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We changed the URL from http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/11/zenefits-under-investigatio... . That article points to an earlier Buzzfeed story ( http://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/zenefits-under-investig... ), but since this one appears to be the current canonical source, we'll use it instead.
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> uncovering some frightening immaturity pervasive in Valley companies. This is one of the dark sides to having an entire engineering team in the 25-30 age range. They can sling http just fine, but sometimes don't fully grasp the consequences of their work.
I was 22 when I started and cared very deeply about the consequences of what I was doing. It's more about heavily interviewing for alignment with your mission. If people care deeply about the problem you're solving — not just the technical problem, the people problem — then you're far less likely to have these issues. I interviewed dozens if not hundreds of people at ZP and there were two red flags for engineers: 1)…
I used to work at Gusto (ZenPayroll back in my day) and dealing with Zenefits was always a pain for this reason. They were the consummate hackers, using screen scraping and automation to do whatever the hell they wanted. One nightmare example was when a bug in their "automated" system rewrote bank account information for tons of employees to just be the last 4 digits of their account number. Such a mess. Even if this…
That blog post is one of the best advertisements I've ever seen for a tech company. If I weren't happy where I am, I'd apply for a position immediately. I get that moving fast and breaking things works for some products, but I wish more companies had the same attitude as you.
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HN seems to have what amounts to a systematic ban on buzzfeed, even though their news org helped break this story (and many others).
Of course we don't: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=buzzfeed.com . Two of the biggest HN stories from the past two days alone were from Buzzfeed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075336 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11061992 . Usually the complaint I hear is "why is Buzzfeed on HN". Buzzfeed is one of a class of sites that produce a lot of dreck as well as the occasional high-quality article. Th…
I would expect similar penalizing treatment of other "mixed-quality" sources like Quora, Forbes, Techcrunch, Business Insider, etc.
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While there may or may not be a darker side to having an entire engineering team in the 25-30 age range, according to the reporter that wrote the article, this hacking came straight from the CEO, who also set the tone for this type of behavior: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/697898496314077185 >
I realize it's the law, but that is an interesting question. I'm a page-at-a-glance reader (not to brag) and sitting in front of something for 52 hours would make me feel like a character from "Harrison Bergeron".
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The value of training videos is on the back end. Whenever shit goes wrong, peoples' first reaction is to plead ignorance. "Oh I didn't know that, I wasn't told that." These sorts of things eliminate that excuse in a way that leaves a paper trail, making it easier to hold someone accountable if they do fuck up. It's not about making sure they know all of these things that are mostly obvious, it's about ensuring you ca…
That makes sense. But then what exactly happens when this hypothetical conversation happens: - Hi insurance broker man. You did't follow regulation X when you did Y. - Oh, I didn't know that, I wasn't told that. - Oh really? It was right in that mandatory training program you took. See here on screen #7? - Oh that dumb thing? Most people at my company just ran this script to get through the damn thing. I wasn't payin…
I used to work at Gusto (ZenPayroll back in my day) and dealing with Zenefits was always a pain for this reason. They were the consummate hackers, using screen scraping and automation to do whatever the hell they wanted. One nightmare example was when a bug in their "automated" system rewrote bank account information for tons of employees to just be the last 4 digits of their account number. Such a mess. Even if this…
> uncovering some frightening immaturity pervasive in Valley companies. This is one of the dark sides to having an entire engineering team in the 25-30 age range. They can sling http just fine, but sometimes don't fully grasp the consequences of their work.
Another source[1] had more info about " The Macro ": Many of our California sales representatives received access to a software tool called a “Macro” that may have allowed them to complete mandatory online pre-licensing education courses offered by a third-party test preparation provider in less than the legally required 52 total hours. The Macro functioned to keep a person logged into the course and prevented the pe…
The "hacker" and "hustler" mentality is also largely driven by expectations of growth when you take $500M in a Series C. When you have that much riding on a company you've built and you have been told to hustle, then you're going to do whatever it takes even if that means breaking the law.
I moved in USA recently, so maybe can help me understanding the impact of this beyond not respecting the law. What value this license provides to american workers? Do the healthcare system get better with the help of trained brokers? Thanks!
Zenefits was hiring people who worked at the Yellow Pages and Yelp, previously selling advertising, and was turning them into "insurance brokers". Apparently in very short order.
Healthcare is complicated, and assuming that it could be treated in such a careless and reckless manner, or that 52 hours of training is a waste of time, it is beyond irresponsible, it shows an incredible lack of respect for the companies that Zenefits is supposed to serve, people who are relying on them for advice on the most important benefit employers provide, and finally their families. It's shocking and sad that Parker, someone who survived cancer, would be careless with peoples lives.
If Zenefits ended up being the "hub" that millions of consumers within the USA had to rely upon, there would be a lot of people hurt by that.
There are lots of companies who not only struggled to get coverage for their employees via Zenefits, but some didn't end up getting coverage through them at all. I have heard direct from CEO's of some small but successful companies who very much wanted to support Zenefits, that they gave up on working with them after exhaustive efforts to get coverage that in some cases went on for as long as seven months. Not providing coverage for your employees for seven months, that's disgraceful. I can not imagine how the CEO's of these companies felt.
Parker had to go, as should Sam Blonde, his right hand. Parker just cared about scaling the business, at any cost, he didn't care about the collateral damage.
Another source[1] had more info about " The Macro ": Many of our California sales representatives received access to a software tool called a “Macro” that may have allowed them to complete mandatory online pre-licensing education courses offered by a third-party test preparation provider in less than the legally required 52 total hours. The Macro functioned to keep a person logged into the course and prevented the pe…
The "hacker" and "hustler" mentality is also largely driven by expectations of growth when you take $500M in a Series C. When you have that much riding on a company you've built and you have been told to hustle, then you're going to do whatever it takes even if that means breaking the law.