Ihr Unternehmen?
Jetzt Profil vervollständigen44 Mitarbeiter haben diesen Arbeitgeber mit durchschnittlich 2,8 Punkten auf einer Skala von 1 bis 5 bewertet.
20 dieser Mitarbeiter haben den Arbeitgeber in ihrer Bewertung weiterempfohlen.
They pay on time.
The disrespect for employees as people. Not even as colleagues or workers, but as people.
Seriously invest in your employees. With career paths, training plans, raises, benefits, check-ins, workshops to let them know what the company's strategy is and how they fit in. Provided that there is a company strategy at all.
Despite many colleagues being nice, departments try to blame one another for problems. Managers are the first to do that and just teach their employees to take no responsibility and find scapegoats instead.
"Do the employees speak well of the company?" No.
Possibly the only good thing about this company.
If you learn something, it means that you are smart. Again there is NO effort from the company whatsoever to offer structured training. If our clients behaved as we do, we'd have closed shop 15 years ago.
The wages are scary. Some people haven't had ANY raise in YEARS. You'd think in a language school you'd get free language courses. Think again. Not even the free app because it's too expensive to set up the account. No trainings either, of course. Any request is met with a "we can't afford it". Despite management boasting the great sales during every single company update. We were encouraged to ask questions before such updates and then management prepared some slides "with the answers". Only to the questions they selected, of course. No follow up was made on the rest. After almost a year of Kurzarbeit as a thank you we got a 40 euro amazon voucher for Christmas.
They don't care about their employees, let alone complete strangers. And anyway, most work from home, so what do they care.
Most colleagues are all right. The middle management and management is rotten and outright disrespectful. From small things like interrupting while someone is talking to bigger ones like the C-levels laughing at employees' requests during company meetings.
There weren't many older colleagues up to recently. The ones that joined are friends of some managers and therefore get away with many things. Outright rudeness or screaming on the top of others during meetings has become the norm.
Some colleagues are happy with their managers. Generally no, it's a disaster. Blaming employees for managers mistakes is the norm. Managers have been reported to HR with no consequences at all.
Most people work remotely. And the company therefore thinks it's not their responsibility anymore. There was no coordinated effort to make sure everybody had a standard minimum equipment. There was an e-mail with "if you want something, go get it in the office". As usual, everybody on their own and minimum effort from the company.
Before the pandemic I would have give two stars because at least in Cologne you'd find out something talking to people in the corridor. Now with home office unless you're well connected you have no idea what the company is doing.
As many environments relating with language teaching, there are many women. The higher you go in the hierarchy, of course the fewer women there are. 0 women in the C level. Anyway, all that there is good about how people are treated is down to the individuals being decent. There is ZERO effort from the company. No workshops, no D&I training or coaching, no initiatives.
It depends a lot on the department. They would be interesting, if there was a common goal or some basic respect for people.
Angenehm
Hierauf wird hohen Wert gelegt - wenn auch nicht immer und von jeder Führungskraft in gleichem Maße. Kenne Teams, da ist das nicht ganz so ausgeprägt
Muss man aktiv einfordern und daher verbesserungswürdig
Toller kollegialer Zusammenhalt in überwiegend sehr internationalen Teams
Wie immer ist das sehr individuell. Bei uns ist es klasse!
Hat sich in den letzten Monaten stark verbessert und gute neue Formate, wo das Management die Mitarbeiter informiert.
Spannende Projekte und extrem internationales Arbeiten
Hört auf eure Angestellten und Trainer und macht auch was aus dem Feedback. Nur nachfragen, aber dann nichts ändern, ist völlig sinnfrei. Achtet vor allem endlich darauf, dass Mitarbeiter in Führungspositionen auch wirklich Führungsqualitäten haben.
Angespannte, stressige und toxische Arbeitsatmosphäre. An allen Ecken und Enden wird gespart, in jeder Abteilung mangelt es an Mitarbeitern, die dann auch noch mit schwierigen Vorgesetzten umgehen müssen. Selbst langjährige Mitarbeiter, die dem Unternehmen teilweise mehr als 10 Jahre treu waren, kündigen inzwischen.
Die jährliche "Performance Review" dient lediglich dazu, den Mitarbeitern Feedback zu geben. Mitarbeiter haben keine Möglichkeit, Ihrem Teamchef mal Rückmeldung zu geben (obwohl das dringend notwendig wäre).
Stylische Website, aber das wars dann auch schon. Learnship ist ein totaler No-Name. Leider sprechen die Bewertungen hier, auf Glassdoor und auf Google ja auch nicht gerade fürs Unternehmen.
An für sich kann man sich hier nicht beklagen. Seit Corona wird Homeoffice und Remote-Work dauerhaft angeboten. Es wird allerdings trotzdem noch das klassische "8 to 5" bzw. "9 to 6" erwartet.
Eine Beförderung bei Learnship bedeutet immer, dass der Jobtitel geändert wird und man jetzt den Job von 10 Leuten statt von 5 Leuten macht. Es gibt keine Gehaltserhöhung, keinerlei Fortbildungsmöglichkeiten, Trainings oder sonstige Unterstützung. Man kriegt inzwischen ja nicht mal mehr einen hauseigenen Sprachkurs kostenlos.
Gehälter sind bei Learnship leider unterirdisch. Und nein, sie entsprechen nicht dem Branchendurchschnitt. Gehaltserhöhungen gibt's prinzipiell nicht, weil dafür "kein Budget" da ist. Als "Benefit" wird oft die betriebliche Altersvorsorge genannt - dass die jedoch Pflicht ist, weil jeder Mitarbeiter in Deutschland einen gesetzlichen Anspruch auf eine bAV hat, scheint vergessen zu werden.
In den Küchen wird leider kein Müll getrennt. Es wurden aber immerhin Sodaarmaturen in allen Küchen installiert, so dass keine (Plastik-)Wasserflaschen mehr geordert werden. Schön ist auch, dass ein Jobticket angeboten wird.
Man sitzt zusammen in einem Boot. Die Kollegen leiden, unabhängig von der Abteilung, alle miteinander. Das stärkt und verbindet. Man muss sich leider darauf einstellen, dass gerade die tollen Kollegen, die wirklich was drauf haben, nach kurzer Zeit wieder kündigen (man kann's ihnen nicht verübeln).
Die Sprachtrainer und weiteren externen Mitarbeiter sind meist ebenfalls ganz tolle Leute, die von Learnship aber leider nicht den nötigen Respekt erhalten.
Es gibt kaum ältere Kollegen bei Learnship. Die paar, mit denen ich Kontakt hatte, haben sich zumindest nicht besser oder schlechter gefühlt, als jüngere Kollegen.
Die Teamchefs sind größtenteils völlig unqualifiziert und sind nur in ihre Rollen gefallen, weil es halt sonst niemand besseren im Unternehmen gab (befördert wird hier, wer schon am längsten im Unternehmen ist, egal, ob man Führungsqualitäten besitzt oder nicht). Wer auf angebrachte und konstruktive Kritik mit Aggression reagiert, sich keine Fehler eingestehen will und dann auch noch über Teammitglieder lästert, braucht sich nicht wundern, dass innerhalb von 6 Monaten das halbe Team kündigt. Selten so einen Kindergarten erlebt.
Das Kölner Büro ist schön und modern. Das Arbeitsequipment ist völlig in Ordnung.
Katastrophe. Informationen zu Projekten muss man sich über zehn Ecken selbst zusammenkramen und selbst dann kann man nicht mal darauf vertrauen, dass sich die Informationen nicht wieder ändern und man mehrere Arbeitstage aufgrund von Falschinformationen verschwendet hat. Projektmanagement gibt's nicht. Jeder arbeitet so vor sich hin und hofft, dass am Ende dann alles irgendwie zusammenpasst. Spoiler Alert: Tut's meistens nicht und man wirft Sales und den Kunden halb durchdachte Produkte hin, so nach dem Motto "Hauptsache irgendwas".
Im monatlichen Company Forum wird das Unternehmen stets hochgelobt und berichtet, wie toll alles ist und dass ja jetzt so viel mehr Profit erzielt wird. So ganz kann man das aber irgendwie nicht glauben, denn bei Mitarbeitern, Trainern und Co. kommt von diesen unglaublich positiven Entwicklungen gar nichts an. Über Negatives wird hier nie gesprochen, Kritik wird abgetan.
Ich habe bei Learnship keine Diskriminierung erlebt. Kritisieren kann man vielleicht, dass im Management deutlich mehr Männer als Frauen sitzen, obwohl (zumindest im Kölner Büro) eindeutig mehr Frauen arbeiten.
Die Aufgaben in meinem Team waren spannend und abwechslungsreich. Leider werden Innovation und Kreativität bei Learnship aber abgestraft, weil es dafür "kein Geld und keine Zeit" gibt. Als qualitätsfokussierter Mensch war das für mich einfach nicht nachvollziehbar. "Möglichst billig und möglichst schnell" ist Learnships Motto. Es wird viel Geld in kurzfristige Lösungen und manuelle Prozesse gesteckt, statt einmal ordentlich in Software, Automatisierung und langfristige Lösungen zu investieren. Dass das auf Dauer nichts ist, muss man wohl nicht weiter erwähnen.
Ich habe dort viele nette Menschen kennengelernt und Lebenserfahrung mit genommen.
Immer steiler werdende Hierarchie.
High margin product, but poorly managed.
Ich wünsche dem Unternehmen den richtigen Schlüssel zum Erfolg zu finden.
Kein von Fairness und Vertrauen geprägtes Betriebsklima mehr.
Die Führungskräfte, zumindest diejenigen mit denen ich in Berührung kam, waren leider weder fachlich, noch menschlich den Anforderungen dauerhaft gewachsen.
Hinter den geschlossenen Türen wurde viel geflüstert.
Bevorzugung im Team, zum Teil Machtmissbrauch wurde praktiziert.
Bei den Mitarbeitern hat die Firma leider immer schlechter werdendes image. Immer mehr Kollegen, die lange bei der Firma waren, verlassen das Unternehmen.
Vor dem COVID-19 war das Home-Office-Regelung eine reine Prerogative der Führungskräfte. Nach dem COVID wurde dieses Privileg zwangsläufig gekippt.
Überstunden wurden weder ausbezahlt noch abgefeiert.
Keine Aufstiegsmöglichkeit.
Weder interne, noch externe Weiterbildung.
Es gibt seit 2019 eine betriebliche Altersvorsorge, sowie das Jobticket.
Gehälter ...
Ich kann es nicht beurteilen.
Die meisten von Kollegen waren recht herzlich und angenehm.
Beurteilung schwierig, da kaum jemand über 50.
Keine nachvollziehbare Entscheidungen.
Es wurde nicht, oder sehr spät kommuniziert und vieles verschwiegen.
Es gab große Rivalitäten zwischen den Abteilungen, mit dem Motto "immer anderen Schuld geben".
Die Arbeitsbedingungen sind im Großen und Ganzen in Ordnung gewesen.
IT-Ausrüstung war auch ok.
Die Firma ist relativ gut gelegen.
Keine Transparenz.
Mangelnde Kommunikation.
Es gab allerdings so genannte Company Updates, wo die Mitarbeiter über die Neuigkeiten erfuhren.
Die Frauen haben definitiv die gleichen Aufstiegschancen, wie die Männer. Die Mehrheit der Beschäftigten im Unternehmen sind die Damen.
Die Arbeitskräfte werden meiner Meinung nach nicht geschätzt. Allerdings kann es von Abteilung zur Abteilung unterschiedlich sein. Es gab mehr Vorgesetzte, als Arbeitskräfte - für mich nicht nachvollziehbar.
Die Ausgestaltung des eigenen Aufgabengebietes war zum Teil möglich gewesen.
Den Umgang untereinander
Noch mehr die Mitarbeiter mitnehmen. Es wird schon an den Erfolg geglaubt.
Viele kollegiale Menschen. Jeder ist offen für Fragen und Hilfestellungen.
Freie Einteilung
Aktuell sehr viele Chancen, da viel im Wandel ist und es richtig losgeht mit dem Wachstum.
People on a mission. Sehr eng trotz remote
Fair und direkt
Es wird daran gearbeitet diese zu optimieren
Viele Kulturen und toller Umgang miteinander
Tolles Produkt mit hohem Ansehen.
Great induction training, I especially appreciated being guided by a mentor. I was also met halfway every time I needed to switch from a fixed to a flexible schedule or needed to take holidays to prepare for my exams week. Company events were fun, communication regarding any company changes was timely and thorough.
Nothing. I genuinely enjoyed my time as a working student.
Find a different approach to bring the three departments of the same team together. During my team there I saw a lot of dissatisfied teammates who felt they had been forgotten about. Sometimes as little as Meeting them know their work is valued and that the management notices their effort.
Flexibility, mostly very friendly colleagues, international community. If you are young, looking for experience, international and motivated, this is a good place to start. If you are experienced, want to upgrade your career and have a family/ bigger responsabilities, better look for another place to work. Being fair: Learnship is OK as an employer, there is a lot of room for improvement and in general they do make an effort but in general the experience is as good as it can be. I have seen worse things.
What I have mentioned before and what others have mentioned in their reviews. To current colleagues: your frustration is understandable, I feel that also every day. But this is not the only workplace in the world, you all are young and clever: do not waste your time working poorly and bitching around not only about the company but also about other colleagues. Get a good grip, set your life goals straight and look for a better job if you are unhappy and think that the company is horrible.
Work in improving the interaction between teams. There is a lot of antagonization and frustration. Improve the salary and offer more benefits to those who prove motivation and results! (not only sales people, please, as it currently happens).
In general it was OK. However, since 2020 the atmosphere has become quite tense due to the corona crisis and the uncertainty that has come along: there have been constant structural changes that do make you feel insecure about your future in the company and if whether your team will stop being relevant for the company and your contract will be terminated without further notice (this happened to a whole team and we were quite shocked by this). I also have to say: Account Management can be quite passive aggresive when it comes to defending their client's position even if their client is being a total jerk. I do wish that Account Management/ Sales people were more considerate towards other departments. It is understandable that they are trying to save their numbers but they sommetimes can turn against you if they think that your actions will mean losing money/ the friendship of their client. I wish that HR was aware of this situation: things are too focused on numbers, selling, breaking rules to keep the client smiling. But well, if you are a young professional you should understand that this happens in many companies and that you can always look for a better job somewhere else.
On the outside it seems as we carry a good portrait thanks to the marketing strategies and the product innovation. But mouth to mouth Learnship is getting a very bad reputation as an employer. Quite sad, actually because it could be much better.
You work the usual 8 hours between 8 am-6 pm depending on the department you are working in. If you become a parent and ask for a reduction of hours you do get the flexibility. Also if you are not a parent but you want more free time for your self you can talk with HR and get a reduction of hours as well. Learnship has finally taken Home Office into cosideration for the future, which allows you to save commute time. I applaud this and I hope that they install this permanently, not only during the corona crisis.
Many people have complained that there aren't any chances for improvement. If you consider the high personel rotation and that many are young professionals who find better places to work and leave, you will see that, if you do your work and keep it professional, you will understand that it is all about selling yourself and moving things to get them going well for you. If you only go, do your work, go back home and do not show your potential, do not expect them to offer you chances for improvement. They do offer language courses for employees but it takes quite some time until you can figure out if you are getting one or not. I think they could offer workshops, coaching to the employees and keep them motivated to learn and better themselves.
The salaries are quite low, sometimes you will have to take over more responsabilities without a pay rise but they made this clear in my interview and it is clearly stated in the contract that we all were free to sign or not. So yes, the salaries are indeed less tha OK but we were aware of this and we all got the contract translated to understand that this would happen, so I think people could complain less about this, we are adults and signed the contract on our free will. Not an ideal salary for people with family, with a load to carry at home. OK for foreign students who need to make a living in Cologne but sure there will be sacrifices made. No job benefits besides job ticket and 1x Homeoffice weekly in normal circumstances as well as a program for discounts, that is, not year utilities, bonuses or weihnachtsgeld. If these are important for you, you should look for other jobs, definitely.
We do not engage in such activities,I think we could do more about this.
The vibe between teams can be quite unfriendly sometimes. I believe the reason behind this is the fact that most of the colleagues are young and sometimes one does not know how to handle difficult situations properly and things are taken personally instead of thinking that everyone is doing their best in the best way they can/ they are willing to. However, members of the same team mostly treat each other well, which helps you go through the day. But I can say that most of the time one is treated with respect. There are though known cases of male colleagues who harass female colleagues in office partys/ events when they get too tipsy with drinks. I am not sure if the colleagues who were harrassed reported these situations but HR shows to be open to receiving anonymous reports via the HR mailbox or via anonymous brief by post.
There aren't colleagues who are older than 50, I think. Most colleagues are in their 20s, 30s, start-up like. But his also means a lot of people who do not know how to keep it professional in stressful situations because they simply do not have enough work experience. Be prepared for that too. If you are emotionally intelligent I think you will do fine with that.
There are many team heads/deputies who are there because of other people moving on to other departments/ leaving the company and they have stayed long enough in the company to reach that point. So they might have the knowledge of the product and the processes but they really lack the talent of leadership and professional experience to fill their position. They have good intentions, no doubt, but they definitely could make use of a better attitude towards other colleagues and a more team-spirited mind. I am not sure if they cannot see that their teams do not feel supported and trusted. Maybe invest in more professional coaching for them? Maybe chose team heads/ deputies based on their experience AS WELL as their aptitude for such a job?
Quite OK. Yes, hardware can be quite old, we had office chairs for years that caused back pain and the Cologne offices are like an oven in summer. During the heatwave of 2019 you were offered to do Homeoffice if you had a laptop (mostly management/ team heads), others had to stay because there wasn't any other option but at least they get you ice popsicles, I think that was a compassionate gesture at least. During the corona pandemic they did efforts to send everyone in homeoffice as soon as it was possible (I know from friends and relatives who were FORCED to go to their office until this very day in other companies, no exceptions were made). I am thankful that Learnship took charge of things and made sure that everyone could do HO. It took Learnship years to change working conditions and it is still taking them time to offer better ones, but at least they are doing something.
There have been efforst to improve internal communication by the management as for example instating company updates on a regular basis. I am very thankful for that. However, events on a small scale and that affect your job directly are sometimes communicated in a very ambiguous way. Everyone is always wondering, sugggesting things, gossiping around. I wish our team heads were not afraid to being open and to communicate what is going on so that we can prepare ourselves better. It is exhausting for our mental health, to be honest. But other than that the management/ HR does try their best to keep an open communication channel.
I do not think that there is discrimination based on your gender/ race/ cultural background. Actually I was surprised by the amount of female colleagues and cultures working here when I started. There are many people working here from all over the world and that is something that I really like of this company, I feel like my job will speak for itself and I will not be tagged for my origin as it has happened in other places I've worked before where.
Quite tricky to say. It depens on the department you are working in and the current projects taking place. However, there is a considerable amount of outdated, manual processes that need to be improved/ re-structured urgently. Learnship is trying to move to a more automatic system to avoid unnecessary manual work so that you can concentrate on duties that are indeed interesting, that is something I praise. Be prepared for a lot of repetitive chain work where you will do your part and most probably the other chain/ team will not do their part due to a lack of motivation/ time/ communication and you will go back to zero with nothing and super frustrated.
Es gab Homeoffice.
Den Rest.
Behandelt die Mitarbeiter fair und mit Respekt. Das gilt auch für die Lehrer. Das Gehalt ist ein Witz für Kölner Verhältnisse. Es gibt Kollegen, die leben zusammen in einer WG, weil das Gehalt für eine eigene Wohnung nicht reicht.
Die Homeofficeregelung sollte innerhalb einer Abteilung für alle gleich gelten.
So lang man seine Arbeit machte und es keine "Probleme" gab, wurde man ignoriert.
Ständiges Kommen und Gehen. Es geht zu wie in einem Taubenschlag.
Das wird überschätzt. Die Marktingabteilung macht einen guten Job :-)
Es gab einmal in der Woche die Möglichkeit für Homeoffice. Wenn aus gesundheitlichen Gründen dazu kam, dass
man zwei Arzttermine in der Woche hatte, wurde man angeschnauzt, man solle doch die Termine besser organisieren.
Selbstverständlich galt die Regel mit einmal Homeoffice in der Woche nicht für Vorgesetzte.
Als Anbieter einer Lernplattform sollte man denken, dass es relativ leicht wäre, etwas für die
Mitarbeiter zu organisieren. Aber man hat es nicht geschafft, den Wünschen nach einer Weiterbildung
oder Zertifizierung zu entsprechen.
Das Gehalt ist eher unterdurchschnittlich (- 15-20%) für Kölner Verhältnisse.
Die Sozialleistungen sind die üblichen. Da war kein Highlight.
Früher wurde Wasser/Sprudel geliefert.
Das wurde dann irgendwann gestrichen und durch aufbereitetes und gefiltertes Leitungswasser ersetzt.
Das wurde als umweltverträgliche Innovation gefeiert, aber es bleibt immer noch Leitungswasser.
Der Obstkorb und die Snackbox waren ok.
Die IT Abteilung wird behandelt als wären sie Aussätzige.
Wenn IT'ler in der Küche zu Mittag aßen, meideten andere Abteilungen die Küche bis die It'ler fertig waren.
Innerhalb der IT Abteilung gab es eine klare Trennung, die aber von der Firma selbst verursacht wurde.
Man spürte deutlich, wenn man auf der falschen Seite war.
Die Kollegen wußten ständig, dass sie die ältesten in der Firma waren. "Freundliche" Seitenhiebe gab es ständig.
Kein Rückhalt durch die Vorgesetzten gegenüber anderen Abteilungen. Wenn es Probleme gab wurde die IT immer als inkompetent und unfähig dargestellt.
Standardbüroausstattung, keine Highlights. Nicht jeder hat neue neue Hardware bekommen.
Manchmal durfte man den alten und lahmen Kram vergangener Kollegen weiter benutzen. Als nach ca. 2 Jahren das Notebook
den Geist aufgab, bekam man wieder ne alte Kiste. Die war immerhin von 2015 und nicht von 2012.
Welche Kommunikation? Wenn es Kommunikation gab, dann eher Marketinggewäsch oder schlechte Nachrichten.
Die Schließung von Büros in anderen Städten wurde als Erfolg verkauft
und die dort geleistete Arbeit als sowieso ersetzbar dargestellt.
Und keine Panik, das sind ja IT Leute, die finden immer einen neuen Job.
Hier ging es weniger um Gleichberechtigung zwischen Mann und Frau.
Hier gilt wie man sich mit dem Vorgesetzte stellt und ihm widerspruchslos folgt.
Wenn man sich mit den Vorgesetzten gut stellte und zu allem ja und Amen sagte, war alles ok.
Wehe man hatte eine andere Meinung, dann wurde man fallen gelassen wie eine heiße Kartoffel.
Die Plattform an sich und die verwendete Software waren spannend, aber die Angst vor neuen Innovationen war beträchtlich.
Man könnte ja Kunden verlieren. Man hatte auch kein Vertrauen in die Ideen der Mitarbeiter.
So blieb man eben beim jahrelangem alten Kram. Die Plattform hat viel Potenzial, das leider ungenutzt bleibt.
It pays your bills and allows you to look for a decent job on the side.
All of the above.
I have no advice or kind words to spare for the management, except maybe to tone it down when asking their employees to write fabricated reviews in here to pump up their overall rating (it's really obvious that they're not legitimate). But for employees: look into joining a union. DGB has info in English. Don't trust the management or HR no matter how amiable they seem. They're not your friends. Try to know your rights because they'll try to take advantage of you in as many gray areas as they can, especially if you don't speak German.
Note: I was asked by the site to remove some parts of my review upon external demand. These contained feedback that was deemed problematic; having employees no official way of proving these events, unfortunately I had to comply.
My feedback applies mostly to the department I worked in. Because I’m not naming any names, let’s call this department Kursverwaltung for its equivalent in German (from now on abbreviated as KV).
At the beginning of my contract, the atmosphere was slightly more tolerable because LS had not acquired GlobalEnglish yet. They still needed us monkeys to grind away for them and create wealth in the form of courses and contractual relationships that they could later turn into profit (not into better salaries and conditions, no: what a waste that'd be). Therefore, they would make superficial efforts toward keeping us content. However, after September 2019 it became increasingly obvious that KV employees were now viewed as an expensive nuisance. The upper management became more neglectful and would talk nonchalantly of making us redundant “for the greater good of the company”. Our surroundings also deteriorated rapidly.
An exercise in smoke and mirrors.
LS's policies for breaks and holidays are miserly and I'm using a kind word here. Unpaid breaks policy that forces their fulltime employees to stay in the workplace for 9 hours. Total amount of holidays way below the national average (employees were "awarded" an extra day of holiday toward the end of 2019, after they begged for it for years, and the upper management backpedalled and took it away from them not even three months later, using the excuse of the CoVID crisis). Weird acrobatics around allowing frontline employees to work from home, with suggestions being made that they couldn't be trusted to perform well (pre-pandemic, but even post-outbreak, they delayed generalized home office as much as they possibly could). Employees being threatened with not having their holidays approved on time by their superiors. Employees being forced to cut their holidays in two and come to the office on a low workload day. I could go on for hours.
Not in the department I worked in. Not in most departments.
Big Red Flag: companies that brag about having a "young, multicultural team". Of "being a big family".
Young employees means you can push them out more easily and pay them less for more work. They're millennials so they shouldn't expect more than that, right?
Multicultural means a majority of your workforce is white Europeans with one/two "foreign" faces and names to fill the quota. (Edited out: feedback involving unequal treatment - I was urged to remove it since unfortunately my colleagues and I have no proof of this spoken conversation).
Being a big family means you will try to earn your naive employees' friendship by offering them good doggy treats (the odd free beer and donut) and then emotionally manipulating them into smiling thru the pain. It means that even though your profits are growing every year you won't raise their salaries or hire more people to make the workload manageable – but here, you’re giving them a fancy new coffee machine! Aren’t they lucky to work for such a nice company?
LS is the perfect example of corporate eco-hypocrisy in which they are currently providing services for companies that are in the list of responsibles for over 70% of total carbon emissions, deforestation and plastic waste (again, no names but let’s say there’s a big A and a big N in there) while releasing quirky newsletters advising their employees to cycle to work and take showers instead of baths.
KV has some brilliant, talented, generous, hard-working and interesting people working for them. And it’s crucial for the upper management to ensure that none of these people ever reach any higher positions so that the Big Bosses can continue doing the bare minimum.
It was sad to see colleagues who were otherwise good and friendly people fall into the dynamic of dog-eat-dog over a supermarket cashier’s salary. (Mind you, at least the cashier’s job is contributing to society. Ours only contributed to making the Big Bosses and their investors richer).
Have you heard of elderly poverty? People prefer to avoid it. That's why there aren't many employees over the age of 35 in LS. Those who were, were usually in higher positions or had a passion for the job which I sincerely cannot understand.
Of all supervisors I’ve had in my life, these were the appallingly worst at their job and most unwilling to do anything beyond taking credit for their subordinates’ work. Here’s the tip of the iceberg of things my supervisors did during the couple of years I worked at LS:
•(Edited out: feedback involving computer screens - I was urged to remove it since unfortunately my colleagues and I have no way of proving it.)
•Unloaded advanced tasks onto new, untrained employees. I'm talking a week into the job.
•Organized fake interviews for positions that had already been appointed to someone else behind the scenes.
•Refused to support the team in times of very high workload while reporting the opposite to their superiors. All other supervisors helped their teams.
•Threatened and yelled at employees over “personal attacks” (that is, when given polite negative criticism about failure to support the team).
•Pressured employees to come to the office on time during extreme weather events (Storm Sabine) and the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Germany.
•Refusing to help employees working in a room at 32 degrees Celsius.
Here’s a list of relevant events:
-A colleague had to sit with their back to a bare window for months before someone came and installed blinds for them, by which time it had already caused them vision problems
-HR later asked us to “prepare” for a safety inspection by moving our desks if we were sitting with our backs to a window. Yes, instead of installing blinds.
-Our immediate superior ignored our cries for help when the temp in our room well exceeded 32 degrees (heatwave of July 2019). One of us started feeling unwell and finally had to leave. This went on for several days until the heatwave receeded.
-Part of the ceiling in one of the offices collapsed after a big storm, with water leaking directly onto an electrical box. This remained unrepaired for months on end. Some paper tissues were taped on to the box for good measure, though.
-Employees asked not to “loiter” in one of the kitchens after the Big Bosses decided to turn it into their VIP-only coffee room.
-High workload/staff cuts combo makes it impossible to properly support trainers.
Performative, strategically opaque at best; non-existent at worst.
After the management received feedback that not enough information was permeating to their employees, we saw an increase in the number of weekly updates, private meetings, “catch-up”s and the like. These didn't seem to have a goal beyond maintaining appearances and “boosting morale”, aka telling employees what good boys and girls they are for gritting their teeth and going on with the show in exchange for crumbs.
In those rare occasions where bad news were delivered openly, a big emphasis was placed on looking on the bright side of things; a sentiment that may be fitting for emotional therapy sessions or self-help quotes, but grossly inappropriate to force on employees when they are suffering the consequences of poor managerial decisions. The most insulting example I can think of has already been mentioned in previous reviews: it was announced once, very casually, that an entire department would be dismissed and we were told not to worry about them because “they would surely find another job soon”.
(Edited out: feedback involving unequal treatment - I was urged to remove it since unfortunately my colleagues and I have no way of proving this)
The job offers marked with "no German skills needed" were the worst paid in the company, the most precarious, with the highest turnover rate.
Picking up the topic of sexual harassment from another review, several female employees informally reported being filmed without consent and having their personal space invaded by a male colleague during the last office summer party I attended to in 2019. This male colleague exhibited the exact same behaviour in the office party that took place two years earlier. Another male employee was known to make inappropriate comments at a different party.
I find it frankly pathetic that the HR department has the audacity to threaten reviewers with legal action when they speak up on sexual harassment anonymously.They do it anonymously because they know reports to HR always fall on deaf ears if they involve any real effort.
“Most people would feel insulted if they were employed in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back to earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed nowadays”. -Henry David Thoreau
Wenig.
Faire Löhne.
Man kann nicht seine Meinung ohne Angst vor Strafe ausdrücken
Everybody is afraid of being fired at the Moment
Abandon the "Ship" if you can
Viktorianisch
Hungerlohn
All my Friends have been fired
Mobbers und Schwindler
Undurchsichtig, irreführend, hochnäsig
Sisyphusarbeit
So verdient kununu Geld.