Save Your Sanity and Stay Away - Anonymous employee Europe Congress Employee Review

Colleagues are nice and it can be fun when CEO is OOO.

If you value your time, well-being, and professional growth, do yourself a favor and stay away. This place is a trap, and if you’ve already stepped in, quit while you’re still on probation—you’ll notice all the red flags soon enough. The work environment is oppressive and micromanaged to the extreme. You’ll be expected to remain at your desk from 9 AM to 6 PM sharp—leaving even a minute early is unacceptable, and even washing your cup before the exact hour is considered slacking off. Any conversation with colleagues is dismissed as “chit-chat”, as the only acceptable activity is making endless calls. Lunch breaks? Forget about taking a proper one. Management often uses this time to discuss work while sitting in the kitchen with employees, ensuring they don’t “overstay.” Employees are responsible for taking out the trash themselves. Why don’t they mention it as your responsibility beforehand..? Sick days? The so-called "benefit" of three sick days is a joke. If you’re unwell, you’re expected to come to the office first, work for a few hours, and only then—if they feel generous—you might be allowed to go home. And then there are the weekend events. Be prepared to work from dawn until midnight, without proper breaks. The unspoken motto? “We don’t sleep, we don’t eat, we don’t go to the toilet.” To make matters worse, there’s no additional pay for overtime or weekends. 1/4 part of your earned commissions will go to the management's pocket.. Finally, don’t be fooled by the only 5-star review scripted by management to cover up the reality. If you're considering working here, you’d be better off at McDonald’s. At least you'd have a healthier work environment and fairer treatment.

giving employees constant motivation to quit the job

There are about 10 employees in the company. While I’ve been working here over 2 years, more than 7 people either left or were fired. With so few employees, this high rate of replacement is a clear sign. The colleagues are often coming and going around. The boss often asserts that he is capable of organizing events alone, which raises questions about the need for hiring additional staff for this purpose. Micromanaged work environment that often left employees feeling restricted and undervalued. There are frequent emails dictating what we shouldn’t do during the workday, down to minute details. For example, we are told not to make coffee at 9 AM because the boss expects everyone to be working exactly from 9 o’clock. Similarly, going to the bathroom or washing a cup near the end of the day, around 5:50 PM is discouraged, as the boss expects us to work until exactly 6 PM or even later. There is pressure to stay beyond 6:00 PM regularly. But there is no recognition or compensation for the over time. Ironically, any time taken off for doctor’s appointments or personal matters is very carefully tracked, and we are required to make up for those hours even though no adjustments are made for the unpaid overtime hours we put in. (We worked average of 16 hours a day when organizing the events) Plus, the salary offered by the company is significantly lower than the average wage. While commissions are offered, they are so many conditions to get paid “proper” salaries. Overall, the rigid rules, very bad work-life balance and micromanagement make for a stressful and frustrating work experience.