Aerocompact - A Hire & Fire company straight from hell with a toxic culture. Stay away, do not join!!!
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
As in every job, you learn something that you can use in your next job.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Almost everything. I find it particularly worrying that the company reacts far too late to difficult market situations. Despite a sharp decline in sales, employees continue to be hired until it is suddenly realized that mass layoffs are required. This leads to the strange situation where new employees are trained while others pack their bags.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
The buck stops at the top. Improvements are only realistic if the C-level is replaced. However, this is unlikely to happen because the owner recently sold the company to an investor who is in need of an unscrupulous C-level to squeeze the company dry so that it can be sold on at a profit in 3-5 years' time.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Really bad to toxic. Endless pressure and a culture of mutual blame, which is promoted from above, nip any sense of well-being in the bud. People and materials are treated equally: Both are resources to make the products. Escalation meetings are common practice. Employees are intimidated or silenced by the C-level, for which even the expression of a professional opinion that doesn't fit in is enough.
Kommunikation
If you want to obtain truthful information, you can't do without the grapevine. For example, mass layoffs are only communicated retrospectively, presented in an embellished form and announced by video message. There are also so-called town hall meetings in which the C-level holds a storytelling session for the employees and, for example, forecasts fantasy sales figures. At least then you know that if the fantasy figures are not achieved, the next written notices are already being drafted.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
There is no such thing. The C-level encourages confrontation between employees and a culture of mutual recrimination. It's even worse across departments. Departments are in war mode and behave as if the other department is an external company. A large part of working time has to be spent on making sure that not you, but the other department is to blame. Team spirit is only encouraged at the twice-yearly parties, to which the European employees are carted off to Satteins, and where alcoholic drinks are served in exuberance. However, you can imagine that such artificial team spirit is just as lasting as the hangover the next day.
Work-Life-Balance
You won't have a work-life balance if you want to achieve anything in the company. Overtime is expected with no limit. And no matter how much overtime you work, it's never enough. The C-level only ever talks about what hasn't been done and claims that it's due to the employee's incompetence or laziness. In addition, you live in constant fear of losing your job, because waves of hiring and firing merge seamlessly into one another. Of course, you can't keep the really good employees this way. The brain drain in the past year has been massive.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
A worse C-level than in this company is unthinkable. Psychopathic and choleric character traits can be found everywhere. Empathy is feigned.
At a technical level, it is often the case that technically sound decisions by experts are overruled by C-level. This can also happen in late project phases after no one has been interested in the project for months. Then you start all over again or at least take three steps backwards. There is often not enough time to complete work packages because you should already be working on the next but one task.
However, this is clearly topped by the social behavior, which can only be described as “the lowest level”. Colleagues and superiors of employees who are to be dismissed often know weeks in advance that the employee in question is being dismissed because the C-level boasts about it and trumpets it across the corridor. In general, the C-level walks over dead bodies. In the course of the mass layoffs, they have tried to get rid of expectant mothers and fathers as quickly as possible. Employees who leave the company are openly spoken ill of.
Interessante Aufgaben
The time spent on absurd tasks can easily amount to 30-40% of the total working time. Recently, the company has been using a new advertising slogan that revolves around product safety. If good people with a lot of experience are leaving AEROCOMPACT at the drop of a hat and being replaced by young, less skilled and less experienced ones, who leave the company after an even shorter stay due to the high pressure and poor working atmosphere, while the product development cycles are getting shorter and shorter, fueled by the money-hungry investor, can such a slogan be trusted? Something has to fall by the wayside in this vicious circle. Anyone who can put one and one together will know the answer.
Gleichberechtigung
Women are preferably hired as personal assistants or at lower levels. There are at least a few exceptions at the second management level. The C-level is free of women.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
In general, elderly people are treated no differently than younger people, but that doesn't mean that both groups are treated well. In one case, I witnessed an older employee being belittled by his choleric C-level manager in front of the entire team to such an extent that he was in tears afterwards and despairing about his future in the company. Was that a coincidence? It may well be that the C-level is deliberately exploiting the fact that older employees can no longer find easily a new job.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Open-plan offices are the standard at all locations. If you want to concentrate on your work, you have to work from home. Speaking of working from home: like so many things at Aerocompact, there are no clear written rules on how many times a week you are entitled to work from home. Depending on the location and position in the company, the use of home office varies within the company. At least the IT and office equipment are quite reasonable - I have seen worse.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
It is non-existent. Recently, people have been driving around in Teslas, but this is only a façade to the outside world. The corporate spirit is to use photovoltaics as a money-printing machine. If there was more money to be made from nuclear power, Aerocompact would be producing fuel elements. After all, I have never seen anyone in this company seriously claiming to be doing something good for the environment.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
I would describe my salary more as compensation for pain and suffering. At the end of the day, it's clear that you won't stay at a company like this for long. That's why I gave up the constant begging for salary increases. I also had to chase after one or two salary payments because the payment was “forgotten” or failed due to a lack of communication. There are quite a few things in the employment contracts that you have to swallow. Unpaid overtime is stipulated in the contract.
Image
The company likes to present itself as green, but this is only a façade. The company's corporate identity is completely black, which fits in well with the soul life, if you can speak of that at all in a company. Summer parties and Christmas parties always end in a collective drunken bender.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Further training courses are officially offered. However, due to the great pressure, it is in fact not appreciated if you “take a week off” for further training. In general, employee turnover is immense. In some positions, the respective employee resigns every 8 months. The average length of stay at Aerocompact is between one and two years. Work priorities promised at the time of recruitment are not kept and have to give way to day-to-day business. If you threaten to resign, promises are made about new work priorities or even about hierarchical advancement, which are then not kept. It is not uncommon for new employees to quit after just a few days once they have understood what is going on.