bears without benefits ;)
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
- Monthly company lunch and a party twice a year, but these are 100% organized by the employees themselves, so the employer really only provides the very limited budget.
- Free bears every couple of months
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
- Very controlling atmosphere, with an unfriendly attitude from management. This is probably the worst part, you go to the office and feel very uncomfortable.
- No communication. Colleagues are fired or decide to leave, and you often only find out through gossip.
- There is basically no HR team.
- No trust in employees.
- Salaries are very low, no real appreciation for the work, and no meaningful benefits.
- Instead of hiring experienced professionals, the company relies heavily on low-paid interns and juniors and puts them under a lot of pressure.
- No real growth opportunities and no constructive feedback.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
- Educate the management on how to manage people. Organize trainings and workshops. You can’t just give a team lead or head of title to anyone. That’s the most important part. Then start listening to your employees and their needs, and fix the relationship between management and the rest of the company. Unless you enjoy endless recruitment and constantly training new people because everyone keeps leaving.
- Hire some experienced professionals who actually know what they are doing.
- Pay fair salaries and appreciate hard work.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Highly controlling atmosphere, with little trust towards employees. Poor results are openly blamed on the team, and it happened that mandatory office days were increased as a form of "motivation to work harder". Office attendance sheets are being checked to make sure nobody is lying about being there. Management seems to live in their own bubble and often doesn’t even acknowledge your presence, unless they need something from you.
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They promote themselves as a very female-friendly company but what you see online feels very different from what it's like inside the company. And quite frankly, I never got the impression that women’s health was the real priority.
I would take the positive reviews with a very big grain of salt. The negative ones, on the other hand, are much closer to the reality I experienced.
Work-Life-Balance
You can usually choose your own office days and working hours, but in practice you’re mostly expected to be available between 8 and 18. They will check how often you’re in the office and comment on any irregularities. You can’t take holidays in August because it’s peak season, and taking time off in July is also not recommended because of the preparation for peak.
With probably more than half of the colleagues having left and so many people being new, the workload keeps growing. Tasks that used to be split between several people gradually get pushed onto one person. Something that was once the job of four people can suddenly become fully your responsibility. And if you think that means a promotion or a raise, you’re very wrong. This creates a lot of stress and sometimes makes you work overtime, which is not the best for work-life-balance.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
No real development opportunities. There are junior, mid and senior levels, but they don’t really affect your daily tasks or responsibilities in any significant way. The salary increase between levels can be very low, sometimes as little as 1–2%, starting from an already low salary.
Gehalt/Benefits
Very low salaries, with big differences between colleagues in similar positions. No raises, and they even changed the bonus structure in a way that makes it basically impossible to receive one.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
It wasn't really a topic
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Colleagues in non-leadership positions are generally very nice and friendly, and probably the best thing about the company, you can actually find friends here. But since colleagues are also leads, I lowered my score to a 3.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
There are no older colleagues anymore. They mostly hire interns, working students, and juniors, so almost everyone is around 20-25 years old.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Zero interest in their teams, you’re mainly expected to follow decisions rather than actually have much influence yourself. There is a lot of talk about “taking ownership”, while in practice you won't have much real decision-making power on your projects.
Management also feels quite distant on a personal level. Even basic things like a smile or a “good morning” are often missing. The “Mean Girls” comparison mentioned in another review felt very on point.
Your team lead will most likely be someone very young whose only professional experience is Bears with Benefits and who got the title surprisingly quickly. As a result, the guidance you get can be very limited (a polite way of saying there is zero guidance), with “that’s interesting” or “that’s super nice” sometimes being the only feedback on your work.
Arbeitsbedingungen
A new office, quite modern and nice, although not in the best location for commuting.
When it comes to equipment, basics are included: personal macbook, keyboard, and a mouse - you can also use them at home if you wish.
Kommunikation
Zero communication. Colleagues can disappear from one day to the next without anyone being informed. Unless it’s someone in an important position, like the only HR person at the company, then you might hear that “it was a mutual decision.”
The same lack of structure applies to campaign planning and strategy. A few “heads of” make most decisions on their own, change their minds every couple of days, and create a lot of unnecessary last-minute work for the rest of the teams.
Gleichberechtigung
There are a handful of favourites who get the best treatment. If you’re super nice to management, act like their friend, maybe do some overtime, you might even get promoted from junior to team lead within a couple of months.
Interessante Aufgaben
Depends on the team. Since it’s a startup, you might get more various tasks than in bigger, more structured companies, but a lot of them are repetitive and not really interesting.
Even when you’re given some freedom to make decisions, you might later be told to change everything simply because a lead “doesn’t like it.”