It was not a working experience, but a nightmare.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The work environment is completely unhealthy and sad. The boss is a woman with a very big ego and personal insecurities, who thinks only of herself and lives in a complete fantasy in which she is a businesswoman in a successful film company, but the reality is quite different. The company is in complete chaos. There is no organisation because the boss does not assume her responsibility to run the business and be a leader. There is no established work hierarchy and no proper division of labour. Psychological mistreatment and harassment are very frequent.
Kommunikation
The boss tries to give as little information as possible about the tasks to be performed by the employees and about the company. Sometimes because she has no leadership skills and sometimes because she takes advantage of these misunderstandings to mistreat the employees. Repeatedly the boss told me that I was not involved with the company because I did not perform a task that she had never told me to do, or even more, I did not even know that such a task existed. The boss is most of the time absent from the company and communicates via Skype chat, which she uses to give incomplete information. Her mistreatment is very common when employees ask her questions while she is not in the office.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Although the team is very small (no more than 2 or 3 people) it is difficult to have colleague cohesion because the boss talks badly about everyone to everyone. This leads to the lack of trust between them. Most employees do not work in the company for more than 6 months (probation period). There are many cases of people who lasted only 2-3 months because the working environment is very difficult to cope with. Team meetings where the boss mistreats one of the employees in front of the others are very frequent.
Work-Life-Balance
It is very difficult to reconcile work and family life because the boss thinks she owns the whole life of her employees. For example, in organising a trip to a film market, she got tickets for the team to travel five days before the market started (when they had to be there at most two days before) without prior communication or agreement with the employees. The boss has no personal life and tries to fulfil her personal agenda with personal plans with the employees. Besides, given the general disorganisation of the company, employees are obliged to make several daily extra hours which makes it harder to have time with their family.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
The boss/owner of the company is a mean person and lacks of knowledge about the field of work (film industry). She has strong personal insecurities that lead her to try to make employees feel that they are not good enough. The boss/owner of the company tries to have personal plans with employees during the weekend. For example, it is very common that a few minutes before the end of the working hour in the office the boss orders pizza and invites everyone to stay for dinner with her. That would be fine if she didn't get angry when an employee says he or she won't stay. She has even stranger behaviours: for example after I had an argument with her, the next few days she tried to avoid me in the office and didn't speak to me any more, telling me that whatever I had to say to her I should talk to a colleague.
Interessante Aufgaben
There is nothing interesting in this company, because it is not even worth the work they do in the film industry. The company is too small and the boss is too pretentious in what she pretends to be.
Gleichberechtigung
Women and men are mistreated equally by the boss. Theboss/ owner of the company takes advantage of hiring people from abroad (e.g. Latin America) who are in difficult situations.
Arbeitsbedingungen
The employees work unnecessary overtime every day, which is not agreed in advance. The boss takes it upon herself to pretend that she does not realise that this situation exists. It is very common for the boss to arrive late and organise team meetings 15 minutes before the employees have to leave.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
No attention is paid to social or environmental awareness. Waste is not even separated properly in the office. Plastics are thrown into the general waste. While working in the office I was surprised that the Stadt Koeln did not fine them for these irregularities.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
There are no benefits and the salary is too low for the psychological mistreatment that employees receive. The boss takes advantage of the vulnerability of her team members to offer them very low wages and inadequate working conditions. For example, on long working trips (American Film Market in USA, Berlinale, Marche du film at the Cannes Film Festival) she does not pay per diems that German law requires to be paid. I have been in contact with several ex-employees and most of them has not received the Empfehlungsschreiben that is compulsory by German law, the boss/owner of the company has never sent it.
Image
Most of the ex-employees of this company are afraid of telling the truth about what happens inside the offices and about the harassment they received from the owner/boss of this company. But even thought, the truth is that the company has very bad reputation in the film industry worldwide.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
It is impossible to continue your education working in this company because you won't have time or energy for anything else. The career does not growth because the company activity is very low because of the lack of a managing director.