Toxic work environment for some employees - Anonymous employee Fourwaves Employee Review

A great team and culture. Everyone is approachable, friendly, and easy to work with. People don’t take themselves too seriously, which makes for a happy and pleasant work environment. Management is accessible and truly cares about your growth. Feedback, even constructive criticism, is welcomed, wanted, and taken seriously. Lots of autonomy and trust. You’re given ownership over your work and not micromanaged. You build relationships with customers and help them succeed. It’s rewarding when a customer genuinely appreciates you and the work you put in to help make their event a success. Since it’s a smaller team, you get exposure to different parts of the business and can make a real impact. There are regular discussions with the CEO and CTO, who value your thoughts, ideas and initiative. Flexible work environment. Quarterly team retreats. The whole team gets together for a week with activities, collaboration, and social time, which build stronger relationships in a remote environment. There’s also a company trip down south every two years, which is a really nice perk!

As a company growing quickly, priorities and KPIs can shift, so you need to be comfortable adapting and moving fast. It has startup pace feel, which means things can get busy and you need to be willing to put in the work. This is not the kind of place where you can coast or “hide”, like in a large organization. People are accountable, ownership is expected, and your contributions are visible. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Since the team is still relatively small, there are fewer layers of management and currently no formal manager role in some areas. This means less traditional career structure and fewer middle-management opportunities, though it also comes with a high level of autonomy and direct access to leadership.

- Extremely talented, kind, caring and collaborative coworkers. - Fun clients, motivating mission.

While managing people can be challenging as a startup grows past the stage of a solo venture, it’s no excuse for failing to learn how to do it right. This company has a troubling history of hiring smart, capable individuals, only to squeeze the life out of them and discard them at the slightest bump in the road without any prior warning. Such practices create a culture of fear, where employees are afraid to speak up due to the threat of sudden dismissal, ultimately fostering a toxic environment that stifles both creativity and progress.