Gradient Financial Group reviews about "nepotism"

One thing I find absolutely reprehensible and unethical is that management pressures employees to write positive reviews on Glassdoor because legitimate reviews had knocked the companies score down to about a 3.0 or worse. This was confirmed to me directly by four different employees. * Pay is below market value * Almost no room for growth for 90% of employees * No mentorship or continuing education opportunities * Benefits are below market standard * CEO will randomly stop you in the hallway and quiz you on the company. He probably doesn't know your name, either * It's 2019, you MUST develop a more flexible schedule. Forcing employees to sit in a cube for 8.5 hours a day is nonexistent at most companies. And yes, other companies have a large focus on customer service, so that excuse isn't valid anymore. You are losing out on talent because of your archaic practices. * Shifting priorities and long-term strategies on a daily basis - this is mainly the fault of the CEO/Chairman. * Nepotism.

It's a long one and I want to start by saying I really wanted to like working here. Unfortunately, Gradient is the perfect case study in what happens when greed and nepotism run unchecked. Promotions, raises, and opportunities aren’t earned, but rather handed out to friends and relatives of the executives. Merit? Hard work? Forget it! If you’re not in their inner circle, you’ll just be stuck watching someone’s unqualified brother or son get ahead while you’re doing all the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, the pay inequality here is staggering. The executives and owners flaunt their wealth while the rest of their employees barely scrape by. Raises are a complete joke. Even with above-average annual reviews, I had to fight tooth and nail for an increase, only to end up with something that didn’t even cover inflation. To make it worse, raises aren’t even tied to your personal performance, so no matter how much effort you put in, you’ll get the same insulting bump as someone who does the bare minimum. HR says this isn't true, but then everyone magically gets the same percentage. They also get mad when you discuss pay with other employees. Gee, I wonder why... Despite leadership constantly bragging about billion dollar successes, there are no bonuses, no performance incentives, no meaningful recognition—nothing. While the executives line their own pockets, the rest of the employees are left wondering how all this "success" translates into stagnant paychecks and terrible benefits. There’s zero investment in employees. Training, development, or any kind of performance incentives are non-existent. The message is clear: you’re here to work hard and make the company money, but don’t expect anything in return. The singular retirement benefit is equally disappointing. The company advertises a 401(k) match of 50% of your contributions up to 6% of your salary—but they cap their contribution at $3,000 annually. This might sound reasonable until you realize they don’t pay anyone enough to hit that cap. Again, this is the ONLY retirement benefit. There is NO profit sharing, NO pension, NO additional retirement programs. They'll give you about $1.5k - $1.8k annually and tell you to be grateful. Turnover is also a constant problem, and instead of addressing why people are leaving (see above), the remaining employees are shuffled around to fill the gaps. They call this “career development,” but it’s really just piling on more work without added pay, recognition, or other benefits. Gradient loves to champion themselves as “extremely competitive,” but it’s all empty corporate fluff. The one and only reason this company exists is for the financial gain of the owners. They will make you row the ship until you quit and then fill your chair with another unsuspecting victim. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Bottom line: This is a place where nepotism thrives, pay is truly insulting, and benefits are a smokescreen. If you want a workplace where you’re valued and rewarded, keep looking becuase this isn’t it.

The constant degrading from FSPs and lack of support from management team makes it unbearable. Expectations are too high with the tools were are given. We are expected to meet far too high of numbers, while at the same time having little to no incentive to do so. Every other department has bonus, raises, etc. We do not. Another big issue is the micromanaging. Whether it is being away from your desk for more than 5 minutes or talking to a coworker, if you're not online and available every single second you will get harped on. The fact that they are always aware of how available you are but never are available for help or support themselves is really telling. The overbearing way of explaining expectations makes it feel like school again, which is not what anybody needs from a job. With that the clique aspect of this job is insane. Lots of nepotism as almost everyone here is related to one another or knows someone. If you are not one of the above you are viewed as an outsider...again like high school. The admin team has an insanely high turnover rate. When people come in they stay for a month or two, then quickly move on as this department has so many issues. Recently though they stopped letting people move to other departments, which I think is not smart on Gradients part. Instead of investing in their employees by helping them find better fits or improving the admin team as a whole, they shut down any movement which drives people to leave the company. The benefits here are a joke as the dental does not even cover cleanings. Pay is also not comparable to other jobs and has a huge discrepancy between workers. The lack of movement/potential to grow at this company, especially on the admin team is null and void. If you're thinking about working here, please reconsider. There are MANY other places to work. So overall: benefits, pay, managers, coworkers, micromanaging, degrading language, shall I go on?

Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad: Executive team and Owners are extremely self-centered, nepotism is rampant, and I've frankly never worked at a company that's so intent on extracting the maximum amount of value from their employees as possible. It is blatant at every turn. The benefits are poor, health insurance is expensive, 401(k) match is a joke, and the work life flexibility is horrible. The raises YoY maxed at %3, which doesn't even beat inflation. PTO looks great on the surface until you realize half of it is legally mandated sick time from the state (they don't give designated sick days). Firings were random, and solely due to personal grievances from leadership on projects that weren't to their liking. Everybody felt unsafe and the work environment was highly toxic. HR emailed the entire company calling someone a "coward" after they reached out to complain on an anonymous email. They put a $5000 bounty on their head in exchange for help identifying who sent the email. This is disgusting behavior and I've honestly never worked somewhere where I felt more trampled on as an employee. Gradient is a fine company, the people that work here are fantastic, but the leadership is some of the worst that I've ever worked under. The highest levels of the company constantly fling teams back-and-forth on their whim, set horribly unrealistic expectations and deadlines, and then get upset when those deadlines aren't met. When firings happen, oddly enough, people with family connections to leadership somehow remain unscathed. If you're considering working here, I would HIGHLY recommend running the opposite direction. Don't even consider it.

* Low salary * Evident upper management does not care about employees * Not much of an opportunity to move in the company * Benefits are not great * Nepotism * Heard the owner say multiple times to different teams that they were "replaceable" and if they do not like the way things are going, they should "Build out their resumes". That does not exactly scream employee appreciation