Credit Karma

The office in San Francisco is nice. People are trying to do the right things from a technical perspective. There are a lot of nice, well-intentioned ideas at work here.

Career growth, HR is cruel, and the culture at the company is fake nice.

This is not a meritocracy. I don't even know how to begin to explain, other than starting with the simple fact that people do not get promoted on the basis of doing good work. In fact, people don't really get promoted at all. What's really happening is managers playing politics with each other all day. If you want to get a promotion, you have to have the right manager. Chances are, if that's the kind of manager you have, then you have to be extremely obedient, for lack of a better word. Also, most of the good engineers have started to leave.

HR is straight up scary. It's rare that you'd ever have to deal with them, but if you do, they can be so mean and insensitive. Basically, it's a kafkaesque, bureaucratic nightmare, with a little hint of a sadistic streak. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's honestly how I feel. You know that feeling you get when someone enjoys having power over you and causing pain? That's how you feel when talking to HR, at Credit Karma.

The last thing is that the company has really exploded in size and ambition lately, and it really feels a lot different. This used to actually be a nice place. Now it's fake nice. There's the managers playing politics, and you start to see the beginning of a lot of doublespeak. There are a lot of big projects, which has created a really cutthroat, nasty attitude under the surface. This is not the kind of place where you can be yourself, unless that person is a robot and useful to their manager. Also, work speak is the absolute worst when it gets used as a tool to hide meanness.

I know things are changing and it's hard. Here's what I want you to know and what I think could be done better about it.

1. Problem: There are some serious snakes in the garden. Open your eyes. There is some serious lying happening, and you should try to figure out who's behind it, because I can promise you it's contributing to a really nasty culture and poisoning the well.

2. Suggestion: Find a way to form a relationship with people who work in the trenches, i.e., not managers. So many of the engineers, though, are truly, just absurdly nice, well-meaning people. Find some way to get a read on what's happening through them, because I promise you no one is listening.

3. Problem: Good engineers are leaving because it's just not worth it, and the thing is they're leaving precisely in spite of staying for so long. Some people really stick around because they care, not that they're idiots and don't know their market value – they do, until they've just had enough.

4. Suggestion: When there's a huge re-org, which happens on basically a quarterly basis, the people who can recognize your work either leave or that recognition gets scattered. Then the new organization comes in and all of that recognition is gone. This should seriously change. You should try to preserve recognition before announcing a reorg, and after announcing, explain a transition strategy.

5. Problem: It feels that HR can often be contemptuous or vindictive in their personal dealings, and they hide behind a lot of work speak, which only adds insult to injury. They can be cold and impersonal, but also, honestly, just plain mean, in a way I can't describe other than it feels like they enjoy it. The perfect example of the feeling I mean would be the nurse from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

6. Suggestion: First, I'd recommend that someone from the c-level seek out feedback in this matter. Second, I would somehow try to incorporate empathy or some other human trait as part of their job. I'm not saying I know how to do that, maybe training? I feel like it really just comes down to the people or the HR org itself, honestly. Look, most of the stuff they have to do involves following protocol, which is fine and I understand it's part of the job. So introduce some humanity to it. By that I mean, try to employ common sense. Try to be sympathetic. Maybe make them feel empowered to exercise judgment rather than focusing on forms. Marry the two. One huge thing is try to explain to employees what the world looks like from your perspective, because honestly nobody knows or understands. It's unfamiliar and often terrifying.