Unfortunately, my experience didn't match the company's reputation.
Having worked for several years in similar corporate roles across other organisations, this was by far the most challenging working environment I've experienced.
Despite being told it takes around a year to learn the business, onboarding was minimal and expectations were immediate. Managers often seemed too busy to review work, provide guidance or set clear expectations, yet feedback frequently arrived much later as a long list of criticisms rather than support along the way. Successes could later become failures, and people could be criticised retrospectively for not meeting expectations that had never been made clear. There also appeared to be an unhealthy level of anxiety around senior leadership. On one occasion, I was even advised to avoid eating in front of a particular senior leader. While the advice was well-intentioned, I found telling of the wider culture.
Some teams operate with a surprisingly high-pressure culture. There was an expectation of near-immediate responsiveness even for non-urgent requests, passive-aggressive communication was too often accepted as normal, and there was an uncomfortable culture of monitoring office presence rather than trusting people to manage their work.
As a global company, there also seemed to be a noticeable culture clash in some teams, where leadership styles did not always align with the more trust-based Scandinavian way of working. The result was an environment where mistakes were treated as failures, asking questions often left you feeling incompetent rather than supported, and psychological safety was lacking.
