Positive team culture undermined by poor managerial accountability
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Inspiring mission. EIDU is making significant progress in its mission to scale edtech solutions in low- and middle-income countries.
The engineering team consists of kind and helpful individuals—truly one of the best teams I've had the pleasure of working with.
In general, lots of kind, passionate people in this company
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Unfortunately, I was fired during my probation period despite having received a positive performance review with a "meets most expectations" rating. I never having been given any negative feedback that would justify such a decision. To make matters worse, the termination was handled poorly—it took place during a regularly scheduled one-on-one meeting with my manager, without anyone from HR present and without any clear next steps outlined.
Prior to this, I had attempted to raise concerns with the HR team regarding my manager's lack of accountability. For instance, he failed to attend scheduled meetings without providing cancellations (on two occasions), skipped the company-wide Feedback Day without explanation (despite meeting with me on other topics), delegated all responsibility for managing my tasks to a junior colleague while showing little interest or involvement in my work, and took up to five days to respond to my Slack messages. Despite bringing these issues to HR's attention, I was repeatedly advised to "just talk and communicate" with my manager, and HR refused to hold him accountable. Of course I had already spoken to my manager about these issues, but if no one was holding him accountable he has little incentive to fulfill his duties. Later, I discovered that managers are expected to conduct regular feedback sessions with employees on probation during their first six months—something my manager failed to do, and HR did not verify.
Despite these challenges, I remained dedicated to contributing positively to the company and helping my stakeholders achieve their goals. My stakeholders frequently expressed their appreciation for my contributions, noting that having me on the team significantly sped up their work and allowed them to take on projects that had previously been out of reach due to a lack of the necessary skill set. I made a consistent effort to keep communication with my manager transparent, providing regular updates on my project statuses and scheduling meetings when necessary. Unfortunately, my manager remained largely disengaged. For example, during a meeting where I discussed areas in which I wanted to develop my skills, he simply nodded without engaging meaningfully in the conversation.
In the end, I was told that I was being let go because I was "not senior enough"—a claim that was both unfounded and confusing, as the profile he described was entirely different from my actual role. Additionally, he stated that I "cannot work in isolation" and listed other vague reasons that contradicted the positive feedback I had received just two months earlier. In that review, he had praised my ability to grasp complex concepts quickly, collaborate well with other teams, and be open to feedback and improvement. None of the negative/critical feedback had suggested that my job security was at risk, and it even stated that I had been improving on those points.
I am deeply disappointed by my experience at EIDU—a company that wants to position itself as the "best employer in Berlin." I am not sure how a manager who wanted little to do with me or with my projects was allowed to fire me like that. still don't understand what I did to deserve such poor treatment, especially after investing so much goodwill and effort into my role.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Unfortunately you cannot call yourself the "best employer in Berlin" if you don't even have a decent onboarding process, cannot terminate employees with dignity and compassion, and hold your managers and legacy employees accountable for their actions.
Gleichberechtigung
Those who have been in the company since the beginning tend to be treated like gods and get away with behaving unprofessionally.