A wolf in sheep's clothing - Anonymous employee Tandem Employee Review

Everything else. I learned a lot about what I don't value, too. Tandem is run by your typical band of neoliberal, authoritarian capitalists. It presents as different-thinking through practices like pairing, its "flatness", and historically by pursuing work in "impact sectors". The commitment to that last one was always pretty loose when push-came-to-shove ("we want it to be X% of our work!" for an ever-decreasing X). I like to imagine this is why it's been dropped as a concept. It seems like they don't take much of a public-facing ethical stand anymore, which is, at the very least, honest. Don't be fooled, this is Just Another Company where power is concentrated in the hands of whoever is in the current "guard", be it the old guard or new. Being inside the guard has all the typical benefits, being outside all the typical punishments (you know the ones). And guard membership at Tandem, like employment there generally, is a revolving door: it's whatever cast of characters is momentarily favored by the CEO, JC. Favor is curried socially (that soft, unstructured, patriarchal power) and by avoiding disagreements with JC. By avoiding running afoul of his unspoken objectives for the organization. So really, power is concentrated in JC's hands. You would be wise to avoid suggesting anything that threatens his ultimate authority. Don't expect to have your concerns taken seriously if you push for changes that seem in alignment with the company's public mission but happen to be out-of-step with its actual mission. The one imperceptible to you as someone outside the guard. In fact, expect to lose favor. Tandem is "not a democracy". And hey, you should expect more of the place you work! Our companies should be democratic. Our political ideals in the workplace and in the lifeplace are one and the same. Form your own companies. Organize them equitably and democratically (worker-owned). You don't need one or two rich, white dudes pulling your strings, exploiting you economically, exploiting your identity to serve their corporate image. I don't want to waste any more breath on this. Working at Tandem was a toxic experience. It saddled me with a bunch of baggage that I'd prefer to leave behind. I'm going after its leadership's character, rather than listing specific grievances, because that's where the rot is. Because distilling years of toxicity into a few paragraphs is impossible and draining. A list of grievances only serves them, an opportunity for a patronizing smack down of the lowly employee. Tread carefully. P.S. I know there are more people out there with unwritten reviews similar in spirit to this one. Who might be afraid of being identified by the content of the text. Tandem is a small company after all, because people keep quitting ("that's just how the industry works!"). The more of us there are, the less sure they can be about who each of us is :).