Untrained, Overstressed Management in Crowded Workspace - Content Developer Clutch Employee Review

I worked at Clutch for exactly a year, and it was dispiriting and repetitive. The main reason for this is that Clutch prefers to hire people fresh out of college, many of whom haven’t worked anywhere else. This is a common strategy at start-ups: green employees will tolerate mismanagement because they don't know any better. During my year at the company, few people had been promoted to managerial status, so the handful of managers were overworked, frustrated, and rarely in touch with what their direct reports were doing. Entry-level workers have little direction. Most managers have received little to no managerial training and act unprofessionally on a regular basis. The CEO, who is distant from Clutch's day-to-day operations, either doesn't know or doesn't care. And since this is a start-up, there's no HR department to complain to. Cliquishness, combined with lack of office space, is a major issue. Clutch moved into its new office two years ago but was already outgrowing the space by the time I got there. A year later, when I left, it was crowded and uncomfortable. Lines for the bathroom were a daily reality. Managers seem to have favorites, and those favorites tend to get the most rewarding and interesting opportunities/process ownership. In some cases, managers outright bully employees they don't like. Though there are semi-private offices (5-6 people to a room), people often sit in friend groups, which makes finding a quiet space to get work done almost impossible. At lunch, I never felt welcome sitting at the communal table and ate at my desk, working through the lunch hour, on most days. I took coffee breaks just so I had a reason to leave my desk...and then was chastised for those. Making the only measurable metric the number of links that a person can collect in a month seems like an unfair practice. Some employees get easier segments than others, so reaching a certain link goal is a breeze for some and grueling for the rest. Employees are expected to stay after the official quitting time of 5:30, even if they’ve hit their link numbers. I never did this because the pay was good, but it wasn't THAT good. Subsequently, I felt judged for not adhering to the unspoken code of grabbing a beer at 5:00 and then working for a few more hours. (I don't drink beer.) All of this contributes to the passive-aggressiveness that pervades the office and makes clear decision-making difficult. I say all this not because I have a vendetta against the company or the people who work at Clutch - many of them are smart and talented, and if they can thrive here, then great! - but because I want recent college grads to know what they're getting into.