After almost 3 years at Andela, I saw my team get cut by over 95% eventually leading to my roles elimination. I was hired for a particular role, and I genuinely expected to be focused on that role with the ability to be great in it (which I was). As time went on, my team had over 20+ of its members laid off, and my single role turned into what is normally 4 different positions all in one. The reasoning for this was a number of things... We consistently changed the direction and strategy of the company, having consistent leadership has always been a struggle so sometimes you are heading one direction but with a leadership change you end up another, etc. Keep in mind, when you have leadership changes majority of the work you have done is then forgotten.
Because I am always looking to grow and expand in my career, taking on all of these roles seemed like a great thing, but this was until it came time for raises (lack of), bonuses (not existent), and actually being recognized for all of the work you put in. Layoffs were due to the horrible spending across the board, and pretty poor hiring practices. We didn't always hire the best talent around the world, but instead we focused more on low cost locations and who can save us the most money. At first they felt this was a great idea, but in time this led to a lot of underperformance leading to more layoffs across the company, but they still didn't adjust and are focused more on cost instead of hiring great talent in every case.
The culture and work life balance at Andela from all of the above changes went from a great place to work, to somewhere you really need to avoid. Majority of those left in management roles shouldn't be there, and take most of the credit from those below them helping them keep their jobs and actually getting rewarded for it. Instead of recognizing those that are actually doing all of the work, a good number of leaders take all of the credit while leaving the teams who in most cases have no where else to go feeling quite frustrated and depressed.