There are bad companies and then there is TP-Link
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The company culture of TP-Link is very unhealthy, and the working atmosphere is often very tense. None of the team leaders can decide freely. The management and almost every team leader is Chinese. Every small decision must be discussed and approved with the management or with the headquarter in China. There is no long-term strategy or plan to stick to. It creates unnecessary pressure on all employees. Many actions and most tasks are spontaneously and must therefore be implemented quickly. In case of problems the company is always searching for a guilty person and not for sustainable solutions. At TP-Link there is extremely high turnover of employees. So, it is very difficult to form a permanent team that is well established and works effectively together. The motto of TP-Link is: Company comes always first, no need to take care of employees, they are always dissatisfied anyway. Unfortunately, the current management has still not understood that a company is made up of people, not products.
Kommunikation
Communication within the company is extremely poor. 90% of the team leaders are Chinese who are unwilling to take any responsibility. There is always mistrust of employees. Nobody wants to make a mistake. At TP-Link it is not about looking for solutions, but always for guilty parties. At first glance, the management seems to be genuinely nice. But it will fire entire department without batting an eye, if the headquarter tells to. TP-Link will never try to keep the employees, even if they are doing a good job. Everybody is replaceable.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
First, you have to understand how the employees at TP-Link are put together. The minority are local employees (native speakers). Then there are Chinese expatriates who are coming from headquarter in China or some European branches. Do whatever the company tells them to do. Management's behavior or decisions are never criticized. Then there are local Chinese employees – they are the majority. These are Chinese who mostly studied in Germany and therefore speak German. They have low positions and 90% of them are women. Local Chinese have the hardest time in TP-Link. If you speak to them privately, you get to hear how dissatisfied they are with the state of the company. Still, they will never admit that in front of the management. Local Chinese employees are kept small and are get fired very quickly. Cohesion among local employees (native speakers) and Chinese colleagues is not good. The current management should come up with new ideas to improve it. Obviously, the previous ones did not have much effect. Please, avoid talking about current political topics at all!
Work-Life-Balance
The term “work-life balance” almost does not exist at TP-Link. The perfect TP-Link employee is single, never sick, takes little vacation, does a lot of overtime, never contradicts the management, and blindly follows all company’s rules. There is no compensation for overtime. When you were sick, the company always assumed that you just didn't want to work. Although HR admins and the management say that it is not a problem if you have to go to the doctor during working hours. Many examples from employees prove otherwise. If you have a family, it will be even harder for you at TP-Link. The company has no sympathy for employees with families. You always have to take a half or full day of vacation, e.g. if you have to drive your child to the doctor. There is very strong peer pressure among Chinese employees. No one wants to step out of line. At TP-Link you have the right to statutory minimum vacation. Local employees (native speakers) often get 2-4 days on top. However, the local Chinese employees do not get these additional vacation days in their employment contracts. That is highly anti-social and unfair.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
You will receive a commendation for your good work only once a year at a Christmas party. For sure, it depends in which department you are working and what kind of a person your team leader is. If your team leader is not Chinese, there is great chance to be treated very well. But like I mentioned previously, the big majority of team leaders are Chinese, usually coming directly from headquarter in China. There are a lot of problems with the communication and understanding the way the business in Germany/Europe is done. Team leaders say that they can handle critics well but in fact it’s not true. They will always protect themselves first and not the team members. At TP-Link there is only one decision maker: Headquarter in China. The management in Germany tries to show, that it can also decide important things locally but unfortunately, it’s absolutely false. One sentence I’ve heard a lot from former and the current management in Germany was: If you think TP-Link is a bad company and you are not happy here then just leave! In my opinion that’s very unprofessional and the worst thing management or supervisor can say to employees or team members.
Interessante Aufgaben
There is truly plenty of interesting tasks at TP-Link. Company owns several brands: Kasa (smart home), Tapo (smart home), Neffos (smartphone) and Mercusys (networking devices & accessories). Because of the wide product range there are also a lot of interesting opportunities. The main problem is – as always – the company’s management and supervisors. All actions and activities have to be done very quickly. It’s almost impossible to plan ahead. The management in Germany had to ask the headquarter in China for approval… for almost every single action. Nothing can be done without approval from headquarter! Therefore, you have to be very patient and also persistent in order to realize your ideas. TP-Link is not trying go it’s own way but always striving to copy the competitors like AVM, Devolo & Co. The best way to get your idea or budget approved is by saying that AVM or Devolo are doing the same thing.
Gleichberechtigung
Unfortunately, there are no such thing as equal rights at TP-Link. If you are local (native speaker) then you’ll get way better conditions on employment contract than the Chinese employees. They are less paid and get less vacation days. Extremely high percentage of women are working in low positions. So, it’s very difficult here to climb up in career as a woman. Promotion of female coworkers is extremely rare. The management justifies it like this: The female colleagues from other departments may get envious. Such a shame to think so and to justify it in this way.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
People who write positively about this subject/category are confusing “elder/senior people” with “long-term employees”. Working for 5 years at TP-Link makes you truly aging fast, but it doesn’t mean, that there are elder people working in the company. Why hiring somebody who is 50-55 years old if you can get someone from headquarter who is 20-25?
Arbeitsbedingungen
Since May 2020 the company is settled in Düsseldorf. Before that, the company was based in Hofheim am Taunus, near Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. The office in Düsseldorf is in fact a huge warehouse with tables. But it’s a clean and nice one, with free parking slots. Employees in Düsseldorf are talking about good things like: Possibility to work in home office for few days, time tracking system, start working 1-2 hours later, trying to hire native speakers for HR department. None of it are ideas or suggestions of the management. All of it were ideas or suggestions of former employees in Hofheim – these employees paid a remarkably high price by being fired. TP-Link strives to be modern and employee-friendly, but company’s philosophy remained the same: Profit over people. The management of TP-Link often say that we are “like one big family”. Everyone knows that when a company calls its employees “a family”, that can't be a good thing. You should always be very skeptical here. There is a rumor that TP-Link moved to Düsseldorf only because employees in Hofheim were about to establish a works council (Betriebsrat). If you get the chance, please ask the management if this rumor is true.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
There is no use to speak about environmental and social awareness at TP-Link, because there is none. We are talking about a company who is shipping marketing material from China to Germany only because it’s 0,03 EURO cheaper. In my experience, TP-Link does not even try to be environmentally friendly or sustainably… and it’s OK. The company should try to improve the working conditions of the employees first.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Salary in the middle management (team/department leader) is exceptionally good. TP-Link is gladly hiring high-level professionals from middle management, especially, if they were working for competitors or some big companies. All the insider knowledge and contacts they are bringing with is worth paying high salary. The payment for all other employees is way below average. There is no salary model. If you won’t raise your hand and prove that you are doing a very good job, a lot of overtime, the management will never notice it. There is no compensation for overtime. There is no way you can get better position and higher salary at the same time. You had to choose: Same title with lightly better salary or same salary with new title. I’m telling you that from personal experience. There are still some people at TP-Link who are trying to improve the working environment, communication within the company and TP-Link’s image. But it’s very difficult to do because the company’s culture is so unhealthy, and the current management is either too busy or unwilling to change it.
Image
You can read here a lot of very bad reviews. Some people say, it’s only because of former employees with bad blood whose egos were hurt by TP-Link. That may be true. Still, it does not change the fact that TP-Link is a bad company. Employees who are trying to bring good ideas and improve the company’s culture won’t stay long here. Since TP-Link is aware how badly all these negative ratings affect company’s image, why there is no official response from HR department? If TP-Link invites you to the job interview, then please ask, what they think about all the reviews on Kununu. They will probably tell all the bad reviews are from haters or troublemakers only or maybe even fake. Please keep in mind: These haters are former TP-Link employees who were highly motivated and looking forward to work at this company. Somehow TP-Link has succeeded in significantly reducing motivation and loyalty of these employees. These haters are gone now but the management and decision-makers remained the same.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
TP-Link offers no further training/education. I can fully understand it. It’s difficult to organize, because the turnover is extremely high. Why should the company care about improving skills and knowledge of employees, who are not staying at TP-Link for long time? Even if the further training is for free and the employee is only asking for a half day off (without taking vacation), it won’t be approved by the management. You want a career at TP-Link? Then just obey and do what you are told to. Don’t bring your own ideas to improve the working conditions, never criticize management’s decisions, don’t try to come up with things other companies are doing for their employees to improve motivation and morale. You may not believe all the reviews here but there is a certain vibe about TP-Link… and this vibe is an awfully bad one. If you want to apply for a job at TP-Link, please take my advice: Don’t do it! You’ll thank me later.