Relativity Reviews

Where do we begin? If I were to concisely define Relativity’s main problem, it would be a lack of quality in leadership. Behind their perfect, diversity-balanced, color-coordinated advertising copy is a fundamental deficit of hard skills, creativity, and competence that goes all the way to the top. Glassdoor reviews here that characterize Relativity as an architectural disaster are not far from the truth. All signs point to the fact that they have lost the technology arms race to the likes of Logikcull and Everlaw. As talented an entrepreneur as he is, Andrew hasn’t been an engineer for a very long time, but for many years he maintained the CTO role. It is no secret that Relativity’s ancient core codebase doesn’t work very well in modern cloud infrastructure, and it is in large part due to Andrew’s meddling, haphazard decision-making, constant changes of direction, cutting corners, and taking liberties with product quality. Rather than modernize the architecture, he kept throwing more bodies at problems, and over the last five or so years doubled the size of the Product Development department and the number of engineering teams with hires out of college (not to mention contractors all over the globe). Andrew has yet to learn to accept the people who can stand up to him: In my time at Relativity, I saw at least two strong technologists who could have provided the badly needed leadership fired or forced out. In daily life, Relativity’s quality problems translate into overtime and stress. Engineering teams have to assign people for on-call duty to deal with production issues, which is no fun if you have a family. And bi-weekly product demos where Andrew can rip into your work in front of the whole company are a miserable ordeal for tech leads, development managers, and PMs alike. All that said, as a far as quality of life and workplace culture, Product Development is by far the healthiest part of Relativity. Things are a lot worse in other departments. Case in point: Support organization. It started as a call center and never evolved out of it. The culture is predicated on control, obedience, and butt kissing, making it a sad oppressive mess. Stay away. That includes positions in support, training, and documentation. Human Resources: In my opinion, the most problematic area. The review process is hopelessly broken because it is largely based on the manager’s subjective evaluation of how well you adhere to “core values”; never mind your material contributions to the business. Disputing an unfair review or brining up bad management is a lost cause. Hiring process is broken too, they don’t know what to do with good fortune when it falls in their lap: I have seen a number of times when they went on months’ long candidate searches while already having supremely qualified candidates in-house. The “Referral Madness” is exactly that – madness. And then there’s just a plain lack of basic oversight: “Values” are great, but how about providing leadership by gently introducing some common-sense standards of conduct and tempering office shenanigans? That is what one would expect from Human Resources. Instead, there is grandstanding while engaging in retaliation, playing politics, and covering up the problems. With HR practices like that, the place is going nowhere. And in the “Me Too” era, it could well be ripe for scandal and lawsuits. Hopefully no one gets hurt.

Where to begin with Cons? - IF YOU ARE A WOMAN OR POC, go somewhere else. Relativity will only hire you to meet their diversity requirements and have you pose for their photoshoots, but if you have a voice and want to provide feedback to management or on projects, pack your bags because you will get fired for stepping out of line. Relativity will tell you that your managers will want your perspective and want you to speak up, but the moment you do, and pose some sort of challenge to the boy's club that is Relativity, you no longer serve your purpose. If you want to just smile pretty in pictures and help them look like a diverse "Talent First" organization, then this is the place for you! I, however, would never recommend this company to a woman or a POC. - Working at Relativity is like being in a toxic relationship. It starts off good and you think you're lucky, and then they start treating you like trash and gaslighting you, and then you end up on anxiety medications and strictly talking to your therapists about work because it DRAINS your mental health. This is not only from personal experience, but also from stories others have shared with me, as we all became a support system to each other and shared horrific interactions we had with HR and our managers. Those people have since left Relativity and have shared what a relief getting out of there was, I completely agree, as I can't describe the feeling of weight being lifted off my shoulders on my last day knowing I was getting out of here. Especially in times like these, you do not need to work at a company who so clearly disregards your mental health. - The HR department at Relativity is THE WORST. The whole department is rotten. Few even reach out to the senior leaders in the department for help and there is no assistance on any level. I know many people who reached out with concerns and were told that maybe they should just leave the company. Why don't you consider for a second that people bringing you concerns may be right? They love to say that employees are "fungible" and they will absolutely treat you that way. If you think about challenging any leadership or management in any way, rather than looking into the issues and replacing bad managers, Relativity will kick you out and offer you a pretty penny to keep quiet about your experience. - There is some TERRIBLE management. Some departments are hiring outside of Relativity and those managers are doing great, but others were simply engineers or other random roles and were promoted to director or manager without any experience or qualifications, simply because they know the CEO or someone in leadership. They hook their friends up and don't care about how unqualified leaders who are NOT AT ALL people developers will affect the rest of the company. - Wages are not good compared to industry standards. There is something people joke about known as the "Relativity Promotion" which means that you leave to another company and then use that as leverage to go back to Relativity and ask for more money. That is the best way to get a raise or a promotion. Save yourself the time and go to another company who actually wants you to grow and succeed there.