Volvo Cars Reviews

(1) Leadership in Sweden is absolutely disconnected from reality. The CEO doesn't run the company. There is a group of Swedish friends who basically run the company. It is a closed circle. (2) Zero opportunity for upward mobility (3) Leaders of the organization (both in Sweden and in CA) are not truthful and are manipulative. (4) Promotions do not make sense. People are put into roles which they have absolutely zero background in. (5) The most talented people have been passed up for promotion again and again. (6) The CTO is notorious for getting upset in meetings, slamming doors, ill-treating employees and having major conflicts of interest. Cannot believe this guy is #2 in the company. (7) HR does NOT advocate for employees. Rather, they work against employees. They will do the bidding of Sweden and fire CA employees without notice and they will try to swindle their way our of paying benefits, etc. This is an absolute pattern. (8) Compared to a majority of Silicon Valley Companies - the benefits are not that great. Standard Medical/Dental/Vision, however the premiums are high. There is a small matching program for 401K contributions. There are no Stock Options, and pay is mediocre. (9) The most talented people have left this company. They cannot retain talent. (10) Constant re-organization with little focus. (11) C-Level personnel have come to CA and told employees during famous FIKA events that the CA office needs to prove itself, otherwise it will be shut down! Employees CONSTANTLY WORK IN A STATE OF FEAR. (12) This place is a mess.

The former CEO Håkan is back now, and things have drastically changed for the worse. The trust issues and level of micromanagement are insane. The first week he started he demanded everyone back to the office 5 days a week. Now there is a major push for it, and the only excuse accepted is that you are very ill. No consideration for individual circumstances, promises that were made about hybrid work for almost 5 years in a row, individual differences (for example, ADHD is not considered an excuse). Even in rare cases of exceptions, one still has to attend the office for at least 3 days. And it could hold some ground if the offices were at least good or it would've been compensated by decent salaries. None of this is present. The Head of People is trying to please him and is cracking down on employees. She even tried to justify the 5-day office policy by saying that we don't need to have desks for everyone (which is the case), because we don't want people to sit all day. And then, according to her, you can sit in the cafeteria with "semi-ergonomic seats". Håkan comes to meetings to comment on things like copy: he doesn't like it, so it should be different. Or, the other way around, if he is keen on some idea, everyone should die but deliver it by yesterday. Mass layoffs was another thing he came with. It is just mental how the company that had great work-life balance has now turned into this. But the board is apparently happy, the stock prices are growing. Besides the CEO, large parts of Volvo Cars suffer from very old-fashioned ways of working and lack of diversity. Many people in Gothenburg are working at Volvo Cars for decades and for some of them this is the only place they've ever worked at. They are difficult to let go and they just adapt to whatever the company throws at them. Many of them don't bring any value, just get the paycheck. But many smart, motivated people with very diverse experience are leaving because of the new policies and overall very slow pace. How Is Volvo hoping to build world-class software if all the world-class developers are leaving is beyond my understanding. On top of that all, no career progression for many years. Salary growth is minimal too. Work equipment is barebones. I loved working for Volvo Cars, but now I completely hate it and am looking for a way out as soon as possible. It still says Jim Rowan is the CEO on glassdoor, but he is not, so my rating of the CEO doesn't refer to him but to Håkan Samuelsson.