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      Lilt

      Engaged employer

      Lilt Reviews

      4.0

      77% would recommend to a friend

      (111 total reviews)

      Spence Green

      88% approve of CEO

      81% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.1

      Diversity and inclusion

      4.0

      Culture and values

      3.9

      Senior management

      3.9

      Career opportunities

      3.7

      Work/Life balance

      3.6

      Compensation and benefits

      Lilt has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 111 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Lilt employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      111 reviews
      1.0
      4 Mar 2020

      Lilt: Another Silicon Valley Cult

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Though there are employees who are talented and friendly, underneath this Silicon Valley startup lies more politics and favoritism that meets the eye. If taking verbal abuse and witnessing others being humiliated regularly is both your professional and personal kink, then apply, because Lilt would be a good fit.

      Cons

      Shortly starting at Lilt, red flags began to surface. 1. Turnover. Rampant turnover on different teams with no visibility or communication of updates. Explanations of various departures were vague, cryptic or could not even be discussed. 2. Unprofessional environment: Snide, offensive and unprofessional aka 'humorous' comments about employees personal lives. Personal life style choices will be subject to public humiliation and scrutiny. 3. Double standards: WFH is frowned upon openly by the CEO. The CEO has shamed employees for WFH and vacation days. Making doctors appointments or calling in sick is nearly impossible. "Make weekend appts" was the message made clear at the start. This WFH policy became a double standard. Many from the exec team, including the CEO often took vacations, worked from home without any visibility. 4. Product doesn't work. Whenever the product broke down or the services advertised were not provided to the client, the services and engineering teams get thrown under the bus on a continual basis by members of the exec team and often shame them openly on mistakes, big or small. 5. Cult like praise. Shortly after starting, the CEO would schedule 1:1's to talk with everyone about what can be improved. While others might find this engaging, this put me at unease. This approach felt parallel to what cult-like figures in history have done onto the masses. Followers, beware. 6. Understaffed/Overworked teams. Engineering and services work over 70 hours a week. They are bombarded with issues left and right with minimal bandwidth to manage. Smart, talented, driven employees, but with little recognition and constantly stressed by demands made by the exec team to get things out faster and faster. Majority of the services team worked weekends! Whats more, the churn on these teams was staggering. I've witnessed several people cry over tech issues and sudden departures. Which leads me to point #7. 7. Poor management. Majority of employees at this company are not familiar with the translation industry. In addition, room for growth is not visible or an option for many. Upper management often places blame on eng/services/product when things go south. 8. Zero Work Life Balance. Often times the CEO would emphasize the importance of the company. That one could reach the CEO 24/7, via mobile, email, the list goes on. Others might take comfort hearing this. I found this alarming. If one doesn't work more than 60+ hours, you are perceived as not dedicated to the cause. Work long hours, keep your head down and never question. All these patterns set the tone for a company culture. Ask yourself, "is this what I want in a work place?"

      avatar
      Lilt Response
      6y
      Thanks for taking the time to write hard feedback. It's true that 2019 was a very hard year operationally, as we grew headcount by 3x and transitioned from founder management to a leadership team. However, the hard work paid off with our strong revenue growth and fundraise in the second half, both of which happened ahead of schedule. Re: your specific feedback: - Turnover - we revised our sales motion and operations in 2019, which meant that we had to say goodbye to teammates hired in 2018 who were no longer a good fit (for either them or us). Explanations of departures differ by case since our principle is that everyone gets to leave the company on their terms. - Unprofessional environment - I'm saddened to learn that you felt that personal lifestyle choices were judged publicly. This isn't consistent with my expectations for the team. I'll pass this feedback to our management team. - Double standards - In 2019 we did not have a WFH policy as we believed that the best way to improve operations was to work in close proximity. In 2020 we've opened two more offices, and our ability to communicate virtually has improved considerably, so we may revisit our policy. I don't agree that "many of the exec team, including the CEO often took vacations." It was a hard year, and I personally didn't take a vacation in 2019, and most of the leadership team took less than their allocation. We strive to be more balanced in 2020. - Product — Technology-enabled services is a hard business with many moving parts. Root-cause analysis is essential for improving. Findings of these analyses, which we conduct regularly, can be received as blame if they aren't presented correctly. I've had to work on this, and I've passed this feedback to our management team. - CEO 1:1s — I conduct the final-round interview for everyone who joins our team, and then follow-up with them on their onboarding experience a few weeks into the job. First impressions really matter. We do strive to constantly improve, and to my knowledge, these meetings have yielded great ideas for improving our recruiting and onboarding processes. - Understaffed teams — Our services team, which I led, was understaffed in 2019. Since our fundraise we've increased the team size, and hired a veteran leader from the industry. As someone who works long hours, I can't say that I witness anyone working 70+ weeks on a sustained basis. - Poor management — I agree that industry leadership expertise was a significant gap in 2019. Since the middle of last year we've hired an industry veteran to lead our services team, and hired a half dozen senior teammates with significant industry experience on our sales and account management teams. In 2020 we'll continue to make strategic hires from the industry. - Work-life balance — Again, as someone who does work long hours, I can't say that I've seen anyone regularly work 60-70 hours / week, and that certainly isn't my expectation. There are times—ahead of a product launch, a major customer delivery, or before the close of the quarter—when certain people do work longer hours, but that is to be expected in an early-stage startup. Unlike most startups, we do have a defined vacation allocation, and we encourage everyone to take it.
      1.0
      4 Jul 2021

      Broke me down mentally and gaslit to death.

      Service manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Opportunity to meet wonderful colleagues.

      Cons

      - Management is so out of touch with the reality of the service workers and the mounting unmanageable stress of the daily tasks. - No sympathy and compassion when making mistakes. Being blamed left and right for some minor mistakes that management doesn't care to address. - Treat employees, especially service managers, like dirt. IF you DARE to have any dissenting opinions and bring them up in team meetings, you are shamed and gaslit to hell. - Management style is shame-oriented, narcissistic, and inhumane. - Profits over people. - If you love to be chained to your desk for over 14 hours a day, and getting belittled when trying to take days off when being sick or trying to rest, this job is for you. - Management gossips and talks bad about its employees behind their backs. - Management is also two-faced. Being seemingly kind and accepting when there is a public audience, but controlling, domineering, and shaming in private 1-on-1s. - Glorify overwork and shame those who try to have a 9-5 or normal 8-hour workday. Being told you are not working hard enough or be committed enough to the mission when management imagines work disasters. - Classic dynamics of an abusive relationship. Whatever you do, however much you do, it is never good enough. While being told you are bad at your job and making you feel like you can't leave this situation because of your "incompetence". - Secrecy. Management gets raises and popping off in their vacations while the entry-level staff is being drilled to the ground working inhumane hours. - Terrible work-life balance. I would have terrible nightmares and anxiety and panic attacks the day before work. As I worked multiple Saturdays or Sundays, and still couldn't finish the insane amount of workload. But no worries, you will be told "you have a time management problem' when addressing the time pressure of unmanageable tasks. - No trust of employees and its freelancers/translators. When there is a disaster or potential work mistake, employees are first to be shamed and blamed. Also pays its freelancers/translators unfairly while gaslighitng the translators for "scamming" money or working "too slow". - If you want to walk on eggshells and be criticized for every little human mistake you make on this job, then this job is for you. - If you want your health and immune system to be destroyed while working insane hours, this job is for you. - If you want your self-worth, self-esteem, and confidence to be torn to shreds, then this job is for you. - Also rampant covert and overt sexism and microaggressions (not sure if it is related to racism). But engineers (predominantly males) and the services department (predominantly females) have vastly different pay grades. I am ready for them to come back with gaslighting rhetoric of "that is because your job is not as skilled as an engineer". - Has questionable criteria for electing and advancing leadership. Leadership qualities seem not to involve compassion and understanding, but their ability to relentlessly bring profits at everybody's expense. - Rampant turnover rate that is not addressed at all, but tossing the blame again back to the entry-level staff. - Cult-like

      avatar
      Lilt Response
      4y
      Thanks for your feedback. As I discuss with every candidate during the interview process, technology enabled services is a difficult business. We have customers with high expectations and ambitious growth goals, so we can't promise predictable work weeks. We can promise that we're open to feedback and want to work with all team members to continuously improve the employee experience. - Opportunity to meet wonderful colleagues: We agree that Lilt is filled with wonderful people! - Management is so out of touch with the reality of the service workers and the mounting unmanageable stress of the daily tasks: Our managers conduct weekly 1:1s with all team members and as a company all team members are asked to fill out a weekly "pulse survey" via 15/5. We utilize that information to understand how employees are doing and we actively respond to employees who voice concerns. Many of our service managers and leaders have multiple years of experience in the industry and understand the demands of the job. - No sympathy and compassion when making mistakes: We understand that everyone makes mistakes. High quality translations are a foundation of our business and just as our customers hold us to a high degree of accuracy, we hold each other accountable. Our company virtues of meticulousness and toughness are key guidelines in how we identify our errors and respond to them with a focus on future improvement. - Treat employees, especially service managers, like dirt...: I'm sorry that you felt that you were treated badly and that your opinions were not listened to, and would be open for a coffee if you want to talk further offline. The more specific and constructive the feedback, the better, as that helps us to improve. Our virtue of humility asks each of us to approach our job at Lilt with a "life-time learner" mindset. - Management style is shame-oriented, narcissistic, and inhumane: Again, I'm sorry that this was your lived experience. The more specific and constructive the feedback, the better. - Profits over people: As an early-stage company we're not able to offer all of the perks that a large established company can offer. That said, in addition to standard benefits like health insurance, a work-from-home stipend and a professional development budget - we have benefits that are above market for a startup at our stage - like a 4% 401(k) match and the ability for our employees to relocate to our international offices. - If you love to be chained to your desk for over 14 hours a day...: We acknowledge that working at a startup is not a 9 to 5 job and we do work long hours on occasion. As a fast-growing services company, vacation time off is coordinated with an employee's manager and their team to ensure that we continue to provide excellent service to our customers. Lilt does not want employees to work when they are sick and provides sick time to all employees.
      1.0
      30 Oct 2019

      An archaic way to work. Beware.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      A genuinely interesting product. Some of the team members are friendly, though there is a lot more politics under the surface than you'd expect.

      Cons

      CEO’s views on age, gender, and independence are frighteningly outdated, though they are shielded a bit by surface-level manners. You will either work 80+ hours a week, or you will be ostracized. CEO blatantly plays favorites, and those who are favored are, you guessed it, the ones who work the most. Snide remarks about employees taking time off are normal. CEO doesn’t care about workplace culture or perks or anything. If you go in for an on-site, you’ll see it. It’s an unexciting place to spend your 80+ hours a week. No accountability. The product and service doesn’t work as advertised. When the hard working services team can’t deliver, they are routinely hurled under the bus by “leadership”. I saw an employee cry at one point. STRESS.

      avatar
      Lilt Response
      5y
      Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your negative experience. We value our employees and are taking measures to improve the experience of all employees at Lilt.
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      Glassdoor has 172 Lilt reviews submitted anonymously by Lilt employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Lilt is right for you.