Too much remote work - Product Manager Spotify Employee Review

3.0
Feb 15, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- good work life balance - varies by department, but engineering is nice to work with (fewer egos, people are actually graded on working well with teams vs many places that value individual "rockstars" over team dynamics)

Cons

- in my interviews, management was not transparent about the amount of collaboration that has to take place with the Stockholm office - in the NY office, get used to very early meetings, being excluded from decisions, or being jetlagged and using personal time to fly over - very slow moving company, very hard to get teams to cooperate with each other, and management doesn't realize this is a problem - senior leadership isn't experienced or won't bring alignment between teams/departments, and the ceo is young and "fratty" - many of their titles aren't standard, which hurts people's resumes. I don't see the purpose of calling teams "squads" and departments "tribes" except to create an unnecessary insider clique. - overstaffed on "leadership" roles like agile coach, honcho, product manager, and chapter lead relative to number of engineers, which contributes to the lack of speed and difficulty creating alignment - some roles like "agile coach" and "honcho" don't seem to contribute anything to the department

Explore other reviews about Spotify

5.0
Jan 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company with good name recognition

Cons

Pay isn’t comparable to other tech companies

1.0
Mar 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The global footprint and tech concerns that comes with the large user base are interesting. Lots of talented engineers. 23+5 paid days off in the US.

Cons

The culture is far from what it used to be. It used to be exciting, encouraging, can-do attitude and agile. Today, it's all top-down, employees have no say, there are no growth paths, full waterfall process, leaders breathing down your neck all the time. Compliancy to meaningless bureaucratic processes is more important than focusing on the work itself. There is no trust that people will do a great job. Top leaders do not listen or care about the employees, great and reasonable ideas are constantly squashed. The fear-based leadership style is prevalent. HR is completely disconnected from all of this and the work on the ground. Compensation is below market average with the excuse that people should stay for the cause and not the money.

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