Toxic culture, excessive management layers, and broken promotion process - Senior Software Engineer Global Relay Employee Review

The company has talented and hardworking engineers and team leads, but unfortunately the overall culture and leadership structure make it a very difficult place to work long term. The environment is extremely top-down, with most major decisions ultimately driven by the CEO. Priorities can change abruptly and teams are expected to adapt immediately, often without enough planning, context, or transparency. There is very little room for constructive disagreement or open discussion, and over time this creates a culture where people become afraid to speak honestly or challenge decisions. Another major issue is the management structure. There are too many layers of low, middle, and upper management that often add little value besides forwarding decisions downward. In practice, much of the pressure and responsibility ends up falling on team leads and developers, while accountability becomes unclear. This creates frustration, slow decision making, and a disconnect between leadership and engineering teams. The atmosphere across teams often felt tense and unstable. It was common to see managers, architects, leads, and developers suddenly disappear or get reorganized with little communication. This created a constant sense of uncertainty and made employees feel like they always had to be careful about what they said. Career growth and promotions are another serious concern. Promotions appear to be driven more by tenure and internal politics than by actual performance or impact. Employees are expected to get onto “promotion lists” 12–18 months in advance because cycles are always considered full. Even high-performing people can remain blocked for years. The situation for aspiring team leads is particularly frustrating. Employees are often placed into “acting lead” roles for 12–18 months where they carry all the responsibilities of the position, but without the title, compensation, or official recognition. In my opinion, this is an unfair practice that benefits the company at the employee’s expense. My advice to anyone considering joining: negotiate the level and title you want before accepting an offer, because internal progression can be extremely slow and difficult.