A significant lack of transparency has been a long-time issue at Signal. Executive decisions are made, it seems, under the table, and then when worst comes to worst, they put a "spin" on it. Sales revenue has been problematic for a long time, and product has scrambled over the past year to find their "true north". Some senior level managers constantly have a "need to help them understand" about concepts that have time and time again been explained, while they tend to pawn off their actual day to day job description responsibilities on seemingly everyone else around them, then takes credit for their work. Not to mention, marketing unwisely overspends on truly questionable campaigns, and everyone else at the company pays the price for it.
I understand phases of attrition aren't uncommon at startups, but I wouldn't quite consider Signal to be a startup anymore. The current CTO and Engineering VP have incredibly large shoes to fill, and unfortunately, it is a shared opinion that the CTO sorely needs to work on communicating effectively - instead of being cold and tactless.
It should also be pointed out that not enough higher-level positions throughout the entire organization are being held accountable. Somehow everyone in Sales and Marketing gets promoted multiple times each year, while getting a promotion in nearly any other department is equal to pulling teeth.
On the topic of accountability, the way that complaints of sexual harassment are handled by Signal's HR department are very confusing, and they have historically not been great at dealing with them. Managers can get away with being extremely inappropriate to their subordinates, or generally anyone lower on the totem pole. Their consequences? Barely a slap on the wrist - if even - is given to them. A repeat offender was actually given a promotion not long after being reported! We're knee-deep in the #MeToo movement, Signal. Let's not have these poorly-handled situations written in history.
