This business believes they have a nimble workplace and structure, but the reality is that they are very disorganised. Hard to understand dept structures, teams location or even get an accurate organization chart.
That also reflects on the physical office and day to day operations. They have a very low quality office in a coworking space, where the only positive was that they had enough desks for all employees.
The place only had 2 small meeting rooms, which meant many times serious conversations/meetings or even training sessions took place in social areas, such as the kitchen, where strangers are sitting close by.
The office was super cold, dirty, messy.... The door lock didn’t work for more than 1 month, posing a security threat.
The coworking common areas were also bad. The air-con unit in the office would burst into very loud noises and maintenance was called frequently. There were frequent sewage problems in the toilets. For days you would have to go up and down the floors to find another bathroom.
Stupid WFO rules, like everyone must WFO on Mondays. This was the day of a general meeting, but because the meeting rooms they had were minuscule, many employees would join the meeting via their laptop sitting at their own desks.
Not all staff followed this WFO on Mondays rule, but yet this was hailed as mandatory for everybody.
Laptops being given to employees are beyond old, damaged, some w/ screens cracked, etc. Yet you are expected to perform at a high level, with subpar equipment.
Overall very young staff which is not necessarily bad, but I sometimes observed immature behaviours such as gossiping, saw a couple of people actually sleeping at their desks but management would not intervene, etc. There were definitely cliques between groups of people and there are a few Yes-People that blindly follow managers and definitely report everything they see, back to them. Seems to be the way to survive and progress in this business.
Higher management is also problematic. I observed senior staff bullying other staff members. My supervisor/manager, I spoke more to this person during the interview process than while working there. Even though it was mandatory to WFO 3 days a week, I hardly saw this individual at the office. They lacked social skills, anxiety was obvious when interacting with other people, therefore they protected themselves by mostly WFH.
Another rule implemented was that anyone new joining, would go through a mandatory 6 months probation period, independently if you were a senior staff member, or an entry level employee. Even though this was the case, I personally had 3 months of support and training, after this period I was “abandoned” to resolve everything by myself. They had no onboarding scheme prepared and everything was “taught” on the go, drawings on a whiteboard, that's it, no material provided. Their intranet was completely outdated, disorganized, there was no source of accurate information anywhere, even if you wanted to find info.
Consequently, their feedback was also unsupported and contradictory. Goals and expectations were not clearly communicated, and so when you don’t perform their goals (the ones they never communicated to you!), by their standards, you’ve failed.
When I worked there, I also saw a lot of people, mostly senior staff, leaving. The issue became obvious and it was briefly discussed at a general meeting. No valid explanation was given, it was more of a “let's brush under the rug the fact everyone seems to be leaving”. After my experience there, I totally understand why.
This is a business to avoid at all costs. If you are starting your career go find a business that will invest on you and actually teach you. For senior position people, be prepared for the low wages and massive mess you'll find and you'll be expected to fix, while being given a broken laptop.