I was excited to write raunchy pulp fiction for Galatea, but ended up feeling pressured into developing some deeply disturbing content. You see, being 'data-driven for Ali and his henchpeople meant that all Galatea projects were picked from their self-published platform Inkitt by an algorithm, with no system in place to check if the stories were appropriate for development.
Inkitt is, in practice anyway, an erotic romance platform, consumed by people looking for erotica. Nothing wrong with any of that! The problem was that the stories our algorithm increasingly flagged with ‘best seller’ potential were objectively toxic - romanticising assault, abuse and paedophilia. Obviously, self-published writers can write what they like - but it felt extremely uncomfortable to be forced to develop this kind of work, which was then sold at a premium to a fairly young and impressionable audience.
Writers tried to polish out the worst elements of such stories, but that put us at loggerheads with management - whose position was that the algorithm had picked this story for a reason and we must not question the algorithm. Writing romanticised stories of abuse to tight deadlines was, unsurprisingly, taking a toll on my mental health. I was also concerned that these stories could get the company (and the writers connected with it) in trouble - not to mention putting off plenty of potential customers. These issues were raised repeatedly - but despite management's constant demands for feedback nothing was done. Eventually, they said that ‘personal ethics’ was not a valid reason for rejecting a story.
In April 2020 I was part of a group that was let go over zoom all hands, after weeks of Ali telling us that our sales had gone up since the pandemic. They made us an ‘alumni Slack’ that booted us off the main one - making it hard to even swap contacts with colleagues. They pressured us to sign ‘agreements’ that basically fired ourselves - putting us at risk of losing access to benefits. The ‘severance’ was just our notice period. Some people were just weeks off qualifying for state unemployment and lost out on a year's worth of support during a pandemic. The references that we were promised turned out to be a document talking about how Inkitt is the new Disney - with no mention of our role or personal achievements. The few who fought for proper severance were subjected to weeks of bullying phone calls from management.
Truth be told, I don’t believe that they made us redundant because of the pandemic, even though that was the reason given. There were many options for furloughing staff during this period that other companies took up, and I can see that they have been hiring writers since. I believe they used this pandemic as an excuse to sweep the office clear of naysayers. The writers that were made redundant were mixed in seniority and experience but linked by the fact they voiced concerns about the content we were being asked to develop. From what I understand, management has doubled down in their uncritical subservience to the creepy algorithm since we left.
The company is generally ridiculous. Their ‘we’re the next Disney thing’ is so embarrassing. All these companies have in common is a narcissistic founder and love of romanticising toxic relationships. Ali is a strange dude. Even when he’s being nice, the result is weirdly intrusive. He got us all enneagram tests but then forced us to share our results on our slack. He spent crazy money on fitness instructors but then awkwardly pressured everyone to be weighed in the office. After the zoom redundancies, he sent out copy-pasted ‘thank you’ messages to fired peoples and sent out frankly insulting enneagram affirmation cards.
His priorities were all over the place. He bought a 3000 euro rug for the meeting room (and then banned red wine from the office ) but when the sound department asked for a recording mic he got them a 20 euro USB one. Desperately needed roles were left unfilled because he'd only accept the best of the best despite offering them very little. Meanwhile, he handed senior management roles to inexperienced friends and their friends and family, dooming the place to perpetual mismanagement. While I try to be empathetic that he's just spectacularly out of his depth, there were plenty of moments that revealed callousness. Loudly discussing (in the middle of an open-plan office) a potential candidate’s lack of ambition because she recently had children was just one uncomfortable moment that springs to mind.
To those thinking of working for Inkitt (especially if you are relocating), please pay close attention to negative reviews, as management repeatedly pressures people to write good ones. They also put up fakes - I can see several reviews that look suspiciously HR-written have gone up since I left.
I would also be extra careful of creative roles. Management treat the content team like easily replaceable garbage, and will 100% swap them for bots once the technology's halfway there. You are likely to be strung along by the exploitative test work and forced to write objectively terrible things to unrealistic deadlines. They don't care about your ideas/expertise and voicing concerns will likely lose you your job.
To all the lovely people still stuck there - seriously consider legal insurance, and screenshot anything screwed up. Oh, and if you're a writer, maybe use a pen name - you don't want to be associated with these clowns down the line.
To those thinking of investing in Inkitt, please consider that this is a digital media company that, at a time when the world was suddenly extremely reliant on digital media, could not imagine its content being profitable. From what I can tell, they are selling the algorithm - which is basic at best and creepy at worst. It just ain't worth it.
