Emma reviews

My experience in the Marketing team was marked by instability, burnout and a lack of psychological safety. From the beginning, it was clear that the team was already overwhelmed: two team members openly mentioned being burned out and feeling constantly under pressure. Already in my first month, I received hostility out of nowhere and without any apparent reason, from the senior colleague in the team. This included abrupt responses, unnecessarily harsh treatment, and situations where I felt exposed in front of the entire team. When I raised this with my manager, the response didn’t help. I was told that I needed to “recover my credibility”, that this colleague was simply “like that” and blunt, and that I should get used to it, despite being new to the company. When I asked for guidance, I was told it would be better to resolve everything on my own because escalating further might make me look like I couldn’t handle my own issues. Only when I mentioned escalating to senior leadership did the tone change, but by then the damage had already been done. My three-month review continued in the same direction. The feedback was extremely critical for someone with only three months in the company, with expectations far beyond a realistic onboarding period. I was expected to already master complex troubleshooting processes, fully adopt a methodology that wasn’t documented, deliver roadmaps for several countries, redesign dashboards, and drive multiple strategic initiatives, all while dealing with unclear processes, unstable data and a visibly burned-out team. It felt disconnected from what a newcomer could reasonably deliver in that environment. There was also a collective feedback session which felt unusual to me, where we were asked to comment on the work environment in front of everyone. In that meeting, the senior colleague openly said he would rate the environment “zero out of ten”, mentioning workload, lack of recognition and constant pressure. Despite such a clear and serious signal from the team itself, nothing changed afterwards, which made it even more evident that these issues were structural and not being addressed. Later, another colleague left and the manager went on maternity leave unexpectedly . Ironically, after those changes, the workflow became smoother and more organised, but the emotional impact of the earlier months remained and shaped my overall experience. Before leaving, the senior colleague apologised and explained that he had been diagnosed with burnout, which helped me contextualise some of the behaviour I experienced. However, the fact that this situation escalated to that point, without the company addressing the underlying issues earlier, only reinforced how deep the structural problems were within the team.

I completed two rounds of interviews and also took an assessment as part of the process. The assessment was a cognitive test which, in my view, did not seem relevant to the requirements of a legal position and therefore felt like an unnecessary step. What concerned me more, however, was the email I received afterwards. The feedback provided did not focus on my performance or qualifications but instead appeared to comment on my character in a way that felt inappropriate for a professional recruitment process. While this may not have been the intention, the tone of the message could be perceived as bordering on discriminatory, which raises questions about the company's work culture.