charles 

GmbH

Bewertungen

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Overtime is the norm, and leaving “early” can negatively affect career opportunities. Recognition tends to favour those who stay late or maintain a strong social presence with upper management. High turnover and recurring layoffs make the environment unstable.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Long hours are common, and feedback often comes across as critical rather than constructive. The unusually high turnover speaks for itself: key roles such as legal counsel and head of finance saw multiple departures within short periods, and many long‑time contributors, including the sole HR manager at the time, eventually left. Despite layoffs, leadership continued pushing for enterprise ambitions without the necessary capacity, resulting in widespread overwork and burnout. They require you to wear multiple t-shirts, but in every all-hands they don't hide how disposable you are.

Work-Life-Balance

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Visible commitment to environmental or social responsibility is minimal.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Requests for development plans or coaching rarely lead to concrete action items. Constructive guidance from managers is limited.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Teams generally try to support each other, but the chronic overload, tight deadlines, and rising burnout rates make it difficult to maintain a healthy sense of teamwork.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

Very few older employees are hired, which limits diversity of experience. The culture of long hours and constant urgency does not support those with family responsibilities.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Micromanagement is widespread. Focus is placed on staying past a certain hour rather than on outcomes. Many managers lack people‑leadership experience, and this shows in day‑to‑day interactions.

Arbeitsbedingungen

The office feels overcrowded and shared spaces like the kitchen are rarely well maintained.

Kommunikation

Managers struggle to offer meaningful career guidance or structured feedback. Even after clearly outlining career aspirations, these conversations are frequently forgotten and repeated months later. Tools like 360° reviews exist, but without accountability or follow‑through they have little impact. The constant "we are family" messaging feels disconnected from the actual employee experience.

Gehalt/Benefits

They provide online meditation/yoga and now online psychologist/psychiatrist as employees are burning out. This tells how unhealthy it is to work for this company.

Gleichberechtigung

Decision‑making often sits within a small, homogeneous group, and several women have left citing unequal treatment. Public claims about diversity don’t always align with internal reality.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

The people working there, the challenges, the tasks and the impact someone can have if he or she wants to.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

maybe offer some benefits that also or exclusively benefit remote workers

Image

I would say that everyone who works at Charles is 100% behind the company and is convinced of its mission. The people demonstrate this.

Work-Life-Balance

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Possible, but more through hands-on work and initiative than through predetermined paths from superiors or the company.

If you enjoy that, you're a perfect fit.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

literally the best thing @ charles

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

To be fair, there aren't that much old colleagues around

Arbeitsbedingungen

Laptops are tailored to the work, no expense spared.

The office is modern and well-equipped.

Kommunikation

Communication is top notch. I never feel left out, despite being more than 500km away from the HQ as a remotee.

Gleichberechtigung

I've never noticed anyone being treated differently than anyone else.

Interessante Aufgaben

Modern technologies require modern solutions. As an IT Professional, there's no limit on what you can or cannot do. If you want to have an impact and be heard, charles should be on top of your list.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Ein starkes Produkt was sehr den Zahn der Zeit trifft, und eine wirklich coole Ansammlung an Logos als Klienten hat. Zudem ist es ein extrem smartes, engagiertes Team, was die New Joiner sehr herzlich willkommen heißt und auch nach der Arbeitszeit gerne Zeit miteinander verbringt. Es macht schon Spaß Teil davon zu sein, würde es nicht missen wollen.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Noch etwas mehr Fokus auf Coaching und Weiterbildung der einzelnen Talente legen, auch außerhalb der eigentlichen Rolle - gegeben der Teamgröße und des Wachstums war hier nicht immer so viel Fokus drauf.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Ambitioniert, kollaborativ und dynamisch - Man merkt schon, dass es am Ende um erfolg geht, aber der Spaß und Humor bleiben dabei nicht auf der Strecke.

Image

Sehr coole Brand - ich bekomme extrem viel Zuspruch von Freunden und Bekannten, wenn ich ihnen bspw. das Produkt, die Website, oder auch unseren Messe-Stand etc. zeige.

Work-Life-Balance

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Wer gute Leistungen bringt, wird auch gefördert und befördert - es gibt keine festen Zeiten oder strikte Regeln - was ich gut finde. Was die Trainingsangebote angeht war es zunächst etwas dürftig, das meiste passierte on-the-job und durch die Zusammenarbeit mit der Leadership. Das wurde in 2024 aber viel besser, mittlerweile gibt es auch viele externe Angebote.

Gehalt/Benefits

Gehaltslevel sind kompetitiv im Startup-Bereich - aber klar, wenn man das Fixgehalt optimieren will, geht man halt auch nicht in ein junges, wachsendes Startup mit weniger als 100 Leuten. Man kann woanders sicher mehr verdienen.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Ist kein sehr aktiv vorangetriebenes Thema - allerdings fällt es mir schwer konkret zu benennen, was zu verbessern wäre.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Sehr viele Kollegen werden zu Freunden, und unternehmen regelmäßig was außerhalb der Arbeit, auch über die Abteilungen hinweg - das sagt für mich das Meiste aus. Sport, Dinner, Ausflüge in den Wald - die Palette der Aktivitäten ist breit und inklusiv.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

Schwer zu sagen, da es nicht viele Kollegen über 40 gibt. Natürlich ist der Zusammenhalt unter gleichaltrigen etwas stärker, aber das ist wohl normal und habe ich in anderen Companies nicht anders erlebt.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Das kann ich natürlich nicht für alle Departments und Teams kommentieren, aber mein Vorgesetzter verhält sich jederzeit korrekt. Er ist anspruchsvoll, aber auch sehr transparent und verlässlich. Man weiß woran man ist, und was verlangt wird.

Arbeitsbedingungen

Sehr cooles und gut ausgestattes Office in bester Lage in Berlin Mitte. Liebe es dort zu sein.

Kommunikation

Es gibt regelmäßige All Hands Udates, rund um unternehmensweite Neuigkeiten zu verteilen - dabei werden auch recht transparent Erfolge, wie auch Misserfolge bzw. Learnings daraus geteilt. Auch Seiten und Zahlenupdates aus Board-Präsentation werden offen geteilt, sodass wir Mitarbeiter jederzeit wissen ob's gerade gut läuft oder doch etwas mehr angezogen werden muss. Dazu gibt es regelmäßige 1:1 mit den Leads und Heads, und cross-department meetings. Feedback-Kultur könnte noch etwas stärker sein.

Gleichberechtigung

Es geht nur um die Meinung und Lösung. Von wem sie kommt ist absolut egal.

Interessante Aufgaben

Es wird an innovativen und Europäisch führenden Software-Lösung in einem sich schnell wachsenden und verändernden E-Commerce Markt gearbeitet. Dabei ist der Impact sichtbar und auch ein jeder Tech-Laie kann mit dem Produkt etwas anfangen.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Hearing all the juicy gossips and relationship drama on a daily basis was certainly entertaining

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

- Not listening to other's viewpoints and just wanted to do things your way
- Not knowing how to read between the lines
- Not truly caring about employees' wellbeing

Verbesserungsvorschläge

- Should have gotten rid of the other co-founder way sooner
- Drink less alcohol and be on time to meetings and have an agenda

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Long hours and some employees give rather critical instead of constructive feedback. Turnover rate is quite high, and this show bad company culture. For example, legal counsel left after less than a year. Took over six months to find a replacement, who now is also leaving after less than a year. Many good employees who helped build the company, including the only HR Manager at the time, left last year.

Work-Life-Balance

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Asked for it but never made any action items, let alone getting constructive feedback or coaching from the direct manager

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

Not many older colleagues were hired because there isn't much diversity in the first place. Also, no way they can work in a place where long hours is expected, even though they would not admit that publicly

Vorgesetztenverhalten

I know it’s a startup and sometimes work is a lot. But many managers worked in big companies before. And they are usually late to meetings. And when he finally arrived, you often could smell his alcohol breath, and of course there was no agenda for the meeting. Also seemed to like to play favoritism.

Arbeitsbedingungen

Kitchen was never clean

Kommunikation

Managers don't really know how to give good feedback to help their employees grow or be a good career coach. Even if you explained your career plans to them, they would forget and continue to expect you to keep doing things the old way. In three months, they would ask the same question again. Also, conducting comprehensive performance reviews, such as 360-degree feedback, is insufficient if there is no accountability or system to build, track, and follow up on action items. Overall, just didn't feel that I was being cared as an employee, even though they like to say 'we are family'.

Gehalt/Benefits

There are at least a few people that left because they didn't receive a raise for over a year even though their performance review was good. Also not sure if asking a wellness company owned by one of the founder's girlfriend to provide online meditation/yoga classes is a benefit

Gleichberechtigung

Professionalism from a certain executive member with limited domain experience was also questionable, he fired an ethnic female employee with many years of experience just because they could not agree on things and that she did not finish work during weekend. Decisions are formed within a homogenous group most of the time. Many women left the company as well because they felt they were treated unequally. Their commitment to diversity is questionable, even though they recently claimed that they have have several women in senior positions. Take a quick look on LinkedIn and you will see there are only 2 women in Head/VP position.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Diverse, friendly, and relaxed culture. Clear structures, smart colleagues, and good product-market-fit. Weekly HIIT workout with personal trainer :)

Work-Life-Balance