Pros
You can work from home 2 days a week.
Cons
This was probably the biggest disappointment of my professional career.
I joined at a time when the culture was amazing. I was very excited, as many promises were made, and we were repeatedly told how the business would continue to grow and how many opportunities would open up for us—especially in the Sydney office where I'd be based.
I do wonder if these assurances were merely to keep me quiet, as they had appointed someone to lead the office who couldn't even turn on her computer independently. She would "steal" her teammates' sales the moment they were on leave or take credit for their work.
Anyway, within a few months, the founders brought in "investors," and they quickly made 10% of the staff redundant. Just like that, everyone became disposable.
Right after this wave of redundancies, they claimed it was necessary to keep the business afloat, but assured us that everyone's job would now be safe. I remember telling my team, "That's a lie; there'll be another wave in six months." And that's exactly what happened. A second wave of redundancies occurred, with another 10% of the staff let go—and this time, I was one of the chosen ones.
To be honest, I didn't mind it; I was planning to quit anyway, as I already had another job lined up. But it's the manner in which it happened that infuriates me. They called my team leader the day before so she could lie to us and convince us to "work from home" the next day, but we knew what was happening.
The next day, at 8:58 a.m., I received a text saying, "Could you please join a Teams meeting at 9:00 a.m.?" Again, the writing was on the wall. I kept the meeting brief, as I didn't have much to say to a company that had become so toxic. I just asked one question: "Why?" They replied, "Oh, it was based on performance." I responded, "That's not true; I've been on your top 3 performers list for the past six months." Obviously, they didn't have an answer to that. They didn't make people redundant based on performance; their purpose was to get rid of those who would stand up to their poor practices.
Based on how I've seen everyone I knew leave afterward, I can tell this has only gotten worse over time. It's a sad example of how a business can go down the drain the moment the founders see an opportunity to sell "their baby" to fill their pockets and bring in external people who only see dollar signs.