What's it Like Working for Groupon?

As previously reported, Groupon will be laying off the bottom 10 percent of its sales staff and replacing it with what it hopes will more effective people.

The operative word here in the previous sentence is "people," because as Andrew Mason's company has become such a punching bag recently, it's become increasingly easy to gloss over the fact that there are humans working at Groupon.Many, many humans.

Well, there's soon to be fewer of them there -- 480 fewer, to be exact -- and now's a good time as any to take a look at Glassdoor's report on employee satisfaction and overall anonymous commentary on working for the company. (For those who aren't familiar, Glassdoor is a fantastic resource that gives job seekers and looky-loos a peek at what it's like to be employed at various companies, offering information on open positions, what the interview for those positions are like, photos of the offices, and the information mentioned previously.)

Overall, Groupon is a rather average place to work. It's earned a 3.1 rating on a 1.0 to 5.0 scale, which is true of the typical business listed on the site. Andrew Mason, personally, fares slightly better: He has a 70 percent approval rating as a CEO, compared to the average CEO rating on Glassdoor, which is 62 percent. (Just for larfs, comparing Mason to Living Social's CEO, Tim O’Shaughnessy, reveals he could do better. O'Shaughnessy has a 77 percent rating. Although, after all these layoffs, Mason's rating might take a further hit.)

There's a wide divide between the positive and negative things folks have to say, though. Which is common sense -- because who really gives feedback on things when they're just peachy? -- but still fascinating to read since it's easy to forget there are human beings working there. Well, sort of. Some of these folks earn your sympathy but then quickly burn through it: One person writes "All the good ideas, the innovation and the joy of working for Groupon disappeared when the 'make money - doesn't matter how, or we'll fire you ' philosophy cames in," and then notes one of the best things about working there is the "Amazingly beautiful Women." So, there's that.

As with sites like this, or Yelp, it's hard to know the full story, but this at least helps paint part of the picture that we otherwise couldn't see. You can read more employee feedback here.