Upwork: CEO Hayden Brown

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Organization Changes

After becoming CEO, she made significant organizational changes. These include;

(1) She set up the teams to focus on 2020 growth acceleration plan.

(2) She came up with a simplified strategy that focused on three objectives, which are;

• Attract more, bigger clients.
• Enable more spend per client.
• Make more high quality marches, especially in technical categories of Web, Mobile, and Software Development.

(3)Spent the first two months listening to all stakeholders and accessing all aspects of the business.

(4) She led the company into a remote-first work model.

Appearences

Podcast on Redesigning Work in a Crisis

• Despite having been Chief Marketing and Product Officer for Upwork for 8 years, a lot of other people did not know her. Even after becoming CEO, she was still unknown to many people. As a result, she had to embark on recording videos every Friday and sending to them.

CNBC Interview On Pausing Advertising in Facebook.

• Her decision to pause advertising in Facebook due to antiracist elements showcases her bold nature.
• It also shows that she values equality.

Employee Rating at Glassdoor

• She has 67% approval rating in Glassdoor.

Some of the negative Comments about her and the rest of the management by employees

• June 26, 2023: "Leadership at Upwork is some of the worst I've experienced. This cascades down from the CEO. This company allows it's managers to discriminate against employees without consequences."
• May 26, 2023: "The C-suite has been a revolving door over the last year except for the CEO. She is the constant during this downturn and, as others have pointed out, deserves to be let go."
• May 12, 2023: "Biggest problem is the CEO, she simply doesn't know how to run a business. Perfect example of the Peter Principle, except she kept falling up into jobs beyond her competence level. The ENTIRE C-Suite besides her & the CLO has turned over in the last twelve months. Despite revenue increasing 3x during her tenure, the company is worth less than it was when she took over.".."Replace the CEO with an established executive from staffing. She keeps firing and replacing every senior manager, eventually you need to wake up & realize she's the problem."
• Jun 5, 2023 : "Some of the most inept leadership I have ever seen. It's no wonder that no less than 5 C-Levels have left the company in the past year."
• Jun 16, 2023: "The CEO needs to go. The turnover of C-level in 2023 alone was extremely worrisome. I was there for 6-7 months and saw I think 3 C-level people leave. She clearly has no idea how to run the business and the board needs to wake up and replace her with someone who actually understands the staffing world."
• Jun 12, 2023: "Select a CEO who doesn't use layoffs as a common business practice."
• Jul 27, 2022: "C-level leadership is also very weak. I am not sure why the CEO is still in place since she is particularly rudderless, but the CTO and CMO have impressive backgrounds so hopefully they can help shape the business while the weaklings take a back seat."
• May 17, 2023: "Unstable high level management."
• May 17,2023: "Lot of changes in C-suite in last 6 months which seems generally concerning at times."
• May 18, 2022: "The entire leadership team should be replaced. They have no clue what they're doing, and will eventually drive a good business into the ground through their own ineptitude. The level of disorganization is staggering"
• Mar 22, 2023: "The most concerning part is the mass exit of leadership. Been year just shy of a year. There has been 6 leaders who left very quickly in the last 6 months. Three of which were at the Csuite level. There is a general strange feeling in the air."
• Dec 20, 2022: "Whimsical CEO who cries at company all hands, says there are no layoffs/strong business, then announces restructuring that pushes many people out of roles. Same CEO pushes on a strategy for 1.5 years that cannibalizes core business, doesn’t recognize it till much later, then pulls back strategy when damage is done."
• May 31, 2022: "Executive team turnover is alarming. If you do not agree with the CEO, you'll be pushed out." "The CEO, Chief People Officer, and Chief Sales Officer need to go."
• Jan 11, 2022: "Youll notice a common theme in most of the negative reviews, and it revolves around leadership. And it's 100 percent accurate. They have bad leadership top to bottom, some are managers who simply have the role because of company politics, or because they used to work with the director at another company."
• Mar 6, 2022: "Management doesn't have themselves together, ever. The constant changes to processes because no one can sit down to take a month to actually get things together makes it even more difficult."
• Mar 1, 2021: "The CEO and LT seem to have the best intentions but it's not being translated into the actual behaviors, processes and culture."
• Apr 26, 2021: "In general with the new CEO the culture has gradually shifted from fun to fear."