Going downhill fast since the new investors!
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Cool software.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The sales role is made to sound like there is a lot of responsibility involved and that there are ever-changing tasks. Unfortunately, after you get past the training phase, it's clear to see that it's nothing more than a glorified call center without any realisitic opportunity for a promotion. If you've managed to jump through the middle-management's hoops, then you might be lucky enough to be "promoted" to senior. This basically just means that you get to sit in on some meetings and shove work to the other employees who haven't earned said "promotion".
Every two weeks you get to have a personal meeting with your manager to discuss what has happened since the last meeting. For such a monotonous position, every two weeks is way too often for a personal discussion. What often seems to be the case is that the manager is expecting feedback or complaints from you regarding your team or other co-workers. It often happens that this feedback is then reported back, regardless of whether or not it's true. This is also regardless of whether or not the complaints and feedback are on a professional level, or if they are actually a personal attack.
The previously mentioned group of middle managers are rare to be seen actually working or helping out within their teams, even during very busy seasons. They disappear to myterious meetings and ask the seniors to basically take over their own work. There is little to no communication within the teams and the employees are just then forced to accept any and all decisions and changes made for them.
The combination of being in a monotonous position, getting unwarrented personal feedback and then knowing that there is zero accountability for the middle managers makes for a very toxic work environment.
Adding to this toxicity is the fact that since the acquistition from the new investors, many of the higher managers have quietly left the company without any realistic explanation. This is all brushed under the rug and you are forced to have to accept this and then be expected to not wonder whether or not your own security is on the line.
For a company that has a wide array of international employees, it is not very attractive for them to not be able to take any realistic amount of vacation at Christmas. Most of the time, this is settled by letting half of the team off for a few days leading up to Christmas, and the other half for a few days after Christmas. However, having roughly a week off is really only enough time to get somewhere within Europe comfortably, so if you are from any other continent (like many of the employees are) then you will always be spending your Christmas holidays in Göppingen.
Additionally, there is not enough parking for every employee who drives to work which makes for a complicated situation and forces some people to pay for a parking spot for the day. The office building has extremely bad lighting and air quality. It's also not an option to crack a window or door because most of the teams are hidden behind bright orange walls that block any and all possiblity of daylight and fresh air.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
The best place to start is with more honest communication with the employees. This doesn't mean that there should be a half-hearted email sent out that was probably written by someone in HR trying to appease everyone. What really needs to happen is that there is actual communication about the hows and whys regarding the decisions that the management make.
More consideration for international employees.
Additionally, what would really help a great deal would be to completely weed out the entire middle-management level.