Peloton

Peloton used to be a wonderful place to work before things took a turn for the worse when the pandemic bubble burst. They overspent, overgrew, and were overly and unrealistically optimistic about the future. They've been trying to fix it since then by bringing in a new CEO and new leadership team. They've cut expenses to the bone through round after round of layoffs, including one which is currently taking place, one department after the next. They've also been trying tactic after tactic to get around the fact that fewer and fewer people are buying their Bikes and Treads.

Promotions, bundles, sales; they're good for a temporary boost, but generally just pull sales forward, leading to a sagging funnel when the promotion is over. They are now in the middle of trying to rebrand themselves as not just a bike company but an overall fitness company. Time will tell if this pivot will work.

The pivot to being leaner, along with a recent product recall and sagging sales, has led to many manic engineering initiatives of dubious value. Teams have to turn on a dime to deliver the next thing that will save the company or help bring it to cash-flow neutral.

Nothing has quite gotten there yet. Engineering teams have sagging morale and don't agree with the value of doing what they're being told they must do, and on what timeline they have to do it.

Zero autonomy. One of the Peloton values is "Empower Teams of Smart Creatives". There is zero such empowerment at the team level. It's all driven from the top down.