couldn't fully trust each other, some of them spoke badly about each other or visibly avoided. Passive agression was common.
* Scapegoating - I saw people being blamed for things outside of their control. Exclusion from key channels was used as a tool or punishment.
It felt like walking on eggshells. They said it was even worse before.
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I left the company myself because staying was costing me too much.
I have been lucky to work in healthy environments before and after Elastify. I've never been considered an underperformer or a difficult employee anywhere else. There are companies that respect your humanity - this isn't one of them.