Startup went corporate went IPO, on the backs of the staff
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The office, the sense of community amongst low-to-mid-level staff (some can even become private friends), the development budget.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Lying about having low hierarchies to new recruits when hierarchies are growing by the quarter.
Replacing internal managers with new big-corporate managers from outside, who are out of touch with the employees that are used to the former-startup culture.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Listen to all levels of employees, even if they criticize upwards.
Invest in your highest-level employees (obligatory management training to better guide employees, and check whether the training methods are actually applied) AND in you lowest-level employees (they are the ones actually doing the ground-level work).
Publish company-wide which feedback you received from employees and take regular action on this.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The open plan office with high ceilings and lots of plants definitely creates a great outward atmosphere, and the obligatory cereal-and-softdrinks package is there to uphold the old startup image.
Low-to-mid-level staff build a community and celebrate and suffer together („us against the world“).
Managers keep out of critical conversations as much as Friday drinks.
There is a lot of pressure, especially since the IPO in October 2018. Often, there is little trust in the staff, yet they are blamed first for unachieved results instead of looking into their managers.
The quarterly team events feel more and more forced, with less and less attendance.
The desired feedback culture is only encouraged while you have something nice or uncontroversial to say. As soon as you criticize upward, it often backfires at you, if it is reacted on at all.
Kommunikation
Yes, there is daily stand-ups in some teams. Yes, there are process handbooks in other teams.
Yes, there are weekly and monthly and quarterly meetings where managers tell you about what is being done. But it seems like very few of the staff know what to make of all that communication.
There is little interest from management to first bring everyone onto the same page, to be able to process the information that is given.
Asking questions to understand something new is only possible so often before you are frowned upon for asking too much.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
The low-to-mid-level staff have a strong sense of community where you feel supported amongst your peers, you can be honest and critical.
As management doesn‘t mingle with their employees, a feeling of „us against them“ is created, and an impression that managers talk-but-doesn‘t-walk when it comes to the company values (i.a. Be Open, Stand Together).
Work-Life-Balance
Core working hours desired by upper management are 9am until 6pm and are kept up by everyone when someone from the London management team comes over for a couple of days. When no one from London is there, working hours are looser.
Some teams say you can come later and work later, but when you actually show up even five minutes late, you‘re questioned why you didn‘t let your manager know of your tardiness.
Working is only granted when you have something urgent to do at home (electrician coming etc.), as most managers don’t trust their staff to actually do work at home - however, managers grant themselves repeated home office days week after week.
Vacation can be taken even on short notice when the rest of the team is there.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Ever year, goals are talked about, but neither set down in the tool that was put in place by HR, nor actually set checked on throughout the year.
Decisions from managers can be one thing one week and change 2 weeks later.
Feedback from staff is listened to in the group but not actioned on.
Criticizing a manager often falls back on you, because it‘s it is regarded as you trying to find excuses for why you‘re not „gritty“ enough.
Interessante Aufgaben
Work is hard but manageable, results are criticized for not having been as high as wanted, even if you exceed targets. Projects are interesting and mostly very loosely timed. Project extensions are the norm.
Gleichberechtigung
Mother can reenter the workforce easily. There seems to be little gender discrimination on promotions, yet discrimination based on your financial/economic know, no matter if your department was deeply finance-related or not.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Several long-standing (older) employees were either let go for no reason or diminished in their roles so much that they want to leave themselves. The few remaining „older“ employees are below 50 years old.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
There is waste separation, drinks in glass bottles (instead of plastic) and the option to dry your hands with a Dyson blowdryer instead of paper (paper towels are still there and mostly used).
There is no
- policy for paper usage
- ventilation guides for hot days/heating guides for cold days
- organic/fairtrade products in the kitchen (fruit/milk/coffee/tea)
- travel policy to discourage plane travel (and encourage train travel or video calls)
However, there are some social initiatives:
- uneaten fruit is donated to the Berliner Tafel
- you can register at reception for the DKMS donator database to help fight against blood cancer
- annual participation in the gift donation for „Christmas in a Shoebox“
- clothes collection drives for the homeless
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Salaries are market average and are paid out around 26th of the month.
There are no additional monetary benefits (no transportation allowance, no contribution to a private pension plan, etc.).
Every employee receives company equity share options, but since the image of the company is currently regarded as low, the share price is on a low (1,16 GBP from highest 4,5 GBP at IPO). FYI, in Germany, you lose about half of the earnings to taxes when you sell shares, because of the very unfavorable income and capital gains tax situation in the country.
Image
Depending on the pay level of the employee, people either talk positively about the company (high pay) or neutrally/negatively (low-to-mid pay).
The company is not known by consumers much.
Customers of the company are either raving about the company (borrowers who received a quick loan at a low risk class) or openly despising it in public consumer forums (a number of investors who lost money through unfavorable investments that cannot be collected or are disappointed about the lack of improvements on the recurring technical errors of the FinTECH‘s website).
Karriere/Weiterbildung
There are department training budgets as well as a personal annual development budget of 300€.
There is a mentoring system being offered.