Underlying Structural Problems and Weak Leadership
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The company is open to new technologies and innovation, giving employees the opportunity to work with modern tools and contribute to new initiatives. Overall, the flexibility and benefits are among the company's strongest qualities.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The biggest weaknesses are the lack of experienced leadership, inconsistent communication, and weak organizational structures. Too many decisions lack transparency, accountability, and clear reasoning, making it difficult to understand how and why they are made.
Communication from leadership is often slow, reactive, and inconsistent, while organizational follow-through is lacking. Important topics are frequently handled after problems arise instead of being addressed proactively.
There is also a noticeable gap between the company's stated values and the day-to-day reality, particularly when it comes to diversity, transparency, and leadership culture. Overall, the company would benefit from stronger leadership experience, better communication, more professional organizational structures, and a culture that consistently reflects the values it promotes.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Suggestions for Improvement
The company would benefit from appointing an experienced external CEO with a strong track record in organizational leadership, business strategy, operations, and people management. The organization needs experienced leadership that can make transparent business decisions, build scalable structures, improve accountability, and foster a culture based on trust, equal opportunities, and open communication.
From there, the leadership team should be strengthened with experienced managers who have proven leadership capabilities, not only technical expertise. This would improve decision-making, organizational effectiveness, and the overall employee experience.
The company should also take a more critical look at its market positioning and product strategy in an increasingly competitive environment. In particular, the marketing function would benefit from more experienced leadership with a strong background in product marketing, strategic positioning, and go-to-market execution. This is an area where the current lack of experience is noticeable and has a visible impact on the business.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Work Atmosphere
The company offers genuinely attractive benefits. The salary is competitive, and the four-day workweek is a real advantage. Those are great reasons to join and stay.
However, these benefits also make it easy to overlook deeper issues. The company presents itself as open, transparent, and people-focused, but the day-to-day experience often feels different. Employees notice much more than management seems to think. Just because people stay quiet doesn't mean they don't see what's happening.
Over the past year, several decisions—especially around hiring, promotions, and letting people go—have been difficult to understand. Many of them lacked transparency and were never properly explained. From an employee's perspective, some decisions appeared to be driven more by personal preferences than by clear, objective criteria.
Looking at the leadership team, it becomes clear why some of these problems continue. There seems to be a lack of leadership experience, self-reflection, and accountability in some key positions. Strong communication alone does not make someone a good leader. Some managers repeatedly struggle with communication, organization, and people management.
Kommunikation
Communication is one of the company's biggest weaknesses. For a relatively small company, you would expect information to flow much more efficiently, but that is often not the case.
A large part of the problem seems to come from the top. Transparent communication does not appear to be a priority, and this has become even more noticeable since one of the managing directors relocated abroad. There is a growing disconnect between leadership and the rest of the company, which affects communication across all departments.
On a day-to-day level, communication is often slow and unreliable. Responses can take a long time, follow-ups are frequently necessary, and agreements or previous conversations are sometimes forgotten. Employees often have to remind people multiple times just to receive an answer or move something forward.
There is also the impression that communication and attention are not distributed equally. Some topics and people seem to receive far more attention than others, which creates the perception that personal relationships influence priorities. Whether intentional or not, this undermines trust.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
A culture of caution has developed. Many employees think carefully about what they say and who they say it to, particularly when some colleagues are perceived to have especially close relationships with management. This naturally affects trust.
There is also a perception that concerns are not always addressed directly with the people involved. Instead, they may be escalated to management first, which discourages open conversations and constructive feedback between colleagues. Over time, this creates an environment where people become more guarded instead of communicating honestly with each other.
Work-Life-Balance
Work-life balance is one of the company's strongest points. The four-day workweek is a genuine benefit, and the company is generally very flexible when it comes to personal matters and time off. This creates a comfortable working environment that many employees value.
At times, however, the culture can feel a little too relaxed, especially when it comes to leadership and internal communication. While flexibility is appreciated, it should not come at the expense of reliability, accountability, or timely communication. Employees still need clear decisions, consistent follow-up, and accessible leadership.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
One of the biggest challenges is the overall lack of leadership experience across the management team. Looking at the backgrounds of many people in leadership positions, it is noticeable that a significant number have little or no previous experience leading larger teams or organizations.
This is reflected in day-to-day operations. Many of the recurring issues as unclear decisions, inconsistent communication, and a lack of accountability seem to stem from limited leadership experience rather than from a lack of technical knowledge.
Just as noticeable is the lack of authenticity in leadership. Too often, communication feels reactive rather than genuine. Instead of addressing difficult situations openly from the beginning, the focus often seems to shift to explaining or justifying decisions only after they have already caused frustration.
As an employee, it can leave the impression that people are expected to simply accept whatever explanation is given without questioning it. This can come across as dismissive and, at times, even manipulative.
Interessante Aufgaben
There is a good mix of responsibilities, and new projects, changes, and initiatives regularly bring variety to the role. If you enjoy working in a dynamic environment with different challenges, you'll likely find the work interesting and engaging.
Overall, the day-to-day work is diverse and rarely feels repetitive.
Gleichberechtigung
Equality and inclusion remain areas of concern. While diversity is often highlighted as a company value, the internal experience does not always reflect that message.
Concerns about equal opportunities, particularly for women in leadership, were raised openly on more than one occasion. Those discussions were visible within the company. Those left a lasting impression on many employees and reinforced the perception that difficult conversations about equality and leadership were not being addressed constructively.
This is particularly noticeable when it comes to diversity. There is a perception that some people who strongly advocate for diversity lose that commitment once they personally benefit from existing discriminatory structures. This inconsistency makes the company's commitment to diversity feel less authentic and hypocritical.
Overall, this created the feeling that there are deeper cultural issues beneath the surface. A stronger commitment to equal opportunities requires not only clear messaging, but also an environment where employees feel comfortable raising concerns without fearing negative consequences and visible equality from top to bottom.
Arbeitsbedingungen
The working conditions are generally okay, but there is room for improvement. The office is open-plan, which may not suit everyone. Fortunately, the flexible home office policy makes this much less of an issue.
The office environment itself has also had some practical shortcomings. In recent years, there have been recurring problems with temperature control, with the office sometimes being uncomfortably hot in summer and heating issues during the colder months. At times, the heating remained on at a very high level, making it necessary to keep windows open.
Overall, the working conditions are acceptable, and the flexibility to work from home is a significant advantage. However, the office facilities themselves could be better maintained and managed.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
The company promotes sustainability and social responsibility, but the day-to-day reality often tells a different story.
Frequent travel for management meetings, long-distance team events, and avoidable inefficiencies in the office make it difficult to see these values reflected in practice. Overall, it feels like sustainability is treated more as part of the company's image than as a principle that consistently guides decisions.
The company's commitment to sustainability does not always appear consistent. While environmental responsibility is regularly emphasized, some benefit and mobility decisions seem difficult to reconcile with those values. For example, employees may question why company cars are offered as part of compensation in roles that appear to require little or no regular business travel, while public transport and other sustainable commuting options are already available.
There is a noticeable gap between what is communicated externally and what employees experience internally.