Tech without direction or leadership
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
There are some smart and great people.
The parties with cocktail truck were good.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Right on my first day after 1 minute in the onboarding session I felt like I could not trust HR. The lead seemed very friendly and smiley. I never trusted to share anything that could be weaponised with them. Co-workers advised me to be cautious and I could see why.
In my opinion leadership were Micro managers that could not let the specialists do their jobs. Instead of delivering good work, employees tried to meet preferences and taste of leadership. Crew leads should have had some product leadership experience in my opinion. These positions were often filled with employees that lacked the skills and experience.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Less quick pivoting. Real strategic work is needed instead of quick ideas that get delivered quick and dirty.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
There were some layoffs this year and last. Employees seem to have checked out. I don’t think they still think that the company could get successful. Motivation appears to be at the bottom. Tech with product, data and design shrunk from around 35 to 12 people.
Work-Life-Balance
Some co-workers got burnout. It appears to me that one of them was let go during their burnout.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There is no way to advance at enter / baupal. The former CPTO was convinced that a lean tech org is the ideal setup. This meant there were not many manager roles available. There are even less currently after most tech employees were laid off. There were 4 product leads at the company at some point, but without any juniors or other PMs. Every PM was a product lead.
There is a budget for education but you have to choose to use your budget or have urban sports club or a train ticket.
There are no real growth plans that get executed.
Gehalt/Benefits
The company pays well in the tech department.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Friendly coworkers. But I am under the impression that at a certain level you have to play office politics. Speaking of the company as a whole and not just tech: in my opinion managers have to play along and hustle. Many things are top down. So you better agree with leadership.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Up until early 2025 most employees in tech, data, product and design reported directly to the CPTO. A director of engineering was introduced which changed this a bit. After the CPTO left this summer, one of the CEOs is leading the department. There is no real strategic thinking. Everything is reactive and needs to be done quickly.
Arbeitsbedingungen
The offices are ok. Last year some coworkers had to fight to keep dedicated desks despite being in the office on most days. This year there are enough desks. Tech employees were allowed to work remotely whenever they wanted. The rules to be at the office 3 days each week didn’t apply to them. With the changes in leadership this got revised. Some coworkers are allowed to stay at home while others did get warnings, ordering them to come to the office. Seems like a case by case decision now. I wonder if the ones the company might want to get rid of get warnings and the employees that are deemed too important get a pass.
Kommunikation
There are company updates every 1-2 months. But it seems to be selective about what they want to communicate when. There has been months when there was no communication and we were just speculating what was going on.
I am under the impression that the CPTO or co-workers leaving got communicated at the last minute. Leadership seems to be cautious because they don’t want to negatively impact the atmosphere. Not understanding that this makes them look headless.
Gleichberechtigung
There are women in tech/data. The only one in product was let go and there has been none in design. None are in key positions or management positions in tech/product/design.