- Communication is a foreign concept in the company. There is an issue of communication between C-level and the rest, between departments, between geographies, and so on. It got so bad that there's an issue with communication with HR department, they failed to update employees on changes in some policies multiple times, for example;
- HR department consists of people who will never have your back, and will rarely be of a help in general. There were a few times when I had to report some issues to HR and they completely failed me; e.g. when I reported a misconduct of behavior, all I was told was that it must have been "a cultural difference" and perhaps I should talk to this person on my own. Also as a person who just moved to a new country I rely on HR department to explain the way insurance, medical care, pensions, and so on work here;
- For a company that consists of people coming from very different backgrounds and cultures there's a funny outlook on the topics of diversity and inclusion. The only time I have heard anything along the lines of this, was during the onboarding, when we have been told that HelloFresh has zero policy towards racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and so on. Yet I myself have experienced sexism, toxic masculinity and misconduct of behaviour multiple times, as well as most of my female coworkers across multiple departments. Reporting those was tricky as there is no set processes, and once you do HRs and managers have no clue what to do next. As well as there's no conduct of behavior, no anti bias training even for managers, no acknowledgement of LGBTQI month or non-Christian holidays, no opportunities for people to get to know each other and/or each other's cultures in some other way than the Beer Friday alcohol consumption tradition;
- There's no clear path for a career development, promotions and raises – the policies seem to always shift and in general it does not seem like a priority for the company. There's a huuuge turnover of talent, and it seems like it does not bother anyone. In my opinion the company relies on a continues stream of people willing to relocate to Berlin, and since HelloFresh is a well known brand and offers a nice relocation package they feel they are covered. The educational package is a joke, there are no conferences out there that would be that cheap;
- The mid-level managers are usually promoted based on the unknown to me merits which creates issues with transparency and trust. It is then getting worse since these new managers are lacking a lot of the skills, but the company does not offer any additional support in terms of mentorship or leadership trainings;
- Office is over-crowded, with forever-booked meeting rooms and phone booths, and there's no infrastructure for remote collaboration which is funny for a company operating in so many countries;
- C-level folks are not transparent about the priorities and the course of action they are taking. Only once in a while there will be a one-way townhall where the CEO would address employees listing the recent successes and high-level goals.
