Pros: When we started at the company the manager – who later left – was great, the salary was good, we were told our team was specialist and that the company valued us... Little did we know, that was all about to change.

Cons: Cohere used and continues to use loopholes to exploit writers, labelling them as contractors, (with what are effectively zero-hours contracts) while requiring them to commit to a minimum number of hours per week or else lose their job. Employee status was never on the cards, yet office space and food was provided, working hours were controlled, I had to sign an exclusivity clause saying I wouldn't work for competitors and, later, a robotic, dehumanising – and it turns out completely ineffective – performance monitoring system got implemented. This monitoring resulted in tyrannical micromanagement of the hours of the day, minute-by-minute, a sudden change over a year into our engagement with the company. To assuage fears – and a considerable decline in mental wellbeing – in my team, the company communicated that we should not worry, that five minute breaks throughout the day were allowed to use the toilet and check personal messages, that nothing was going to change – one week later they sent a revised communication saying that toilet breaks were not allowed on billed time, even though many of us would regularly be working in the office. I have never been in a work environment that requires you to minus your toilet breaks from your time worked in the office. Having committed to 16 hours a week, minimum, there was promptly a work drought – meaning that those of us on the team had turned down good freelance work elsewhere and now no longer had an income. Gleefully, the company referred back to our contracts – the resounding message was, 'no, we do not have to supply hours, you just have to commit to them (even if they are not provided) or you're out'. A lose-lose situation for the writers that were once taken on as the company's golden team and their get-out-of-jail-free card for 'ethical' LLM training that included human writers. In the end, in a process they called a 'winding down' of the project, many 'contractors' who had worked consistently at the company for over two years were let go with just over a week's notice in a five minute mass video call in which a manager sat silently and sipped an iced coffee on camera. After this call, I received an email telling me having a week and a half's notice was a generous bonus on the part of the company, since our contracts gave three days. So, I suppose all of the above makes Cohere's mission statement, 'We believe AI’s highest purpose is to enhance human wellbeing', sound rather ironic, doesn't it?

Pros: Alright pay, Flexible hours, Free food.

Cons: We were told our hours would be increased and made to think the work was stable and would be unending. A few months later, we were told there was not going to be as much work for a couple of weeks, but that it would all be fine and work would resume soon. Then we had barely any work for months and were lied to on a weekly basis about upcoming work. Finally, we had our contracts terminated. They also changed the job so much from what we originally signed up for. They introduced tools to time and monitor our activity, and we were asked not to invoice for toilet breaks. The tasks became steadily more boring and completely different from what we signed up for. Often, it felt like the tasks were pointless and would not yield accurate data.

Pros: The dog is the friendliest person in the office.

Cons: At first, this job seemed great. Our manager was supportive, and we genuinely felt valued. Unfortunately, about a year in, something changed — possibly due to funding issues — and the whole atmosphere shifted. We started being timed on our work, with every minute tracked and any discrepancies questioned. We had to invoice using different codes for countless tiny projects, which meant more time spent tracking tasks than actually doing meaningful work. We were even told we couldn’t charge for toilet breaks. The creative and interesting work we were hired to do gradually turned into repetitive, monotonous tasks that were impossible to focus on. There was no proper training, and new projects were thrown at us without explanation or guidance. We were assured there would be plenty of work, but by mid-2025, it started drying up. Only then did we discover that we were actually on zero-hours contracts — something that had been disguised in all earlier communications. Management handled the situation poorly, dragging things out for months instead of being honest with us. It all ended with an awkward video call from someone none of us had ever met, telling us our “human evaluation” work was no longer needed. No thanks, no acknowledgment, no empathy — just a cold dismissal. I worked there for two and a half years. I’ve never been treated so poorly in my entire career. If you value your mental health or professional integrity, stay far away from this company. No one seems to know what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t value their staff.