Disappointing – The Return of the ‘Higher Purpose’ Myth
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The 2024 Oktoberfest event was fun, well organized, and pleasantly relaxed.
It showed that the company can organize great events — especially when it comes to spending money.
Perhaps the same enthusiasm could be applied to solving real challenges.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Lack of self-evaluation, lack of creativity, lack of entrepreneurship, and a lack of respect for both people and the law.
Even when the crisis began, the company should have acted more responsibly — for example, by handling necessary workforce adjustments in a structured and transparent way, introducing part-time shifts, communicating openly from the start, or reaching out proactively to stakeholders or seeking short-term government assistance with a clear pay-back plan instead of reacting with fear and self-defensive framing.
As an entrepreneur, your staff and your company should come first — not just your personal ambitions.
Perhaps lessons like this can only be learned through world-changing crises — but by then, it might already be too late if help is not sought in time.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
1. Consult a real business planning expert and focus on building sustainable projects instead of relying on government funding and marketing hype. At the very least, try to identify and offer tangible services for clearly distinguishable stakeholders — including those in the mid-market segment.
2. Invest in developing genuine leadership skills and a better understanding of human behavior.
3. Avoid hiring an army of postdocs with purely theoretical approaches — balance academic vision with practical engineering expertise, frequent verification, and genuine risk awareness to address challenges before they become a crisis. Most importantly, listen to your staff.
4. Strengthen in-house capabilities for hardware integration and software development, and ensure engineers are paid fairly and consistently.
Also, consider designing your own chips — for example, RISC-V or ARM-based architectures — and outsourcing fabrication, as other successful technology companies do.
Alternatively, you could outsource the chip design itself based on your own architectural ideas and system requirements.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
At first, everything seemed fine. However, during the second half of my employment, salary payments became increasingly irregular and at some point stopped — creating a sense of uncertainty and frustration among many employees, including myself. Later, promises were made and internal crisis meetings were organized, but real solutions never followed. Roles and responsibilities were reshuffled to fill gaps — a symptom, in my view, of weak leadership and missing accountability. It eventually became an unintended study of human behavior under pressure, as reactions varied greatly depending on role, background, and location, with everyone trying to solve it in their own way.
Kommunikation
Very poor communication outside of the immediate work bubble, though good within small teams.
People were informed through irregular internal meetings, but direct questions often remained unanswered.
The overall message was to “stay quiet and trust that funding would come,” while employees were reminded of a supposed “higher mission for humanity” — effectively working for future promises without verification.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
At first, colleagues supported each other and stayed united. As the crisis deepened, many left — often quietly — wishing the best for those who stayed.
Information on employee rights circulated internally but, to my knowledge, was partly inaccurate or incomplete.
Some were afraid to speak up when leadership downplayed the situation as a “small mistake,” even as people openly worried about paying their bills.
Work-Life-Balance
Initially very good, supported by smooth remote work and occasional in-person meetings such as the well-organized 2024 Oktoberfest event.
As projects stopped and promises broke, employees were left without meaningful work, while public marketing hype continued at full pace.
It began to feel like employees were treated more as numbers than as people.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
My first direct team leader showed exemplary, human-centered leadership — a rare and valuable experience that became a personal milestone for me.
His successor also made sincere efforts to communicate transparently during difficult times.
By contrast, senior management appeared unprepared for crisis communication and failed to demonstrate true leadership or entrepreneurial responsibility.
From my understanding, some managers even offered personal loans to employees as a short-term fix — a gesture that, while perhaps well-intentioned, created an ethical conflict, as the company itself had outstanding salary obligations. Such actions blurred the line between professional duty and personal responsibility, highlighting a deeper absence of structural solutions and accountability at the top level.
Interessante Aufgaben
Many projects started with interesting potential, but most were paused or canceled once funding dried up.
Remaining staff faced long periods without tasks, and some left to avoid inactivity and uncertainty for themselves and their families.
Gleichberechtigung
I had the impression that women were given more advancement opportunities than men, and that the company’s understanding of equality was somewhat one-sided, though only slightly noticeable.
Still, I appreciated having team leaders who supported me in balancing full-time work and fatherhood — and trusted me to take initiative and contribute in a leading and meaningful way wherever it was most useful.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
I did not notice any disadvantages toward older colleagues — in fact, sometimes it seemed quite the opposite, with younger employees facing more challenges and, at times, questionable treatment.
Arbeitsbedingungen
The overall working conditions seemed fair at first.
However, when you have a contract that clearly states your salary and payment dates, and the company then fails to pay regularly, it significantly lowers the overall quality of the working environment.
After all, being paid for the tasks you are hired to do — and rely on for a living — is a basic expectation.
Unfortunately, it also made me wonder whether this organization was operating more on idealistic or collectivist principles rather than showing any genuine entrepreneurial or results-driven motivation.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
I noticed no negative behavior regarding sustainability or Green-IT, but also no significant positive initiatives beyond marketing statements and hype about potential government funding.
Gehalt/Benefits
In my case, and for several colleagues, salary payments were irregular and remained partially unsettled for months, which seriously affected motivation and trust.
Image
In my opinion, this is a hype-driven company focused more on visibility and funding than on genuine innovation or real value creation.
Many internal approaches and promoted ideas seem rooted in the past rather than oriented toward modern, forward-thinking engineering.
The company appears to rely heavily on reusing or repackaging existing concepts instead of developing truly new solutions.
From a conservative perspective, it resembles a speculative or “betting” venture, while more pragmatic and innovation-driven strategies would likely achieve results faster and more sustainably.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
From a technical point of view, the work was interesting and I achieved my professional milestones.
However, the overall outcome felt meaningless once the financial crisis overshadowed all progress.
The main personal takeaway was regaining a sense of grounded humanity and realizing that integrity and genuine intelligence still exist in some people.