UL Solutions reviews

The company has been changing rapidly over the last five years, and even more so since going public. A new Sales VP was brought in from the SaaS world - someone who found success at a fast-growing tech company and is now trying to transplant that same approach into UL. But UL isn’t a startup; it’s a 130-year-old company that’s never truly operated in "growth mode." The result has been a significant culture clash. The aggressive, high-pressure, numbers-driven sales approach - typical of Silicon Valley or Texas tech firms - doesn't translate well to an organization built around scientific integrity, deep expertise, and long-term client relationships. There’s a noticeable disconnect between legacy business units and the leadership's new direction. Some parts of the business, especially those that don't fit the SaaS mold, are being deprioritized or left to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, the Sales VP and the cohort of SaaS-focused hires he brought in continue to double down on strategies that may work elsewhere, but often miss the mark in this context. It’s created instability, internal competition, and a loss of institutional knowledge.

Unfortunately, I was a part of a mass layoff that happened here, and HR handled this in an incredibly awful, uncaring way. I was informed that I was being laid off as a part of a mass layoff happening during a session scheduled with my boss and a member of HR. I had no idea what I was walking into during this session and this news was dropped on me like an anvil. I had no heads-up, no prior knowledge that layoffs were happening, so this completely blindsided me. The reason for these layoffs? 'Budget cuts'. And let's be real here: 'Budget cuts' basically means 'the company is struggling financially but the higher up don't want to take a pay cut to help keep the company afloat, so they'd rather layoff hundreds of people so that they can keep their millions.' I even mentioned this during the call, and the HR rep just ignored it and continued her spiel, because the fact is: HR exists to protect the company, not the employees. Of course HR is not going to side with the employee losing his/her job. The severance package is absolutely terrible, literally one-month worth of pay to last me and my family through while I job hunt in this terrible job economy. But better than nothing, I guess. The part that really hurt me the most was that my access was cut off almost immediately after the call, so I wasn't able to say my goodbyes to my colleagues, with whom I spent the past several years working. It was so unceremonious, so impersonal, and I hated that I couldn't even properly say goodbye.