Summary: Sinking ship, don’t hop up unless you like to live in crisis mode and constant fear of being part of the next massive layoff without a single explanation or human treatment.
There is a complete lack of vision, direction and common sense from the very top. Constant changes of priorities and expectations without clear communication or transparency about it. This not only affects the work environment in the worst possible way but gives absolutely no confidence that this is a company that has a good future ahead of it or that will hold through hard times.
The product itself, what’s supposed to be the heart and soul of the company, is falling apart because it was built on bad decisions on top of bad decisions and due to the incompetence of those who decide and that should realize what’s really going on, it will only get worse. You’ll do what you are told to do, it will fail because it was badly conceived from the beginning and then you’ll be lectured to do better and will have to run like crazy to fix it. Crisis mode is permanent and for what concerns an employee, that translates into unbelievable levels of stress and subsequent burnout.
As for opportunities and compensation … Imagine you are hired to do A. You do it well, so now you are supposed to do A, B and C but your payment will be A all along and it will be labeled as ‘this task is everyone’s responsibility’. There are no formal career paths, and directives to earn a career/salary increment don’t exist so if you’re lucky enough and they don’t change things along the way into something unachievable and senseless you’ll get an annual bonus and a cold thumbs up from some manager. A good career investment is to befriend the right person it seems and doesn’t even guarantee anything for certain.
Human resources department should be called resources since the human part was lost a long time ago if it ever existed. As an employee here you are on your own and no one will step up for you when injustices are made. It’s only normal that in such an environment you see the worst of people flourish, that’s what fear of losing the job out of the blue, being punished and a constant sense of being lost and not valued does to people.
