When everything looks perfect, look twice
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
- Strong product idea and mission
- International work environment with intercultural, motivated and talented colleagues to learn from
- High potential as a company overall
- Positive and inspiring culture at the London HQ (from what I observed)
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
- High level of micromanagement and limited autonomy
- Lack of psychological safety in the German team
- Feedback culture felt cautious rather than open
- Lack of a culture of mistakes
- Benefits and compensation not fully aligned with expectations
- Perceived gap between external image and internal reality and global vs local company culture (gap between global vs local would be okay, if internal meetings and communication during interview process would align with it)
Verbesserungsvorschläge
- Foster a stronger culture of trust and reduce micromanagement (leadership training)
- Actively build psychological safety within teams (diversity management training)
- Encourage open feedback without negative consequences
- Increase transparency around compensation
- Align internal culture more closely with the company’s stated values
- Ensure benefits are inclusive and balanced across employees
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The company presents itself externally as modern, diverse, and people-focused. In my experience within the German team, this image did not always fully match the day-to-day reality. The atmosphere sometimes felt cautious and tense rather than genuine.
Kommunikation
Communication often felt top-down and like a one-way street in the German team. There are global update calls on a weekly basis, so especially the UK team is doing a great job at sharing information with the whole company and keeping communication/ exchange across markets frequent. While there is a strong emphasis on alignment, I experienced limited space for open dialogue, especially when it came to critical or differing perspectives, in the German branch. Which may contributed to a more careful communication style within the team.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
On the surface, the team appears close-knit. However, I perceived an underlying “us vs. them” dynamic at times, especially leadership vs non-leadership team, which felt unusual for such a small team.
Work-Life-Balance
As expected in a startup environment, performance expectations are high and additional working hours can occur / seem to be expected frequently. From my perspective, this is not always balanced by equivalent compensation or benefits.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Leadership in the German team felt strongly focused on control and close oversight. I often experienced a high level of involvement in day-to-day work, which left limited room for autonomy. To me, this sometimes felt more like (micro) management than leadership, with less emphasis on trust and empowerment. Unfortunately, I was missing the feeling of trust and delegation of responsibility, especially from top management.
Based on my impression and some other reviews, parts of the management team seem to come from environments that were described as more challenging, which may influence certain leadership patterns visible today.
Interessante Aufgaben
The company operates in an exciting space with meaningful potential. The roles themselves can be engaging, although the way work is structured sometimes limits how much ownership individuals can take. Especially due to the leadership team's inability to delegate responsibility, the work sometimes feels more like menial tasks than meaningful.
Gleichberechtigung
Diversity is clearly part of the company’s external identity and can also be seen in the wider, global team. In Germany, especially when it comes to age and neurodiversity, I felt there is still room to ensure that different working styles and perspectives are consistently integrated and supported in practice.
From my perspective, the environment can be challenging for individuals with different needs or working styles, including neurodivergent colleagues, particularly due to the communication style, level of public feedback within the team and open-space offices with a set of rules and guidelines where you’re constantly afraid of breaking one of them.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Overall working conditions are standard. However, benefits felt relatively limited compared to the expectations placed on employees. Nevertheless, the constant search for behavioral mistakes and getting caught up in drama prevent people from focusing sufficiently on their work and from distancing from work in their personal life.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
As a B-Corp, the company (Butternut Group) communicates strong values around responsibility and sustainability. In my experience, in Germany, there is potential to reflect these values more consistently in internal team culture and leadership practices. There seem to be differing views between the German local management team and the global management team on how the culture should evolve (global vs local culture).
Gehalt/Benefits
Salaries appear to be in line with the Berlin market average. Additional benefits are relatively modest. For example, certain niche perks (such as dog-related benefits) are offered, while broader, more inclusive benefits are limited. I also did not experience a high level of transparency around compensation structures.
Image
Externally, the company has a very strong and positive image.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There seems to be a strong development or growth path in place (in theory). However, it does need the right leadership (styles) to support their teams and develop them into the right direction. I have no doubt that this could be found in the UK team.