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Forced to resign, to save my conscience.

Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Zipline for 4 years
August 28, 2023
South San Francisco, CA
1.0
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

The team consists of driven people and highly motivated and creative folks.

Cons

The company was at one point exhilarating, exciting and something you could feel good about. Sadly it has become inundated with a cadre of Harvard grads, and good ol' boys who embody this sort of East Coast elitism, and the absolute worst sort of cutthroat capitalism you'll ever see. They are arrogant, and will wring every last drop out of you. If you work here, you will have to give up your life, and become a salaryman. Don't think your sacrifices will be compensated, or even recognized though—you will find that upper management is never satisfied. Also, I wonder if the CEO actually cares about global health as much as he says, or if he is just trying to fulfill his dream of becoming the next big tech giant. I wonder if his true motivations are the pursuit of power, and a drive to dominate and conquer a new space. This is partly what contributed to me resigning.

But the main reason was the ultimate realization that our blue sky is the last relatively unmolested space that we can look up to and not see an absolute flurry of activity or human influence. We can look up at any given moment and see relative calm. It's some of the last vestiges of nature that you can observe in a city, not dominated by man. The idea of dozens of drones zipping around delivering people's lunches, lattes and ganooks became extremely off-putting. (Let's not even bring up the farce of them being green.) It's moving us towards more waste, faster consumption, and further ecocide. Not only that, but the public's acceptance of commercial drones could feasibly lead down a road of their acceptance of police and surveillance drones, and their eventual usage; further eroding our right to privacy. It's a world that I don't want to be a part of, or at the very least to help create.

Advice to Management

Go back to the original mission.

Sometimes it's best to stay small and maintain principles, then go big and sell your soul.

The promise of power is intoxicating , but will ultimately consume your soul.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
1.0
Culture and Values
1.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
1.0
Career Opportunities
2.0
Compensation and Benefits
1.0
Senior Management
1.0

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