XCentium Reviews

Bad communication from management. Promises rarely delivered. Some coworkers were rude and unhelpful. XCentium thinks they are in India. No perks.

I was a developer at XCentium for several years, was a top-performing employee, and I received praise from my co-workers and bosses alike. However, I experienced harassment and bullying from a manager. This particular individual is a classic workplace bully: deliberately combative, disrespectful, threw childish temper tantrums, tried to gaslight and blame me and other developers for her own incompetence, made negative comments about other employees behind their backs, and used her position and power to try to alienate me. It's fascinating that a woman with the emotional regulation of a teenager managed to climb so high in the first place. And as if that's not insulting enough, add to that this toxic manager regularly failed to perform some of the most basic job duties. I reported the pattern of abusive behavior to the company, and it wasn't the first time this manager was reported by someone: XCentium admitted that several other employees raised red flags about her behavior as well. So, XCentium admitted they knew about this pattern of behavior, and also conceded that it was problematic. However, XCentium responded to my complaints by making a number of excuses, and even Amrit saying that maybe her behavior will never change. Imagine reporting abusive behavior from a manager, and the CEO says that the abusive manager probably won't change -- as if you're supposed to simply accept this. It is abundantly clear to me that the the company never had any intention of taking accountability or doing anything to address these issues. They made absurd promises (lies), like how they were going to talk to this toxic manager and how they'll have her take behavior "classes." Barrels of laughs! I know for a fact they didn't even bother talking to her, let alone making this individual take behavioral classes. They said they would assign me a new manager -- and they didn't even do that. Instead, shortly after I filed the complaint, it was I who was replaced on the project and relegated to some minor project -- to which the company and Amrit gave completely contrary statements as to why I was being replaced. The behavior of this company is utterly disgusting. It is not a decent place run by honest people. This is only a fraction of the abuses. I was regularly forced to work overtime, including nights, weekends, and holidays. 70-80 hours a week is not uncommon. It's not just me -- I have talked to other developers, and this is a systemic problem, and they too are forced to work absurd hours. This has been an ongoing problem for years, yet absolutely nothing has changed. And all that overtime that you work almost never translates to extra pay. That's because when you're working long hours, it's usually because the project is already behind schedule and there isn't any more budget. So, what usually happens is that the project managers cap the number of billable hours (e.g. to 20 hours for that week) and then force you to change the rest of the hours you worked to non-billable -- so there's no extra pay, even when you're working long in to the night and into the weekend. And as I said before, this happens ALL the time. XCentium projects are always a mess. Of the 9 client projects I was on, 33% of them never made it into production, and the websites were never launched. And it's not because engineers weren't able to develop a solution; rather, the company leaders manage to screw something up on the business-side of things. What a waste of time and effort! I basically had to sacrifice my time, my mental health, and work-life balance in order to make Amrit richer. When I submitted my resignation and Amrit was trying desperately to get me to stay, he was groaning about how XCentium spends a lot of money to recruit employees -- that's what these people are concerned about. What Armit cares about is how can he extract as much profit from his employees. And the thing that sticks out to me is the sheer amount of contempt the company has for their clients. There hasn't been a single project where someone (usually higher-ups) didn't ridicule and laugh at the clients behind their backs, remarking how supposedly stupid and incompetent the client is. Is it any surprise then, when your company has toxic, disrespectful, middle mangers? By the time of leaving XCentium, there were fewer developers in my department than when I started. And the top developers had already left the company. To be fair, there were plenty of employees at XCentium who were honest, hard-working, and professional, and were a privilege to work with. But the thing is, there are just so many better options in the digital consulting space -- places where employees are actually valued. You would be better off working at Horizontal, Perficient, or Arkane Digital. In fact, the latter was founded by former XCentium employees, including an XCentium co-founder and several directors. Imagine how bad your company has to be that you not only drive out your best employees, but they then start their own company and become your direct competitor.