Uncooperative and unfriendly working Environment and draining day-to-day business despite an interesting field of work
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The work environment is uncooperative and generally speaking bad in my opinion.
Kommunikation
Communication is tedious. Responsibilities are often unclear and silo thinking makes this even worse. You rarely now who to contact regarding certain problems. The amounts of meetings ranges from ok to excessive depending on your position. Departments are like isolated kingdoms and you often have to approach others with a lot of caution and courtesy if you should need something. If you should forget anyone ever to include in a mail's cc you will usuayll receive an angry message/call whatever some days later why said person was not informed. It happens rarely that people step up to take responsibility because most colleagues are either overworked or the general atmosphere of too many people involved (unclear responsibilites).
Kollegenzusammenhalt
There is some cohesion in smaller groups but on the overall level it's missing. Depends on who you're working with. In communication it's quite easy to get talked down to by someone who is stressed/overworked or just doesn't like you because you are from the "wrong" department. Co-workers point out old mistakes that have been dealt with already while it seems to amuse them.
Work-Life-Balance
You can forget about work life balance if you work in anything related to the field/trial management. It is in part understandable due to it being seasonal work. Another part is that the volume/quantity of tasks is growing every year but the personnel capacity does not keep up with it and management does not really care if people are overworked. Even if you finally finish tasks/projects there's no real joy in it as the list of other tasks that stacked up high in the meantime is depressing.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Management has a poor understanding of what is going on on the lower levels. Some supervisors do not seem suited for the job as they take criticism personally quite quickly or subdue feedback. Management from other groups is only concerned about their own advantage. Colleagues get reprimanded because they forward information which their supervisor did not want the other group to have. You rarely to not at all get praise or positive feedback for your efforts.
Interessante Aufgaben
Working in plant breeding is awesome and fascinating work. There are interesting tasks but the work environment and the lack of standardization, missing harmonized data and having to crawl through bureaucratic procedures with tedious communication really take away the enjoyment.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
Being sustainable and climate aware is communicated excessively but judging by the crops and the areas where they are in part cultivated or for what they are used tells different...
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
For Agriculture it's above average I would say. Based on the hours you have to put in it's worse.
Image
I think the perception in the Agricultural sector of the company is good. A problem with the image is the self perception: You constantly get it shoved down your throat how awesome and innovative the company is, be it via intranet, live events, in the employee magazine or via mail.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
The motto make yourself grow sounds good but you can hardly do any certificates/training etc. with the overload of work you have to take care of. Stagnation is rather a reality with no feeling of progress. Other working groups actively hinder you when you show interest in certain areas as they fear it might fall into their domain. You can't really advance your career as a scientist that way.