Politics over performance, favoritism over fairness — absent leadership at its finest - Anonymous employee Relay (Canada) Employee Review

1.0
May 19, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Difficult to identify any meaningful positives at this stage, as the negatives heavily outweigh the benefits.

Cons

Disclaimer: This review was AI-assisted/reworded for anonymity and readability due to concerns about retaliation, but reflects my genuine personal experience and opinions. The culture often feels far less professional than what is presented externally. There is a noticeable amount of gossiping, clique behavior, passive aggressive communication, and employees speaking negatively about one another behind closed doors. There also appears to be a strong perception of favoritism across certain teams. Unfortunately, much of this seems to originate from leadership and gradually trickles down into management, contributing to an overall toxic work environment. Promotion and performance evaluation processes can feel inconsistent. Once certain individuals become favored, expectations and standards no longer appear to be applied equally across the board. Priorities and performance expectations shift frequently depending on leadership direction, while accountability often feels unevenly distributed. Morale has noticeably declined over time. Cross-functional collaboration can be frustrating due to frequent blame shifting rather than constructive problem solving. As a result, the environment often feels more political than productive, which becomes mentally exhausting for many employees. Although the company speaks heavily about culture, growth, and employee experience, the internal reality often feels very different from the external branding. Many strong employees across different departments have left recently, including individuals who seemed highly capable and well respected internally. Based on the current trajectory, it would not be surprising to see many more continue to leave as well.

Explore other reviews about Relay (Canada)

5.0
Sep 30, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work environment, good office location and opportunities

Cons

non so far at work

5.0
Jan 29, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- As a growing startup, Relay has a lot of opportunities for personal and professional growth - There's a lot of cross-collaboration between engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and support - Transparency is huge, our team has a weekly meeting where we go over our post-mortem and company metrics. We also set priorities so there's a lot of space for new ideas, and brainstorming - The work culture is balanced, the Relay team understands that we're people first. There's a great sense of camaraderie with the weekly (now remote) Games Night that just kicks the week off on the right foot everyweek.

Cons

If you are used to working at a large corporation, make sure you're ready to work in a small (but growing) team and understand the differences that come with that. Adaptability and self-sufficiency are key.

5
avatar
Relay (Canada) Response
4y
Thank you for taking the time to share all of your thoughts. We are in a high growth phase and with that comes a lot of change, but we do our best to keep the team informed and aware. We don't always work the standard 9-5, but because of that we try to offer as much flexibility with our team as we can so that they feel supported and not overworked. This is great feedback for us to address with candidates through our hiring process. Thanks for your thoughts and time-very helpful!
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