A lot of potential but toxic and dysfunctional working culture
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
* 40% voucher in About You shops
* 100% remote work
* Good hardware
* cultural diversity
* people in the team
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
* Poor software quality with no intention to improve
* Blame is the name of the game
* No trust in developers
* Overtime
* No way to learn anything
* Boring and tedious tasks
* Non-existing personal growth
Verbesserungsvorschläge
When you hire experienced developers, then I assume you trust their expertise. The problem is - you don't. Either start trusting them or start hiring people without experience. If you keep hiring people with a lot of experience and then tell them - we don't care about your experience - they keep leaving as they do know. Maybe simply start hiring inexperienced developers? Then you can just tell them what to do all everyone will be happy.
Understand that you are all in one bote. As long as blame is the name of the game don't expect that anything will improve. You are supposed to all work together towards the same goal and not against each other (plotting how to blame the other part should anything go wrong).
Understand that delivering new features is not the only responsibility of the developers. They are also responsible for maintaining and improving the code they wrote (to be prepared for the challenges and changes to come). I know it sounds utterly abstract since those two things never happen here, but if you expect developers to take responsibility for the code they deliver, you have to trust them and let them do their job. Otherwise, learn to take full responsibility for the outcome of the code they wrote.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
People are overworked, depressed, and burned out. Hard to see any motivation. Everyone knows it's bad, but no one seems to believe anything is going to change. The extremely high turnover does not help to raise morale. Your direct manager tries to show some appreciation, but it usually drowns in a deluge of issues and blaming heading towards the team from all possible directions.
Kommunikation
I never had a feeling I knew what was going on. There are only quarterly defined deadlines that need to be met, but apart from that, you never know what is happening and why. There is a closed circle of people who seem to know, but they hardly ever share anything with the rest of the team. It is better on the company's level, though. It could be circle/department related.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
People try to stick together. Always helpful and friendly. You know you can count on them. That's the only thing that keeps the team together.
Work-Life-Balance
You are going to be doing a lot of unpaid overtime. It's not like someone will come to you and say you have to. But you see it from day one. Everyone responds to messages even at midnight and over the weekend. Even one of the founders publicly says that you are in the wrong place if you are looking for a 9-5 job. Keep that in mind. The good part is you can work from home — even 100%, for as long as you are not in a lead position. Then you will still have to show up in the office. The higher in the food chain you are, the more overtime you will be doing.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Blame is the name of the game. Your direct managers are on your side, for sure. But everyone else works against you, and everyone seems to be looking for someone else (in another team/circle/department) to blame for mishaps.
Interessante Aufgaben
Fixing bugs ASAP. That's like 95% of the tasks. The remaining 5% are features that could be interesting if it wasn't for the fact that the ONLY requirement is - make it to the production ASAP. No one tries to improve anything (I don't count popular cosmetic changes), and it is as boring and unfulfilling as it gets.
Gleichberechtigung
I give it five stars because I haven't seen or heard about any discriminatory behavior. I think the company is open-minded and does a lot to welcome everyone. Here, you will see foreigners, people of color, different religions, cultures, and gender.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
I take one start not because I think older employees are treated badly. It's simply because you won't see many of them anyway. The average age is 26. If you exclude working students - 30. The company clearly prefers younger (inexperienced?) employees.
Arbeitsbedingungen
The work-form-home option is really great. You can work 100% remotely (unless you are in a leadership position). You get a piece of good working equipment. Mac or Windows/Linux - your choice.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Let's be honest here. First and foremost the company sells NEW clothing. Of course, this is not environment-friendly. But they are trying. Packages (both paper and plastic) and made either 100% or mainly from recyclable materials. There is a big pressure to make the whole business more sustainable. I can imagine that this is not a simple thing to do in this industry, but clearly, the company tries to change it.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
I took one star because of overtime. You will be doing overtime - don't let anyone fool you, you won't. And it's not paid. When you consider this, the salary does no longer look competitive. It's average at best.
Image
The company certainly tries to keep a good image. It may fool you that things are perfect in the company until you start digging deeper into comments and discussions from former employers. Then you will find a lot about overtime, lack of trust, and sometimes even plain discriminatory behaviors.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
The company grows fast, so there is a place for transition upper in the food chain. But this does not come along with actual learning. The general motto is - don't touch it if it makes money. You will be working with abandoned (not just outdated) libraries and outdated programming languages. No one is interested in improving anything (see - the blame game). I believe you have access to Udemy, but A) you won't find time to learn (unless you want to do it in your free time); B) you won't be able to use that knowledge anyway. I moved backward regarding my knowledge. Not a good place if you care about learning and improving.