Just another company
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Some people are good to work with. The work-life balance is decent. People are treated equally.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Lack of career opportunities and compensation make a lot of people leave. Some people were at the right place at the right time and could advance their careers, but most people are stuck in the same role for years without the opportunity to grow further, also regarding salary.
Management could be more transparent when dealing with tricky topics. Anyone can easily communicate that a 6th vacation week is going to be implemented, but true character is shown when communicating bad news. The layoff was unfortunately treated very poorly, denied until the very end by Management and suddenly from one day to the other 70 people lost their jobs. That's the main reason why the review is titled "just another company", because that's what other companies do. They're not different, they just have a little more polished image with a more polite and friendlier façade.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Not great, not bad - just like any other company, has its ups and downs.
Kommunikation
In general, Managers and Management avoid straight answers if the topic is slightly tricky despite recurring negative & constructive feedback on engagement survey; as a consequence, nobody is sure what is going to happen until it's too late (see: layoffs in March 23 and discontinuation of Training app). You have to be smart and read in between the lines if you want to stay ahead.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Depends a lot on the team. Some are quite agreeable people, some are not.
Work-Life-Balance
Quite decent, one of the ups of the company.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Depends on who you get. If you get lucky and score a good manager with rapport inside the company, you're getting the support you need and the job will be interesting. If not, you're probably not going anywhere career-wise and just keep doing the same old boring tasks that nobody wants to do until you get fed up or someone newer comes along.
Interessante Aufgaben
If you're starting, you're getting the short end of the stick and will have to handle tasks that nobody wants to do until someone newer gets into the team and you can offload those to them. If your manager is good, they will throw some interesting tasks your way, if not... you'll need patience and you will get bored. If you're seen as a senior, you'll probably be fine.
Gleichberechtigung
People are treated equally regardless of their religion, sexual orientation, etc, and is certainly one of the ups of the company.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Not great, not bad. Some office equipment is outdated, some are newer.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Some people in the offices really do worry about plastic and try to be as environment-friendly as possible. The company does have the Move for the Planet event (formely Run for the Oceans). While it's better than doing nothing, the donations to clean up plastic are capped by adidas and the cap is hit very quickly, which severely limits the benefits it could have.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Salary is below average compared to other companies under the same collective agreements.
Image
Runtastic somehow is still highly regarded in the Austrian market. The company gets mentioned everytime in the media because of one founder. It's like looking at a club's trophies from the past. The legacy was built back in the day and they sit on top of that. Today, things could be better.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Very difficult to develop yourself. If your manager is good, you just might get somewhere. Otherwise, you'll get stuck with boring, unchallenging tasks that no one else wants to do and it doesn't do anything to your career. Creators Time is meaningless if you can't use it, and even if you can use it, the efforts are not recognized by most managers regarding new responsibilities or even compensation-wise (you might get a tap in the back and a 'good job', though). Additionally, it's very difficult to get promoted due to the implementation of adidas' grade system, which makes you apply to a job if you want to move up (not only to be a Manager but also to be a senior contributor). And since most interesting jobs are in the Netherlands and in Germany, it's unfortunately limiting to be in Austria, as no full remote work option is available.
Arbeitgeber-Kommentar
Hey there,
Thank you for providing us with such an elaborate feedback: we greatly appreciate you taking the time for it, even though we certainly would have hoped for a better assessment.
You are right, the past months were hard, as we had to reduce our team size by 70 people. That was indeed a unique incident in the history of Runtastic, and certainly not a happy one.. and therefore it was important to us to survey how the communication and package around this tough decision was perceived.
Luckily, not every team member shares your sentiment, as the majority of both affected and non-affected colleagues understood that these decisions had to be made due to the challenging business situation we had transparently shared for the past months. Also, we are glad that most perceived the support from fair to outstanding, and would consider rejoining Runtastic if the opportunity arose.
2023 is a year of transition at adidas, yet we are on our way to be back on track , which allows us to hire and promote again. We are doing our best to communicate these changes even more clearly and share them more regularly in our many channels (such as the monthly All Hands, the monthly Management Q&A, our slack channels and e-mails).
We sincerely hope that you used our Engagement and Exit Survey to constructively share your feedback as well - and if you have anything to add, you know where to find us.
All the best!
Monika Dauterive
(People & Culture Manager)