Ooni Reviews

My time at Ooni has been a regrettable chapter in my life, and it's important to share my experience: - Toxic Positivism: The company's emphasis on maintaining a positive environment too often crosses into the territory of denial. It's crucial that we acknowledge and address issues rather than sugarcoat them. - All Talk, No Action: There's no shortage of discussions and promising ideas, but the execution is sorely lacking. It's frustrating to see so much potential go unrealized. - Management and Decision-Making: Management? What management? It's like navigating a ship with no captain. Despite many bosses and managers, clear direction, leadership, and support are conspicuously absent. The management's weakness, characterized by indecision and a lack of clear decision-making, obstructs the team's effectiveness, leaving us adrift in uncertainty and stagnation. This situation is further compounded by the current director, whose primary concern appears to be saying "yes" to the executive team to keep them satisfied, rather than making decisions that enhance the team's effectiveness and the company's overall progress. This absence of effective management and decision-making significantly impedes our ability to achieve long-term goals and success. - Overreliance on Outsourcing: Outsourcing can have its benefits, but it has led to communication problems and a lack of ownership for in-house talent. - A Significant Exodus: Within the engineering team, a distressing pattern emerges — a significant number of team members are either actively seeking new job opportunities or seriously contemplating leaving the company. This atmosphere of uncertainty and unhappiness creates a considerable challenge in maintaining motivation and productivity. Witnessing a continuous exodus of talented colleagues is deeply unsettling, reflecting underlying issues that affect the entire team. - "If You Don't Like It, Quit" Attitude within the Engineering Team: The prevailing sentiment of "if you don't like it, quit" is demotivating and unconstructive. This attitude doesn't align with Ooni's values, yet no changes are made to address it. It's crucial to foster a culture of open feedback and problem-solving. Moreover, it's worth noting that most negative reviews seem to emanate from the engineering team, and their concerns are undeniably valid. The issues raised are a reflection of the challenging environment that needs immediate attention. While my experience in the engineering team has been profoundly negative, it's possible that other departments offer a more positive working environment. However, my journey at Ooni has been marked by overwhelming dissatisfaction and regret, making it difficult to recommend.

This is because despite the amount of feedback the company receives from staff on a regular basis, the problems and issues that arise from there are largely ignored. If you don’t go the anonymous route, you’re met with the stock answer ‘Speak to your Line Manager’. Management hopes that with the passage of time and through pushing out false toxic positivity, this will be enough to make all the problems go away rather than admit their mistakes and fight the issues head on. Or perhaps for them, it is just a way to highlight who the ‘problem’ people are. We have been told before that if we don’t like it here then we can leave so that we don’t ruin the fun for everyone else. You have to wonder why there are so many negative Glassdoor reviews despite all the feedback we already have to regularly give. This is because people are tired of not being heard and this is the last resort to warn others who are thinking of joining Ooni to look beyond the pretty marketing claims. People are fed up and this is evident in the high staff turnover especially in the Product team. They are leaving faster than they can replace them. Working at Ooni can eventually drain you if you are not constantly bowing down to the Heads of Departments or Execs and their whims. Most of the time we’re all running around like headless chickens not knowing which direction we’re meant to go in because it changes all the time. The Product Roadmap constantly changes with the higher ups telling us we need to launch every product ASAP because leadership haven’t actually sat down and thought about the plan long term logically and how it will actually be delivered with the resources we have. That’s right, the staff are called ‘resources’ - we’re nothing more. There is no such thing as “best idea wins”. It’s an illusion to make you think that they value anything you have to say. At Ooni you are told to jump and your response should only be “how high?” No one wants to hear you ask, why are we jumping? Or they might say - I agree, but keep jumping for now until we figure it out.