Beware the performative DEI
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
I got fired 5 months 1/2 within my probation period 2 days before Christmas, based on feedback that was discriminatory and contained straight-up lies. Before getting let go I reached out the works council and DEI to get help managing the situation with my manager. They had one conversation with my manager without me in it and did not follow up on anything afterwards. You have no idea how traumatizing this whole experience was for me.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Invest in your infrastructure, you have over 1000 employees! Make DEI trainings compulsory for everyone and hold everyone accountable to the same standards. Also train your line managers! None of them is even remotely fit to lead people, this is on you!
Arbeitsatmosphäre
People don't know how to work in the hybrid setup Babbel has in place or how to work efficiently as Babbel has zero infrastructure and offers zero guidance on how to collaborate. I felt pressured by my manager to go into the office and attend pointless meeting after pointless meeting simply because he did not know how to do otherwise. Most people at Babbel are very nice though.
Kommunikation
Babbel is very chaotic, processes are non-existent and docs are all over the place; most people don't know where to find things or what exists. DEI trainings are not mandatory which creates a situation where everyone has different standards of what behavior is acceptable or not and no one is being held accountable for anything.
Work-Life-Balance
I mean, sure, it's fine.
Interessante Aufgaben
I did get to learn a lot at Babbel, the product is very interesting and the company has a proper UX culture.
Gleichberechtigung
I hadn't seen such overtly sexist behaviour in a while. Female and non-binary employees are definitely held to a different standard than men at Babbel in terms of behavior. Mind you, I'm neurodivergent on top of being non-binary and got double-bullied for it.
Arbeitsbedingungen
I guess there's worse.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Babbel is a vegetarian company which I find very good on paper. However it is not strictly enforced and I've seen teams still ordering meals with meat on Babbel's dime so what's the point.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
I feel like Babbel looks good on paper but is in reality not very generous with their employees. During my time there they readjusted salaries without really saying against what metrics and did not want to release their salary grids so it really makes you wonder what kind of salary gaps exist between employees. Limiting the BVG pass coverage to people living more than 5km away from the office is also very ableist.
Image
Babbel has good DEI PR but is very performative.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
When I was there my manager was still building the career paths for our team so who knows, maybe it's good now. But at the time I really didn't have the visibility over what's possible for me at Babbel.