Re: Option Institute

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May 13, 2014

I worked at The Option Institute full-time

Pros

Beautiful location. International atmosphere with clients from all over the world. Some good food. Some nice, liberal, open-minded staff. Some of the teachings of the Son-Rise Program are helpful and sweet.

Cons

I would not recommend working for this company. Essentially, the founders and family are making out financially (and through people's misery) while everyone else is hardly paid (and continually made to feel bad that they are not working hard enough). Unless you agree with all the teachings, you are on the outside and will never be accepted. The teaching roster consists mainly of the Kaufman family without any outside sources coming in to teach. Because of this, they are considered a cult and I would agree with this statement. Barry Neil 'Bears' Kaufman wants to be venerated and worshipped - you practically have to eat out of his hand when he enters the room (or be treated cruelly by him for the rest of your time there). He uses his power to tear people down only to build people back up the way he wants to. He incarcerates and ensnares the weak with his manipulative tactics and narcissistic antics. His wife is not much better. They are sham artists who clearly don't care about people as they treat their employees horribly (hardly paying them, asking them to work continuously, making them feel bad about themselves by verbally attacking them), while by comparison the guests and participants are treated very well. These are not do-gooders, rather they are powermongers who just want to be idolized and venerated.
I have personally encountered Bears Kaufman calling people morbidly obese (fat-shaming is one of his favorites), stupid, and lazy, for all intensive purposes. He says it all under the guise of 'wanting to help them and love them by speaking from an authentic place.' I really do not know how this guy does not get sued every day.
They are constantly attempting to downplay their 'cult' reputation by spinning damage control. Even if you look at the reviews on this site, you will see that clearly that employees were told to write good reviews at a certain period in time. They were contracted in January of 2014. It is obvious. The reviews are mostly from current employees and are flowery in description. In my mind, this is not professional in the slightest. If you treat your employees well, clearly you would not have to do co-erce employees to show their respect for your company online and contract them to do so.
Not a place I recommend to work. I wish I could say the opposite was true.
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Advice to Management

Interdepartmental communication and ability to access feedback from employees. Departments do not communicate well and are fragmented.

Reply

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he Option Institute Response May 21, 2014 – Chief Operating Officer
It would be challenging for OI to 'prove' that what this person is saying is blatantly false, but there is one place where I can easily show this person to be untruthful.

That area is regarding positive reviews on glassdoor. Below, is an excerpt from the Jan. email I personally sent to staff requesting they help us by writing glassdoor reviews (see below)

As you will see, no one was told to write 'good reviews'. Instead, I made it explicitly clear that I wanted real reviews, with real pros and cons.

I hope that you readers out there realize if an ex-employee would claim false things that are so easily fact checked, this person is clearly on a mission not to inform the public of the truth, but to villify our work, for another purpose.

On January 8th, Christie Ellis wrote:
Hello lovely managers!

.... As you may or may not know, www.glassdoor.com is a site widely used by job seekers to evaluate what it’s like to work at various companies.

Currently, on our own glassdoor profile, only former employees who really did not enjoy their time here have written reviews. So here is what I would like to ask from you:

1) Would you please consider taking an anonymous survey of your own experience? Please speak from the heart and provide the pros and cons you see. It is completely anonymous – read through glass door’s info and you’ll see this.

2) After completing, would you please ask a few people in your department to also take the survey?

Everything we can do to show potential candidates why OI is the place they want to work will help me get your teams the people they need.

Finally – this really is just a request – not a requirement. But I am begging you, pretty please, with sugar on top. It will take you less than 10 minutes.