I have warned you, avoid this sinking ship - Anonymous employee Grover Employee Review

1.0
1 Aug 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice and modern office. There are many lunch options nearby the office. During the summer, there are air conditioners in the entire office. There are various interesting engineering problems in the company. But it might be challenging to find the motivation to tackle them if you work in a toxic environment (like the one at Grover). €1000 annual education budget is relatively high for companies in Berlin

Cons

Very incompetent HR, the worst I’ve ever met in my career. Beware that they will frequently wrongly calculate your salary and when you confront them, the HR director will tell you “wrong payroll calculation is normal and minor, it happens all the time, and people make mistakes. You’re just fortunate if such mistake never happened in your past companies”. Imagine from time to time, losing 10 - 20 % of your monthly income due to the HR miscalculation, and this is treated as a “minor and normal” mistake. Please digest this situation and the answer from (!)an HR director(!), and make your own conclusion. Having read the messages in the company-wide Slack channel, the CEO does not seem to like if the employees work remotely from home. So, he enacted a policy for the employees to come to the office at least 3x a week and all employees should arrive at the office before 9.30 AM. To date, this mandatory office attendance policy is still applied. Currently, employee morale seems to be low which leads to a mass resignation. Good and experienced employees leave the company nearly every month. Less number of vacation days compared to other companies. Lower salary than the market. Unclear promotion policy. To me, it seems people who are good at talking and playing politics within the company, who get promoted. Silent layoffs. You found your colleagues got fired through their deactivated Slack account. No culture within the company since people who were in the culture team, were fired or left the company. Seeing the CFO and Head of HR left the company almost at the same time, should give enough hints to leave this company. Furthermore, the person who replaced the Head of HR also immediately left the company, not long after being appointed in the position. On the other hand, the former CFO had a big influence in the company, and often appeared in media publication, side by side with the CEO. He acted as a sort of co-founder in the company. Seeing him decided to leave the company which presumably, he had a big stake in, may signal something bad is happening internally.

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Grover Response
2y
Thanks for your honest review. We're sorry to hear that your time with us was not as positive as we strive to make it for all our employees. We are glad to hear, though, that you appreciate our Berlin HQ and the annual 1000 EUR Learning Budget for all employees after completing their 6-month probationary time. When moving to our new office, we did our best to address as many employee requests as possible, e.g. offering more space, more bathrooms, spots for bikes, areas for breaks, seating corners, and a lovely green backyard. Now we’d like people to come to the office, not only for work but also to strengthen our company culture. We’d prefer that everyone socialize and work together in person, which we think is especially helpful for people coming to Berlin from abroad. However, since working remotely has become an important part of a flexible working culture during the last few years, our employees working at our hubs in Berlin, Lisbon and Miami are free to work two days a week from home and all of our employees globally are offered 30 annual remote-working business days to work outside of their registered city, pending HR and manager approval. Regarding holidays, we do offer 25 days, which aligns with the industry standard in Germany. While it's true that this amount varies among startups, the number of holidays is a part of our comprehensive benefits package that we've carefully designed to support our employees, such as our annual 1000 EUR Learning Budget and our discounted gym memberships. We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our offerings based on employee feedback and market trends. Our HR team is also working around the clock to find ways to become more efficient and streamline our processes. We recommend that our employees take advantage of our HR office hours, submit a ticket, or contact HR directly to schedule a time to chat, one on one. Regarding compensation, we continue to evaluate our salary structures to remain competitive in the market and ensure fair compensation for our employees. We acknowledge that there's always room for improvement and strive to find ways to better support our team members. We also take your feedback about promotions and career paths seriously. We are actively working on creating more transparent career progression opportunities for all employees. For this we have implemented two 360° feedback cycles every year, which end with managers being able to make suggestions for promotions following the calibration. We introduced this process about a year ago to strengthen transparency and are continuously developing it further. Our goal is to provide a framework that helps individuals understand how they can grow within the company based on a 360° feedback culture. Your feedback is essential in helping us to reflect on our current practices and make future improvements, where necessary. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

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Pros

amazing work place to work

Cons

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5.0
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CEO approval
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Pros

- Dynamic Environment: Working at Grover means being part of a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Every day brings new challenges and opportunities to innovate, which keeps me engaged and motivated. - Innovative Culture: Grover fosters a culture of innovation and creativity. I have the freedom to explore new ideas and contribute to projects that have a real impact on the company and its customers.

Cons

- High Expectations: The fast-paced nature of the work environment at Grover means that there are often high expectations for performance and delivery. While this can be motivating, it can also be challenging to maintain a work-life balance at times. - Limited Resources: In some instances, I've encountered situations where resources are limited, which can make it challenging to complete tasks efficiently. However, the team is resourceful and always finds creative solutions to overcome these obstacles.

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