All the right ingredients, run by the wrong people
Pros
The science and production behind the food is genuinely outstanding. There is so much potential to make real change in the pet food market, and it's a real delight to work alongside truly passionate people. Plus dogs and cats in the office!
Cons
The latest business strategy (lightly paraphrased) is to copy more, make faster, more top-down decisions, prioritise speed, and work more than you’re being paid to, which reads like a strategy slide from a startup that’s three weeks from running out of money. Except this one isn’t. For a business that goes out of its way to think of creative ways to delight customers, it’s ironic that leadership has forgotten they have the same responsibility to their employees. From taking away small concessions like flexible working to normalising behaviour that genuinely makes it impossible to get your job done well--micromanagement, yelling in the office and thinly veiled threats--they seem to think that fear is an effective management strategy. There’s no actual reward for hard work or loyalty. Urgency is literally a company value and manifests in the most counterproductive ways. It’s cat food, not cancer medication, yet the sacrifices you’re asked to make (working hours beyond your contracted hours, enduring public and private humiliation) come without any of the normal perks of a startup like stocks, bonuses and reasonable pay rises. Unless you’re in a leadership position, in which case, arguably your power simply isn’t worth it, given how little of it you’re actually allowed to exercise. Decisions get made for you, then you’re held accountable for them. If you’re going to be micromanaged, you’d at least hope it would be by someone more competent than you. Instead, leadership would rather take over entire functions they have no experience in, either running it themselves or handing it off to consultants with no context, who are under pressure to tell them what they want to hear. They will ignore and get rid of the very smart and competent people they've hired or push them out entirely. If you do decide to join, there’s a chance you’ll get lucky with your team or manager. With so many great people, there's bound to be pockets of safety. But if anything ends up impacting you and you want to raise a grievance, there’s no real HR function. Best case you get ignored. More likely you’ll be gaslit and told it isn’t that bad ("Have you tried the employee assistance programme, or a self-help book?"). There’s also a real risk of retaliation, given there’s no accountability structure in place to protect you, so YMMV. If this is how leadership responds at a time when the company is objectively doing well, I’d hate to see what a genuine crisis looks like.
