Micromanagement and no growth chances, but really nice people and chances to find wonderful friends.
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The people. The super relaxed working atmosphere with the colleagues. The amazing team events. The possibility to work from home, from another company office or from another country. The professional support, both on site and online. The perks like the sabbatical.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Invest in your team leads, and show constant employee appreciation (not just at the end of the year). Motivate the employees through career perspectives.
Try to bring more structure in some key departments.
Let the HR read through the performance reviews to identify problems.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Single teams care about the colleagues and always try to help. The Berlin office is a place to laugh and find close friends. Sadly though, in some departments there's little to almost no appreciation from the team leaders, and complete detachment from previous C-levels. Some of them don't even know the name of their employees or mix them up. The human resources department is little to not involved in the performance review process, thus not perceiving unsatisfaction. It's sad to see people leaving because of no team lead appreciation, since Supertext is one of the most amazing employers out there as far as the colleagues are concerned.
Kommunikation
Important decisions concerning future roles tend to be communicated late without involving the employees, or not thoroughly. Communication between the departments is often difficult, since some employees have little cultural sensitivity. Company results and targets are communicated clearly though (quarterly).
Kollegenzusammenhalt
See above: Great team spirit within single departments, but little or late help from single team leaders.
Work-Life-Balance
Pretty stiff company structure due to clients' needs: Basically impossible to have flexible working hours within the operation teams. Some team leaders don't even allow to work from 8 to 5 pm instead of 9 to 18. Some departments are very understaffed, leading to people cutting lunch break. Team leaders don't fancy their employees having holidays for more than 2 weeks in a row. In some departments employees are not allowed to have holidays during peak season. Some team leaders tell people that they should move their doctor appointments to the weekend, or want employees to tell the colleagues when they are leaving for 5 minutes coffee or cigarette break. Others don't listen when employees are complaining because of the overdue hours, but blame them for not being efficient enough instead of checking that the team is understaffed.
On the other hand, the company introduced a sabbatical and overdue hours compensation with free time. Kudos for that.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Many team leads don't have leadership experience, and it seems like the company doesn't invest in their development (some don't want to deal with topics like mental health, or see the employees as career threat). Generally speaking, targets are way too high. Operative decisions are often unclear. Some leaders cannot listen nor understand what the problem is, or tend to avoid confrontations. Others fail to grasp the exact meaning of what the employees try to politely say (they don't read between the lines).
Interessante Aufgaben
Little chance of contributing with own ideas.
Gleichberechtigung
Super positive development concerning C-levels, big shout out for that! But still too masculine-oriented in some departments.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Very positive: Supertext appreciates people with years of experience and it's easy to find ''older'' staff in key positions.
Very negative: This mainly concerns external new hires, and not the actual employees.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Rooms, devices and technical equipment at home and within the premises are very good, especially in Zurich. Concerning the facility, the Berlin management learned from past mistakes and improved the working conditions on site.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Positive: Salaries always come on time and are higher compared to the industry benchmark.
Negative: No clear rules on how to negotiate a pay rise even when targets are more than met. Pay rise stop for a couple of years, not considering inflation and Berlin costs of living. Struggling to get a fair compensation even when promoted or with leadership role. Compensations not considering previous experience within and outside the company. Team leaders not fighting for employees' pay rises with C-levels.
Image
Supertext is by far the best translation company in the German speaking environment. Until now, the quality of the service, deliveries and consultancy was impeccable. Sadly though, the market pressure has reached the company too, leading to some internal negative decisions.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Probably the most critical aspect. Little to no career perspectives, team leaders not fostering a growth culture or deliberately against employees asking for a department change. No clear development program, little investment in people interests. Difficult to get approval for courses not entirely focusing on the actual job. Some team leaders promotes the culture of ''be grateful for what you have instead of wanting professional development''.