Side Reviews

3.3

47% would recommend to a friend

(229 total reviews)
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Guy Gal

59% approve of CEO

41% positive business outlook

Side has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 229 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Side employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Real estate industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

229 reviews
1.0
3 Apr 2019

Too demanding. No work gets done. No Flexible PTO

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

100% healthcare coverage (medical, vision and dental) benefits is great except Flexible PTO

Cons

Side did a background check on me and everything went well. I work for Side more than a year, mostly from remote and during the Pacific time zone. I do travel back and forward to my own country once and a while only visit my family. Apparently, the downside is that HR department think I should be present in the US when I do my work. I do work during business hours in Pacific time zone and I do attend video meetings even out of the US. I feel HR doesn't want too many employees having Flexible PTO at once. I only used a day or two every couple of months, they complain about it. Side advertise / offer each job with perks and description about Flexible PTO is one of them.

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Side Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to provide thoughtful feedback. I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed our benefits with 100% healthcare coverage. It is important for us to provide really great benefits to our team, and we work hard to ensure great coverage. Our team is constantly looking at ways to improve our benefits package, including how we implement Flexible PTO and remote work policies. We always try to accommodate our team's needs for balance and flexibility with business needs. For some collaborations, it is necessary to be present in the office, and we try to balance these needs throughout the organization. We appreciate your thoughts and are committed to providing an even better benefits package in the future.
2.0
16 Sept 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Smart and dedicated people work here - really enjoy working with many folks on staff! - Offices are conveniently located in SoMa - Big dreams for helping out those in the real estate industry can be infectious - No work day is the same!

Cons

- The amount of churn matches no other workplace I've ever been at! There is no communication with team when people are fired or leave (oh yeah, firings happen often), people are just gone. It creates a culture of fear, and people are on edge about it. - Hard work is not rewarded with pay raises or promotions - just more hard work. Burn out is very real here. - The leadership says they are about "transparency", however they get mad when you question reasons why things are happening. There is nothing transparent about the way they run business. - Benefits are nothing to brag about. Salaries are WAY sub-par for SF, health insurance is a joke (HSA is only option, and initial coverage isn't even fully paid by employer), and they are understaffed because they wait until you are ready to rage quit to hire new employees. It's mind-boggling. - This is not a real tech start-up; this is a real estate brokerage. Do not expect start-up things like snacks, super forward tech (other than a standing desk + macbook), or even headphones to get work done in an open office environment. You won't get it. - Loyalty to leadership is how you move forward in this company, not talent, insight, or good ideas. - C-level team is sadly not self-aware, nor seemingly interested in becoming so; the levels of narcissism can be simply astounding. They blame everyone else but themselves for why people choose to leave, but forget to remember that, a) people leave managers, not companies, and b) it's necessary to have growth and compensation talks to keep employees engaged.

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Side Response
6y
Thank you for your feedback, and we appreciate that you’re on board with the big dreams we have. With the pace of change in a high-growth company, communication is not always perfect, but we are working to make it better. It is important to us that our team is transparent and filters communications out to the entire company. This is a very hard thing to do well but it is something that we are committed to, and your feedback is important to us. As far as salary, we statistically pay above market and mark salaries to compensation data to ensure this is the case. The same goes for benefits. We would appreciate hearing more about your concerns, so we can continue to improve things. Please feel free to reach out to me directly. Thanks again for your feedback.
2.0
26 Jul 2022

Don't Bother!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When the company was going through a period of growth past year, there were pros such as culture, diversity, upward mobility, but, unfortunately, it stops there.

Cons

Since the beginning of the year, we've learned that Management grossly mismanaged their finances, spending millions over budget last year. The CEO also started the year by telling employees they can leave if they're not satisfied or can't keep up with demand. Expect to get your head bitten off if you ask about 401k matching. Teams are nearly impossible to collaborate with because everyone is told to push back and communication is so terrible. The C-Suite is a nightmare. All of them are narcissists with no leadership skills whatsoever. The broker is team is essentially asked to exploit any loophole in the industry they can find. Compliance is a joke to them. Prepare to be gaslit if you speak up. The People Ops team is grossly negligent. If you go to them for help, they do nothing. I've never worked for a company that promises so much and delivers on nothing. Management cares only about the agents they expect to make money off of, and because they're a tech startup, they're quick to make excuses and sweep things under the rug. Truth be told, the tech isn't good, and most of our hiring power goes to people who have no background or understanding of real estate.

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Side Response
3y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. To clarify, the organizational changes made earlier this year were not financial in nature. They were made to slow down and get organized for sustainable long term growth. In 2021, demand for our product led us to enter new markets at a rapid pace. As a result, we hired too quickly, slowing down our ability to serve our agent partners in the best way possible. We do recognize that not everyone who becomes an inSider will feel like the mission and/or the opportunity is a great fit for them. That is why we provide a generous severance for anyone who wants to leave. We have been very open about this policy for some time as it provides people with an easier transition when it comes to finding their next adventure. As for compliance issues – We put a tremendous amount of focus on compliance in order to support our partners. It is our legal duty from a brokerage perspective to do so. We monitor this closely and have not had any issues since the company’s inception. It sounds like you have had some experiences that have left you feeling like we do not care about our inSiders. I am so sorry that you feel this way. Whether true or not, perception is reality so we take this feedback very seriously. I hope you will come forward with specific examples so that we can address them head on. Glenn Elliott Senior Director, People and Places
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Glassdoor has 279 Side reviews submitted anonymously by Side employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Side is right for you.