Peerfit is a wellness startup based in Tampa, Florida. Their office is located at 802 E Whiting St Suite 14, Tampa, FL 33602, US. The Chairman and CEO of Peerfit are Ed Buckley who has received a lot of complaints about sexual harassment in the workplace.
For a brief introduction, Peerfit is a digital platform that helps insurance carriers, employers and brokers redefine corporate wellness programs. They have around 50-100 staff members.
In the following review, I have shared some of the many complaints people have shared about this so-called “wellness company”. According to his employees, Ed is a predator who takes advantage of young women working in his company.
The following review will shed more light on these complaints:
Peerfit CEO is a Predator, HR Doesn’t Help Employees, Company Posts Fake Reviews
The above reviewer starts his complaint by saying that the leadership reaps all the benefits of the hard work the staff does.
Then, they add that Ed Buckley is a sexual predator. He has harassed multiple employees. Furthermore, the leadership gaslights everyone who shares the issues they are facing. The leadership makes it seem like you are the problem, not the company.
What’s alarming is that HR is not there for the employees. The HR department is well-acquainted with the abuse going on in the company but has done nothing about it. This includes all the physical and mental abuse Ed has inflicted on his staff.
Did You Know?
The Civil penalties for sexual offence at office include, the payment of lost wages and future wages, payment of legal fees and court case, job reinstatement & promotion and injunctions to change the policies.
Furthermore, most of the positive Peerfit reviews are dated 2018. That’s because the company was forcing everyone to write something positive at that time. Peerfit’s leadership, including Ed, didn’t want anyone to think something was up.
The reviewer suggests the upper management quit and pay the people for the damage they have caused. He suggests that the entire company needs to be dismantled. Additionally, the reviewer points out that many people in the management were aware of the ongoing abuse yet they did nothing. Hence, they were complicit.
This isn’t the only Glassdoor complaint that shares Ed Buckley’s stories of sexual harassment. There are a plethora of Peerfit reviews where ex-employees have shared how Ed is a vicious predator.
This review is just the tip of the iceberg.
Ed Buckley Sexually Harassed Multiple Female Subordinates
According to this reviewer, Ed Buckley has sexually harassed multiple female employees. Yet, the leadership didn’t do anything about it. Instead of reprimanding Ed, they made the employees sign NDAs to protect themselves.
They fired many of the victims over time to ensure they can’t do anything.
The reviewer suggests the leadership take responsibility for their actions. They recommend the upper management sack Ed Buckley and away from his victims.
Not only has the Peerfit CEO sexually harassed multiple staff members but he has also, made them sign NDAs to avoid any legal repercussions. This is an abuse of authority.
For a company that claims to promote a wellness culture, Peerfit is a terrible organization. If it can’t stand for its employees, it has no right to promote itself as a “wellness company”.
Rampant Favoritism and Wrongful Termination
The reviewer shares that Ed Buckley is dating a C-level employee of the firm. This is a huge red flag. Furthermore, the leadership doesn’t care about this matter.
The employee in question has already received 4 promotions so far.
Also, Peerfit laid off almost half of the staff in March 2020 without notice. They called a meeting and filled them all at once, locking them out of their computers. Furthermore, they only gave 2 weeks of severance on average.
The reviewer says that there have been rumors of sexual harassment spreading around for a long time. He points out that it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the rumors turn out to be true because of the culture present in the company.
Also, there’s a severe lack of transparency in leadership which is another huge red flag.
They recommend the company care about diversity and inclusion.
Fired 40% of the Staff Without Any Prior Notice, Faced No Repercussions
The above reviewer shares that Ed Buckley misled the company in 2020. He claimed that the company was hitting insane goals and everything was going well until the pandemic hit.
In March 2020, he held a town hall meeting, came in, and shared a brief story on how Peerfit needs to survive the pandemic. So, he eliminated 40% of the company instantly.
They locked down the computers of the sacked employees within minutes. Also, the leadership had many issues. They never made the deadlines clear and were making promises to the public before even confirming if they were realistic enough.
This caused multiple failures, leading to an unstable Peerfit app and website.
The reviewer recommends the leadership lead with better collaboration. Also, they recommend selling the company as they don’t know how to manage one during a pandemic.
Great leadership matters a lot for a company. If the leadership is terrible, the company is bound to fail. A prominent example of terrible leadership is All Seasons Wealth, a wealth management firm with incompetent people at the helm. Their founder and CEO have a long history of putting his client’s interests at risk and so, the company has gained notoriety over time.
Peerfit Offers Terrible Pay, Has Micro-management, and has Horrible HR
The reviewer shares that the company micromanages everything. Also, the leadership is incompetent, rude, and condescending. There is a lack of transparency and training direction in the company.
Furthermore, Peerfit has inhumane KPIs with no incentives: 75 calls per day to studios or 2.5 hours of talk time.
The company offers low pay without incentives for doing the job. HR told the reviewer on his first day that he can’t change his benefits because it was a “hassle” on their end to redo.
They recommend the company invest more in the team and give proper training on the platform.
This suggests that Peerfit has a toxic work culture where the staff gets significantly underpaid. Certainly, Ed Buckley doesn’t have a clue as to how to run a startup.
Employees are Overworked and Underpaid at Peerfit
According to this ex-employee, there’s a hidden toxic culture at Peerfit. The company overworks its employees while offering them terrible pay.
Moreover, the leadership makes decisions without having an idea of the impact they would have on the front-line employees. There’s a serious lack of transparency and accountability at Peerfit as well.
The reviewer highlights that Peerfit has rampant favoritism and you end up cleaning other people’s messes frequently. To add to the injury, Ed Buckley hired a bunch of his “friends” and it was clear who the favorites were.
The reviewer recommends holding everyone accountable and remembering that change only happens from the top.
Poor Leadership with Toxic Culture and an Unclear Vision
The reviewer has highlighted that the company has poor leadership which ignores the people who are working on the product.
Also, Peerfit has a toxic environment that protects the higher-ups. Anyone can face sexual harassment at this company, including male employees.
“Ed Buckley Doesn’t Know What He’s Doing”
The above reviewer points out that the leadership at this firm doesn’t seem to know what they are doing. This includes the Chairman and CEO Ed Buckley,
They add that the project goals are unreachable which leads to missed deadlines and botched code. Furthermore, the company laid off 40% of its staff at the first sign of an economic downturn. However, no member of the management faced the heat of this layoff.
Leadership Doesn’t Trust The Team, Lays Off Anyone Instantly
This reviewer highlights that the company spins everything like there are no problems. In reality, nothing is working properly. The software is constantly going down or performing incorrectly.
Also, the company laid off 40% of its employees at the first hint of an economic downturn. Note that the layoffs affected no one in the upper management.
The company brought in all the upper management from the outside. There are no internal promotions of note. Furthermore, the company has unclear goals for teams and unrealistic expectations of growth.
Fails to Take Feedback from Anyone
Here, the reviewer says that the leadership of Peerfit has quite questionable agendas. The top 3-4 people have all the say in the company and leech off of the lesser employees. Also, there is no room for growth and no collaboration within the enterprise.
The reviewer suggests that upper management listen to the employees and take feedback.
Peerfit Doesn’t Know How to Incentivize its Employees
According to the above reviewer, a higher position at Peerfit doesn’t equate to higher pay.
The company has terrible daily KPIs which causes people to be dishonest about their output. Also, the salaries are not competitive. The reviewer’s role was Wellness Solutions Consultant and when they enquired about other senior roles with higher responsibility their pay was the same.
Furthermore, the leadership lacks experience and uses Slack as a training process instead of a communication tool.
A Few Peerfit Reviews By Customers:
Apart from the rampant favoritism and sexual harassment going on at this startup, it seems its product isn’t working as well. The Peerfit app has attracted a ton of negative reviews recently.
Maybe the terrible work culture has something to do with this?
Below are a few of the numerous Peerfit reviews people have posted online. Most complaints are about the bugs present in the app and how it fails to perform basic functions.
Also, note that the customer rating of Peerfit on BBB is 1 out of 5 but it still has an “A+” rating there. Do the following reviews suggest this company deserves an A+ rating?
The Peerfit App Doesn’t Work
“Peerfit is Useless” – A Client Review
The Peerfit App Doesn’t Function and the Webpage Doesn’t Load
Should You Trust Peerfit and Ed Buckley?
Peerfit is a walking nightmare. Numerous people have reported instances of sexual harassment at this firm. Multiple Peerfit reviews indicate that Ed Buckley silenced the rumors by making the victims sign NDAs and firing them from the company.
Startups are notorious for having toxic cultures but this is a little too much. If the rumors are true, should Ed Buckley and the rest of the upper management step down? Would that be enough?
What about the sudden layoff of 40% of the staff? Who should be held responsible for that?
I have seen several layoffs from the company without any letter or message, suddenly you will be assigned a letter of resignation, and everything is over then and there. So I will request you to avoid such companies to work with, where you know the results are going to be negative.
The worker should never work with these types of companies which are not providing the salaries on time and even misbehaving with the staff members, this is inconsiderable, avoid working with such firms and make them realize their mistakes.
The legal authorities need to be more attentive toward these cases and make these criminals suffer.
Making your colleagues suffer, and adding negativity to their future is very irritating and dangerous at the same time, making them realize that they are not different from society and need to be treated equally, and legally.
Avoid having any type of investment with this assaulter.
If the people of the office aren’t safe there, and they are working in this type of situation they are going to be depressed.
Let them realize their mistake and the only way for realizing their mistake is to expose their reality to the users and make them aware of their criminal history, it is very important to keep the office environment safe.
The problem of women’s harassment isn’t pausing so it is very important to make some stricter rules to avoid such incidents.
The company was very productive with their work and most of the staff members were helpful and supportive, but this incident defamed the company’s popularity and hard work.
Peerfit has the worst leadership out there. You can’t count on them. They have all the say while the employees have no say in most matters. You will feel unheard most of the time and it eats at you everyday.
Ed Buckley should be fired from Peerfit immediately. He is a failure as a leader. I feel so sorry for everyone who suffered working under him. It’s not fair.
Yikes, why is no one talking about this? Shouldn’t he resign or something?