Netflix reviews

4.1

80% would recommend to a friend

(2,519 total reviews)

Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters

85% approve of CEO

78% positive business outlook

Netflix has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 2,519 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Netflix employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologia da informação industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
May 2, 2010
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The pay is above market. Not a lot above market, but a bit above market. The drawback is there are absolutely no benefits to speak of (no health benefits, no training, no daycare) so that above market pay gets eaten up pretty fast by real world needs.

Cons

A total fear of failure permeates the ranks. Netflix basically gives you a warning on your first mistake, and then fires you after your second mistake. This is why the annual turnover rate is well over 20%. Since there is an entirely new set of employees every few years, nobody knows what process to follow, and everything is chaotic. HR solves this by saying "there is no process for anything! Make it up as you go along!" Sure, if I fired all the employees every few years I'd stay away from process too. The key problem is that with all the firings most employees spend the day simply trying to find cover. The ass covering at Netflix is legendary. Nobody wants to innovate. Nobody wants to reach outside their comfort zone. Netflix has created a culture of fear, and the way in which they manage terminations reinforces the culture of fear (they immediately demonize the terminated employee, and try to make the termination serve as a lesson to others). The culture of fear is so ingrained in Netflix that many managers only have one tool for managing their directs, and that is to threaten to fire them. There simply is no other process for managing poor performance (remember, there is no process - they will admit this to you if you ask). And finally, the last thing you should be warned about is their "high performance" culture. Their justification for all the firings is that the fired employees weren't high performers. But since there is no process, no record-keeping, there is no objective measurement of performance. So "high performers" end up being the employees that get along with the boss and keep a low profile. "High performers" at Netflix are not employees that take risks, interact with outside groups, or produce a high volume of work. Netflix loves to talk about high performance but they have the lowest standard for high performance that I've ever seen. They are completely happy to manage with fear, however. If you put those two insane concepts together you end up with a rather hysterical environment.

1.0
Apr 28, 2010
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

- Higher that average pay for a call center - Free food/ fun incentives - Good benefits package

Cons

- No job security what so ever - Extreme lack of communication (you can be told you are doing great 4 days in a row and then "let go" on the 5th.) - Sickening climate of fear in this workplace - Lack of respect and sensitivity during the "let go" process

3.0
Apr 27, 2010

Make Sure You Know What You're Getting Into

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

- Detailed communication regarding how the business works and what the thinking is behind planning and strategy. Sharing of detailed data across functions helps to develop an organizational underestanding and grow most individual's business acumen. - The thrill of working for a company that has an overall positive reputation as a business and that people are passionate about. - The possibility and inspiration of some of the cultural ideals, especially around valuing competence, and clear, no-nonsense communication around expectations and performance. - The cash compensation, and the flexibility of being able to participate in a variety of benefit offerings such as the stock option program. - Perks for corporate staff - no limits around time off, catered lunches daily, quarterly employee meeting

Cons

- The high level of politics in an environment that is supposed to be culturally structured to be without them. - You won't get pats on the back or other appreciation for strong performance. This is fine, people can and should self-motivate. The problem is with the flip-side of performance perception. What it takes to be considered a performance problem is often really minor stuff. The ability to provide an appropriate level of feedback (something should come in between being told that you are doing fine and the announcement that you are fired) and the recognition that sometimes people can be successfully coached beyond a performance problem is completely lacking. - The much-touted culture is focused solely on salaried employees. There is no truly defined alternate culture specific to the hub operations or call center groups, nor is there buy-in or backing that it would be beneficial to those groups to put a priority on building and driving culture. Doesn't have to be the same as what's published for the exempt people, but there should be an organized approach to hourly employee culture too. - Hourly employees also have vastly different treatment in terms of rewards. Far from having daily catered lunches like the exempt staff does, there is an extreme emphasis put on eliminating "extras" and continually cutting costs in the hourly employee world. Some is reasonable but some is just going beyond what's necessary and seems like the cuts are made more to devalue the employees than to save the company money. Hourly emplyoees also receive no time-off accrual or paid holidays.

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Glassdoor has 3,665 Netflix reviews submitted anonymously by Netflix employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Netflix is right for you.