Ecosia 

GmbH

Bewertungen

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Wonderful colleagues.

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

There wasn’t ever a discussion of negatives: the focus was always “wonderful” and that the company was making the “highest revenue in the history of the company” with each new earnings report. In the meantime, people were getting fired and teams slimmed down, but these things were hardly ever addressed directly. A lot of people have left because they don’t believe in the company anymore. It’s a real shame; it could be so different.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Try and find a way to talk with the employees. People don’t feel listened to.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Started well, has worsened continually. From people I know still working there it has gotten to the point that some colleagues will be fired without prior warning if they don't agree with management. Efforts to form a workers' council was also fought pretty hard by management. A lot of people don’t go to the office anymore.

Image

To the outside: excellent, for the most part. Unfortunately as is often the case with NGOs, charities etc., the image and actions don’t always (or even often) match up.

Work-Life-Balance

Fine, as long as you can push back when needed and say no to requests which don't make sense. A lot of people work overtime, however.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

In principle and until quite recently - wonderful. However: Ecosia’s pivot to AI throws a huge shadow on what they’re trying to do. They have jumped on the bandwagon without much thought for the environmental impact, which is flooring. Isn’t doing good for the environment the point?

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Easily the best part of working there.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

On the surface: all very friendly and encouraging - we’re all doing something great for the planet. This is what draws a lot of people in; it’s similar to the copy you’ll see on the website and in socials. In reality: they don’t really want people to do things differently, but rather a very traditional tech company. Penny-pinching in the teams was always a theme, but spending by the COO and CEO on their own projects runs to the tens of thousands without any consultation. In recent times: people getting fired from one day to the next, a significant fight by management to stop a workers’ council forming and a huge dip in the company atmosphere. Do NOT expect the fluffy bunnies & sunflowers that you’re led to believe by the company’s good reputation.

Arbeitsbedingungen

Depends how strong you are at standing up for yourself. Don’t expect something like “burnout” to mean anything - you have to fight for yourself. Workload generally is an issue, with a lot of people doing overtime and not enough people in general for the targets that are set.

Kommunikation

Gehalt/Sozialleistungen

You’ll get paid market rate, but not more than that. The argument was that you’re doing something good for the planet, so that should be enough job satisfaction rather than getting bonuses (no one gets those) or even pay rises sometimes. I wouldn’t call the workload light, so be prepared to work hard for your average money. The benefits, though, are quite good.

Gleichberechtigung

For a tech company pretty good among the employees (not sure on exact numbers). In management it’s mostly if not always men (there has been a lot of turnover there, too).

Interessante Aufgaben

Mostly very same-same.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Strong focus on climate projects. The trees team is everyone's pride

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

The CEO thinks he knows how to do almost every job

Verbesserungsvorschläge

I don't know. I feel like it's too late to repair the damage down. Just stop disregarding everyone's opinion

Arbeitsatmosphäre

A lot of people (20%+ of the company) left. Many who truly cared for the success of the company have left or are in the process of leaving as a result of the drastic change in company culture imposed by the CEO. Pressure is high and motivation is low.

Image

Ecosia does still have a good brand image. Unsure how long that will last.

Work-Life-Balance

There's good life-work balance but you have to impose yourself. There's a creeping trend of some people working extra hours to make deadlines, and that's really unhealthy. The leadership refuses to implement time tracking (which is required by German law), calling it "too much bureaucracy".
The company became very remote friend in the last years which is nice.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Limited

Gehalt/Sozialleistungen

Despite the increased pressure, deadlines, shift to "startup culture", salaries are still just average.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Can't give 5 stars when the AI effort has been a bit greenwashy.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

The workers are great and caring.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Leadership is destroying the company culture. Any role that is not seen as fundamental is being gutted out. On top of that, instead of practicing the "informed captain" mantra they preach, the CEO constantly undermines everyone's domain knowledge and micromanages workers.

Arbeitsbedingungen

The office is nice and resources are offered for home office setup.

Kommunikation

Gleichberechtigung

Neurodivergent, women and non-white workers have experienced disproportionate hardships in the company. I don't believe there is conscious discrimination going on, but the leadership refuses to acknowledge or investigate this despite the data.

Interessante Aufgaben

You need to fight hard to work on projects that will allow you to grow. If you don't you will be left behind, and then punished because you didn't grow fast enough. The problem is that there aren't enough hard and interesting projects to work on.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Everyone is talking about quitting because we are being micromanaged since the CEO and COO decided to run the company without any domain knowledge, firing whoever they want, whenever they want. They also interfered when employees tried to form a Works Council

Work-Life-Balance

At least they dont force you to go to the office.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

If you want to advance in your career, don't work here.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Greenwashing while developing some AI and destroying the planet, while at the same time planting trees??? makes no sense, no one wants this.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Depressing.

Kommunikation

Interessante Aufgaben

Just do what the CEO wants and dont question it or you get fired.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Das Unternehmen ist sehr stark darin bemüht, die Atmosphäre so angenehm wie möglich zu machen. Es gibt regelmäßige Umfragen, die zu möglichen Verbesserungen beitragen sollen. Es wird sehr gewertschätzt, dass Kolleg*innen sich auch mit eigenen Aktionen zum Wohlbefinden einsetzen. Durchweg freundlich und offenes Team.

Work-Life-Balance

Nur gute Erfahrungen!
Grundsätzlich zählt 'remote first', seit wenigen Monaten wunschmäßig '2-Tage-pro-Woche' im Büro sein. Damit lässt sich grundsätzlich schon eine sehr gute Alltagsstruktur aufbauen. Arbeitszeiten hat man immer im Überblick. Sollte hier eine Stundenreduzierung gewünscht sein, geht das Unternehmen ebenfalls sehr rücksichtsvoll mit den Bedürfnissen der Menschen um. Den Mitarbeitenden wird sehr viel Vertrauen geschenkt.

Gehalt/Sozialleistungen

Man sollte sich als Arbeitnehmer bewusst sein, dass hier nicht Topverdiener*innen und Karriereleistung an erster Stelle stehen. Ziel ist der gute Zweck und teil einer umweltbewussten Community zu sein. Die Gehälter weichen aber nicht vom üblichen Durchschnitt ab (sehr fair).

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Mensch und Umwelt stehen zu 100% und gewünscht mehr im Vordergrund!

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Das Team selbst ist sehr engagiert, setzt sich auch teamübergreifend für die Kolleg*innen ein. Die Diversität bei Ecosia ist unglaublich hoch und es gab in meiner Wahrnehmung noch nie einen Fall, in dem eine Person, so wie sie ist, nicht respektiert und akzeptiert wurde. Vom internen Wellbeing-Team werden regelmäßig Chancen gegeben, die Kolleg*innen untereinander besser kennen zu lernen.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

Da Ecosia noch kein altes Unternehmen ist, hält sich das Durchschnittsalter wohl doch noch recht jung. Wie ich das Team einschätze ist aber auch an dieser Stelle ein freundlicher und respektvoller Umgang absoluter Standard.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Grundsätzlich wird man auch hier an dieser Stelle sehr respektvoll, nett und cool behandelt. Mensch haben aber ihre Eigenarten - es klappt vielleicht nicht immer. Eigentlich aber auch 5 Sterne.

Arbeitsbedingungen

Großraumbüro, aber mit sehr vielen Rückzugsmöglichkeiten, wenn notwendig. Arbeitssicherheit wird ernst genommen und regelmäßig verfolgt. Verbesserungen zu den Arbeitsbedingungen werden immer gehört und werden auch in den meisten Fällen umgesetzt. An Arbeitsmaterial hat es mir nie gefehlt und ich hatte bisher auch immer an der richtigen Stelle Ansprechpartner*innen zur Lösungsfindung. Eigentlich auch 5 Sterne, andere schaffen es aber besser.

Kommunikation

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Employees and most managers always try to genuinely improve working conditions. There's definitely areas of improvement, but I personally feel comfortable talking about any issues publicly or directly with managers.

Image

Ecosia has an extremely positive image with users, employees and partners. Most hires have applied to Ecosia because they already loved the project.

Work-Life-Balance

Ecosia is an amazing place to work if you have a family or a disability that demands more time and flexibility out of you. It's usually possible to take time off in short notice for personal matters. You're never expected to work extra hours for free

Karriere/Weiterbildung

There's definitely some room to grown and progress on your career at Ecosia but that greatly depends on your position. For Software Engineers, career progression is very streamlined. Your education is also sponsored with yearly allowances, books, and time off for learning.

Gehalt/Sozialleistungen

Ecosia strives to meet or slightly exceed the market average for jobs in Berlin for each specific role. The salary ranges are transparent for all positions including the CEO. There are several other employee benefits. Salaries are also not location-based, which means moving to a cheaper city with your family and working remote might be beneficial. In the same vein, moving to a more expensive city will not mean your salary is adapted to the higher cost of living.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

There's only vegetarian & vegan food in the kitchen and mostly organic and fair trade. We also offset our office energy use with solar panels.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Specially since covid, i feel like we pay so much more attention to the ways we work together, specially since many teams are remote/hybrid.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

From my experience, Ecosia actually has and older and more family-oriented workforce than the average tech company. People also stay longer in this company than in other companies. I haven't witnessed any discrimination of older employees or candidates.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

I think in general everyone is very empathetic but in more extreme cases where people have had specific needs, these needs were not well understood by superiors and led to unnecessary conflicts. Despite steps in the direction of improving awareness of disabilities and improving communication, this is still a recurring issue. I still believe Ecosia is better than the average company at this, but I'd love it if we didn't settle for average, and instead were leaders in inclusive working evironments.

Arbeitsbedingungen

The office is cozy and inviting even if we can all work from home. There's a well equipped kitchen if you want to have breakfast or lunch, and a shower if you came to working cycling under the heavy rain. All-in-all good working conditions in the office. The main downside is that it's only partially accessible. There's only a cargo elevator and the entrances don't have ramps.
Also, people bring their dogs in the office sometimes.

Kommunikation

Gleichberechtigung

Leadership lacks diversity, but as a whole Ecosia has a lot of equality in terms of gender identity, country of origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation. I suppose we are strongly lacking in diversity of political ideology since Ecosia is obviously very left-leaning by design (which is not a bad thing).

Interessante Aufgaben

I suppose this is highly subjective, and specially depends on your role. Software Engineers have plenty of freedom in choosing projects that they find interesting, and changing teams to pursue career growth is usually possible. We're given plenty of time to work on maintenance work and code debt as well.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

The people are open and solutions-oriented. I've recently joined and it's nice to see that the external image is the same as what's happening inside the company. Purpose-driven & caring.

Image

People love working here, that I've definitely noticed :)

Work-Life-Balance

30 vacation days are offered, and it's advised to take at least 2 weeks together at least once a year. As a perk, one can get mental health support from professionals. There are no-meeting-days 2x/week, to make sure everyone finds their focus time. I feel like it's a good balance.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

I have a lot of opportunities and room to plan out my next step with my manager.

Gehalt/Sozialleistungen

I was offered a fair compensation above my expectations. The salary ranges are available to the employees to see and work on their pdp for the following salary cycles.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

Top!

Kollegenzusammenhalt

My team is very focused on the well-being and happiness level of the teammates. Open culture is cultivated, and we try to have team events out in nature, reflecting Ecosia's values.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

The teams set their OKRs quarterly and have realistic expectations, I'd say. There are regular Retros to observe what could be done better.

Kommunikation

Gleichberechtigung

To my knowledge, fairness is a regularly discussed topic at Ecosia. We have a lot to learn but we're on the right path I hope. Additionally, Ecosia takes DE&I very seriously. I found it fascinating there's a working group for this purpose, changing the members every 6 months and working closely with the whole company, whoever can contribute.

Interessante Aufgaben

It is what you make it- you shape your role with the help of your peers and manager. If capacity allows, we come up with new interesting tasks to do, or to set as part of our OKRs for the next quarter.