Gecko Robotics

It is cool technology. There are super smart people at the individual contributor level.

If I were to write this review 2 years ago it would have been 5 stars all the way down. Unfortunately, the Palantir hostile takeover you’ll read about in other reviews is very real. To me it seems completely investor driven now. Jake and Troy are great people and great leaders, but it feels that investors have kicked them out of the driver’s seats. Everything changed when the current COO started. Business practices got shadier, innovation slowed, and micromanagement skyrocketed. It is a totally different culture than when I joined. The Gecko now is not the Gecko I started at. I used to enjoy coming to work, enjoy the opportunities I had and the technology I got to work with. Now it feels like I’m constantly being judged, and I’m anxious about work constantly.

I still enjoy working with my teammates, but with this looming uncertainty and judgement we’re getting more and more burnt out. Directors are dishonest and out of touch with their employees. The people brought in from Palantir generally seem soulless, frankly, with very few exceptions. I’ve only seen them point out problems without offering concrete solutions. We had a good thing going until we were inundated with Palantir people. Senior management laid off about 5-10% of staff back in November citing performance, but it is the opinion of many of us that it was a financial move that the COO & senior leadership didn’t want to admit to big investors.

In my opinion, the Software Engineering Director is an inexperienced leader and not qualified to be in charge of the department. In my experience, he is weak when it comes to defending his employees. I have only seen him side with senior management, not with his teams. He also came from Palantir so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it makes the job all the more frustrating. I’m hoping this is a phase, but it isn’t looking good. My resume has been updated and I’m looking for other jobs.

The whiplash in priorities is exhausting. Innovation takes time and you’re not willing to invest the time necessary for the big breakthroughs we’re pursuing. You lost a lot of trust with the layoffs you claimed to be rooted in performance.

In general, we do not trust that performance was the true motivator. This has not blown over and people are still walking on eggshells and fear for their jobs. The culture has shifted irreparably and many experienced people you wanted to keep are looking for ways out. Unfortunately, there may be no path forward to restoring that trust short of the COO being shown the door.