Nice colleagues but incredibly high pressure environment.
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
A lot of opportunities to learn and grow. It can be fun when people are trusted to get on with their work. The product is cool and can be exciting to contribute towards.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Low pay, very high pressure environment, pivoting constantly and changing goals along with such pivots. Unrealistic expectations. Some leaders are toxic and this has an incredibly negative affect on teams and individuals.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Recognise your employees as human beings and listen to them. I don't understand why the employee survey was scrapped, I can only assume it's because you knew how bad things were getting and didn't want to hear any negative feedback. That's how to destroy a company culture.
Understand that the workloads are not sustainable and you will push more good employees to leave. Stop favouritism - it's very obvious and very demotivating for others who are working very hard with little to know recognition. Don't allow micromanagement and trust the people you employ.
Recognise what your employees achieve; at all levels, and let them know when you're pleased with their work, not only when you're displeased.
Providing free pizza and fruit in place of expecting everyone to work into the evening is not the definition of a positive culture.
Remove toxic leaders and recognise the affect they have on the entire team.
Kommunikation
Generally clear communication from leadership when it comes to company goals, investor funding etc. Not clear when it comes to daily tasks and ever-changing goals. Major changes with product and strategy are often not fully communicated to all involved stakeholders, causing time wasted on unnecessary work, and delays in alignment. Intense meeting culture with fully blocked calendars, some senior members aren't available to support their teams.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
A pleasant team of colleagues, mostly all passionate about working towards the same goal. Unfortunately I saw a massive cultural shift which changed this from a place of excitement to a place of intense pressure; unwritten (and often even written) expectations of people staying in the office until past 9pm. I saw a lot of exhausted and burned out colleagues, with such issues not being addressed or remedied by leadership. Several colleagues left due work-inflicted stress and sickness. Speed is prioritised over quality, often resulting in time wasted on multiple revisions of failed product feature releases
Work-Life-Balance
We moved from hybrid to in office work. This wasn't a good fit for a lot of colleagues who had signed a hybrid/ remote contract. Remote colleagues who were living in other countries were they'd have to move to Berlin in order to keep their jobs. This was part of the big 'Knowunity 2.0' announcement, which also involved unofficially bumping up the work week to 50+ hours a week, and those who weren't willing to do this, left the company. There was an expectation to always be available; Slack messages and demands over the weekend after after hours. You are expected to live and breathe this job. During the post 'Knowunity 2.0' announcement, a colleague was even told that this job should be their priority; and leaving the office 'on time' was not acceptable. Toxic expectations for juniors to be working the same long, hard hours that the founders do.
The employee survey was scrapped out of the blue which meant no one had an opportunity to express how displeased they were with the changes in culture and unrealistic expectations.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
A mixed bag. I came across both nice and toxic management during my time there. A lot of micromanagement happening and little trust in subordinates (dependant on team/ manager). It's a shame that the thriving company culture wasn't nourished by leadership; there was a big shift which saw a very clear desire to push everyone to their limits without much understanding or empathy of the humans that were being pushed.
Interessante Aufgaben
Lots of opportunity to get involved in tasks and projects beyond your job title. A typical start up where you will be pushed and pulled into multiple projects; which can be messy, but also a good place to gather experience. One positive; Irrelevant of your place in the hierarchy - ideas are welcomed and listened to; often resulting in some interesting product changes.
Gleichberechtigung
A diverse team of colleagues from different backgrounds, but generally a very young team. Comments were made by leadership about wanting to 'keep the team young', they never employed anyone over the age of 40. There is a large gender pay gap that needs to be addressed. The system of praise, salary increase, and promotion is male-centred. This was raised with HR before and nothing came of it.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
A very young team, there aren't any 'older colleagues'. In fact, they actively don't seek to employ or retain 'older colleagues'. I've witnessed many older and more experienced colleagues being forced out after bringing their experience and perspective to things, which isn't looked upon with consideration or curiosity by leadership.
Gehalt/Benefits
No clear pay-scale and huge discrepancies in salaries in comparable roles. Salaries below average for a start up of this size.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Good opportunities for promotion and skills learning.