A company with a pre-programmed downfall due to massive mismanagement and lack of leadership and communication
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Comparis offers a modern and flexible working environment. The possibility to work remotely or from home is a significant benefit that supports work-life balance. Employees are also allowed to bring dogs to the office, which contributes to a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The company develops a wide range of exciting products, and user-centricity is clearly a key focus in the development process.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
One of the major downsides is the lack of transparency in recruitment processes. New colleagues sometimes appear out of nowhere without any official job postings or visible hiring procedures. Additionally, it is noticeable that experienced Swiss employees are increasingly being replaced by more cost-efficient hires from abroad, which raises concerns about long-term strategy and fairness.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Increase transparency in recruitment and compensation processes to build trust. Improve internal communication, especially around employee departures, to avoid confusion and speculation. Reevaluate leadership practices—decisions should involve relevant teams and not be driven unilaterally by the CEO. Strengthen the middle management layer to improve team guidance and career development. Finally, foster a more sustainable and inclusive workforce strategy that values experience, rather than focusing solely on cost-cutting measures.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Within teams, the atmosphere is usually very good, with strong collaboration and camaraderie. However, the relationship with upper management, especially the leadership team, is more strained. There's a clear top-down culture that limits openness and psychological safety.
Image
Externally, Comparis still enjoys a relatively strong and neutral reputation. Internally, however, morale is deteriorating. Since the appointment of the current CEO, revenue has stagnated, and the only remaining lever seems to be cost-cutting—implemented via waves of layoffs. Vacant positions are often not filled for “strategic reasons,” which only increases the burden on remaining staff.
Work-Life-Balance
Comparis deserves credit for enabling a good balance between work and personal life, mainly due to remote work flexibility and occasional workation options.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There is no clear career path. The organization structure is extremely flat, with a small leadership team and a broad base of executors. Middle management is almost non-existent, despite a clear need for it. Leadership is seemingly defined by the number of direct reports rather than actual leadership skills. For example, the CEO is simultaneously holding the roles of CEO, CTO, Head of Data, and at times BU Lead for Insurance. This leads to a lack of focus and slow decision-making. Internal promotions or development opportunities are rare—what happens more often is that employees are given more responsibilities without corresponding pay adjustments.
Gehalt/Benefits
Salary structures appear arbitrary. There’s no transparent salary banding or clarity around bonuses—who gets them, how much, and under what conditions. Overall, compensation is likely below average for the IT industry.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
There are no notable initiatives in this area.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Among peers, the cohesion is excellent. There is mutual support and good collaboration. Unfortunately, this does not extend to upper management, which is perceived as distant and not trustworthy due to inconsistent communication and opaque decision-making.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Unfortunately, older employees are now rare. Many have been let go or left voluntarily—often replaced by younger, lower-cost alternatives. This is a concerning trend, especially for a company that wants to position itself as a fair and diverse employer.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Decisions from the CEO are often made unilaterally and enforced quickly, even when they have deep consequences for products and teams. This has, in some cases, led to product failures or unnecessary feature development. Feedback from product teams is often ignored, and the CEO’s "Innovation Team" bypasses normal product processes altogether. The broader leadership team seems to act mainly as an extension of the CEO rather than as independent thinkers. There’s little willingness to challenge leadership decisions, likely due to fear of personal consequences. It is quite common that team-level decisions are regularly overridden by the CEO with no proper justification or reasoning.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Employees enjoy a high degree of trust and autonomy. However, there’s strong pressure to deliver hard numbers by month- or year-end. If targets aren’t met, uncomfortable conversations follow.
Kommunikation
Internal communication, particularly regarding departures, is poor. When someone leaves—voluntarily or involuntarily—there is often a blurry statement that leaves it open if the person resigned or got laid off. This creates a climate of speculation and mistrust. Layoffs of high-performing colleagues have fueled significant insecurity among remaining employees and have severely eroded trust in leadership.
Gleichberechtigung
From what I observed, gender equality appears to be in line with modern standards.
Interessante Aufgaben
There are a variety of tasks and over 30 different products, which keeps the work diverse. However, this can easily lead to employees feeling overwhelmed, lack of focus, prioritization conflicts. Especially given the relatively small workforce (~100 employees).
Arbeitgeber-Kommentar
Hello,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to share such detailed feedback. We really appreciate your openness and the thoughts you have invested into your review.
It is great to read that you value many aspects of working at Comparis – especially our modern and flexible setup, the possibility to work remotely, the relaxed and friendly atmosphere (including our office dogs!), and the variety and user-focus of our products. I am also pleased to hear that collaboration within the teams works well from your perspective.
At the same time, I would like to address some of the concerns you raised and provide additional context:
1. Recruitment transparency:
Our recruitment processes are generally designed so that team members meet potential colleagues in the second or third interview round and actively contribute their input. This applies to the vast majority of hires.
You're right that we sometimes don’t advertise specific roles. This is not due to a lack of transparency, but because public job postings aren’t always the most effective method – especially for certain specialized roles where we rely on active sourcing.
Even in these cases, candidates go through a structured process with multiple interviews. We also have an internal Slack bot that regularly reminds everyone in the Comparis Group about current openings.
I take your feedback seriously and will reflect on how we might increase visibility further. If you're missing context regarding a specific hire, I encourage you to speak directly with your manager – or feel free to reach out to me at any time.
2. Hiring from abroad:
I assume you're referring to our collaboration with an Employer of Record. Over the past year, we’ve hired a few roles in a fully remote setup – mainly as a result of ending our partnership with a nearshoring provider. These hires were not replacements for Swiss colleagues.
In some cases, we also advertise roles as remote or hybrid to widen our talent pool – not primarily for cost reasons, but to help us hire faster in a competitive market. This setup has also allowed us to retain some valued colleagues who had to relocate abroad for personal reasons – something I consider as a benefit.
3. Vacant positions and workload:
It’s true that we sometimes proceed cautiously when refilling roles, as we want to assess what's really needed. I understand that this can increase pressure on remaining team members, and we strive to support teams through these transitions as best we can.
4. Career development & structures:
We deliberately keep our hierarchy flat – a conscious decision to remain agile and collaborative. We understand this may limit traditional vertical career paths.
However, development in my opinion goes beyond promotions: it's about understanding your strengths, finding your direction, and building the skills you want to grow. That’s why we offer personal development planning tailored to individual goals.
And if that journey eventually leads you to new opportunities outside of Comparis, we fully respect that. If you’re interested in creating or reviewing your development plan, feel free to reach out to me or your manager.
5. Salary and bonus transparency:
Before each salary and bonus cycle, we share key criteria in a Company Update so that everyone understands the process. Salary Transparency in my opinion doesn’t mean knowing your colleagues’ exact salaries – it means understanding your own position, the criteria for decisions, and how you can progress.
If you didn’t receive clear feedback in the last cycle, I encourage you to speak with your manager.
6. Communication around departures:
Managers are generally responsible for communicating resignations within their teams and across the company. We also mention these in our monthly updates.
In certain cases, we choose to keep information more general to protect the dignity and privacy of those involved. While this may sometimes lead to uncertainty, safeguarding individual integrity is and has to be our priority. If you ever have questions, you are of course welcome to reach out directly to those individuals.
Thank you again for your honest feedback – it’s truly appreciated. If you have specific suggestions or would like to discuss any of your points further, I’d be happy to continue the conversation. My door is always open for a confidential exchange, and I’d genuinely value your input.
Best
Daphne