Talented teams, but poor leadership and lack of support drive good people away
Pros
The people on the ground are incredible. They are collaborative, accountable, supportive, and deeply committed to building quality solutions. Peer-to-peer learning here was unmatched. I learned more from my colleagues than in any academic or previous work setting. Remote was helpful for work-life balance.
Cons
Upper management demonstrated no interest in retaining experienced employees. Several key contributors left, and leadership made no meaningful effort to understand or prevent the trend. When legitimate concerns were raised about technical debt, unstable code foundations, or unsustainable product direction, they were dismissed, deflected, or shut down. Leadership showed a clear preference for short-term feature delivery over long-term platform stability. Direct communication about difficult topics was met with avoidance or, worse, retaliation. It took a public emotional breakdown from a team member to finally garner attention from leadership—an unacceptable failure in basic team support. Critical feedback was often treated as inconvenient rather than constructive.
