Scam company - Software Quality Assurance HostGator.com Employee Review

2.0
3 Mar 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

slacking off, not being held accountable, free booze, video game room, vape closet, free lunch, decent pay and benefits, educational.

Cons

I was a pretty high up (development department) employee at Hostgator until today. They laid me off after 3 years of pretty loyal service. Maybe it was because I cyber-slacked, but everyone did, so I kinda doubt that was it. I honestly think the worst thing I ever did there was send personal messages to my friends outside the company (via services like FaceBook) and maybe browse Reddit on the clock a bit. Supposedly they just didn't have a use for me, but I highly suspect there was much more to my termination than they let on. When I first got hired, it was a great job. Then EIG bought the company. And that's when it started getting crummy. Our perks were eliminated, and the code of conduct was strengthened. I was shuffled from team to team. Very poorly managed. Lots of bureaucracy. Crumbling infrastructure and unreliable IT. Under-staffed. When they migrated the dev cluster to a different rack, for instance, we lost a lot of capabilities, and no one really felt like bringing them back up. Lots of people came and went from that job. They hire off the streets, and if you actually get good at what you do, they refuse to pay you more. So most people get a better job elsewhere eventually. Many times, I found cocaine in the bathroom stall at Hostgator. They had Wine Wednesday AND Beer Friday, so two days out of the business week, most people were drunk at work. The employees were promiscuous. Typical tech employee brogrammers. And I felt like working there exposed me to bad people: malicious hackers, con artists, intellectual property thieves, etc... Not to mention the public-perception of my guilt by association. There was also probably some investor fraud going down there as well: Fake sales and deferred revenue miscalculations. So yeah, all around as crooked as it was crummy. Also, there was at least one NSA agent who worked there. Undercover but pretty obvious. As an employee I contributed more value than I was compensated for. The layoff is a net loss for me, but also the removal of a stone from my neck. I can't wait to find a more professional environment. It was a job for mediocre underachievers, where they treated us like children. I've never been happier to shed an employer.

Explore other reviews about HostGator.com

5.0
17 Oct 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very techy and lots of free food

Cons

Got too big and lost culture

3.0
6 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The office and company culture was above par for the tech industry until they sold.

Cons

The company was sold to an IT chopshop and quality followed suite.

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