Pros
Some good and qualified people are still around
Cons
Micromanagement and Cost Control: While costs are important, the approach here is old-fashioned. There is a total lack of trust in management to stick to budgets; instead, every penny is scrutinized. This extends to travel, long-haul flights are restricted to economy even for non-executives, causing employees to refuse travel that would otherwise benefit the company. Salary Approval Bottlenecks: Increases and bonuses are already very rare, but the process to get them is worse. The final decision for ANY salary increase goes right up to the highest level. This reinforces the feeling that middle managers are not trusted to manage their own teams or budgets. Lacks Tech Leader in the C-Level: For a company proclaiming to be SaaS, it is odd that none of the senior executives have a tech background. They struggle to direct the ship and rely entirely on people below them, leading to a classic "too many cooks spoil the broth" syndrome. Nepotism over Merit: Critical roles in leadership and strategy are filled by inexperienced people. The choices made smell strongly of favoritism and "inner circles" rather than merit, leaving huge gaps in capability and unrealistic expectations of quality from unqualified leaders. Chaotic Product Direction: There is constant change and restructuring every few months. Because of this chaos, customers are not seeing any real improvements in the product. Toxic Morale: The messaging is strictly top-down. Recent mandates, such as forcing people back to the office and expecting relocations, feel like a calculated way to shed staff without paying proper redundancy. The focus is purely on cost reduction, even at the expense of productivity. Bullying and Exploitation: I have personally seen and heard of several examples of bullying that are simply swept under the rug. When issues are raised, the victim is gaslit into believing they are the problem. Time zones are ignored, with staff expected to attend meetings at all hours without compensation. A large amount of staff are working an increasing amount of extra long hours for no extra compensation or even acknowledgement. Disconnected Leadership: The senior leadership is completely out of touch. A perfect example was a video shared of senior managers enjoying holidays in beautiful European locations while, at the same time, staff were being forced back to offices with no salary bumps or bonuses. It was ill-timed, insensitive, and showed a true disconnect. Zero Accountability: There is a culture of pointing fingers. Leadership avoids taking ownership of mistakes, choosing instead to blame others to avoid being "caught out." Smokescreens: External marketing and LinkedIn posts paint a picture of exciting projects, but internally, these are smokescreens. You hear about innovation, but a year later, there is nothing to show for it. The "Startup" Mirage: The company projects itself as a modern startup, but this is a mirage. In reality, the business is kept alive by dozens of legacy systems and databases. Innovation via Contractors: The company tries to build tech using a revolving door of contractors. This strategy is failing, resulting in a pattern of scrapped projects. Hackathon Hype Cycle: Innovation is driven by "great ideas" from people claiming to be experts. We have a hackathon, pivot to the next big thing, and then... silence. No delivery follows, and a few months later, the technology pivots again. Lagging Behind: The company struggles to adopt modern tech. Because managers in technical roles often lack hands-on experience, they rely on juniors to guide them, leaving the product to evolve slowly and lag behind market trends.
