Top Complaint of Employees at the World’s ‘Best Places to Work’

Lack of work-life balance may be a feature—not a bug—at the world’s top companies. Glassdoor just released its annual list of “Best Places to Work,” based on its database of employee reviews.

While many media outlets have focused on the things that employees enjoy, such as a friendly workplace culture and great perks, it is also fascinating to see if there are any common traits that employees dislike about the most beloved companies.

A spokesperson from Glassdoor tells the Ferenstein Wire that “long hours” and the inability to “maintain a healthy work-life balance” are among a short list of common themes.

Last August, Amazon.com was the target of a brutal New York Times exposé on how hard the retail giant pushes its white-collar workforce. What was omitted from the Times story is that Amazon employees who complain about poor work-life balance also give the company very high marks.

This is a theme at not only Glassdoor’s top company, Airbnb, but in other industries, as well.

“I also think there’s some managers within the company that still ‘look down upon’ those who strive for work-life balance,” wrote one Airbnb employee on Glassdoor. Of course, this kind of complaint has become the expectation in Silicon Valley.

Interestingly enough, employees at In-N-Out Burger say the same thing. “Little to no work life balance if full time,” wrote one employee of the beloved California fast food chain. “The hours are hard to keep up with,” wrote another employee.

It is tempting to say that long hours should be eradicated from the workplace, but the flip side of loving one’s workplace is wanting to work more than usual. From a data perspective, it is hard to see how companies could score high on work-life balance and be a super-successful place where employees want to spend their time working.