I have been fortunate to work in many startups and seen and contributed to building a lasting culture of inclusion and joint focus - this isn't one of those places. The culture of Elliptic is based on non-communication, zero empathy and a rule by fear that stems from the CEO and made worse by emboldened management that want to curry favour. The majority of employees actively fear interacting with her and find communication within the company dehumanising at best. For example, Company updates are often one way reinterpretations of company news where employees are told how they should be feeling about events. A large customer churns? Look at these others and sweep that one under the carpet. Someone leaves the company? Sever their access and edit their goodbye message to maintain the illusion. Have terrible employee engagement feedback? Hamfistedly make out this is good because it's good to be transparent - but then do nothing to answer the underlying causes of that discontent. Any start up that has lost C-level employees should start to ask serious questions of itself. Losing one is a sign that the mission isn't working, losing a CPO, CFO, VP Sales, and demoting the COO all in 6 months is beyond ny attempt to spin. Overly tailored management offsites where the same culture of fear pervades are not an answer to this. People will not give genuine opinions if their only way to communicate with the CEO is to prepare a lengthy presentation that she won't read or take the time to hear all of. Start ups are supposed to move fast, be nimble and test and learn - instead the organisation wants to remove autonomy from individuals beyond a select few. Redundancies by stealth make the rest of the employees feel threatened and pushed to leave - as evidenced by some high profile leavers in recent months. When an overly pressured People team have to deal with predetermined outcomes it only adds to the free falling morale. A culture of blame stifles any will to innovate or to even suggest a different course of action. In certain areas of the business leadership has a "teflon" approach to accountability and it is my opinion that this has led to people leaving the business. Cyclical hire and fire is a lousy way to run any business and other reviews on Glassdoor show this is a pattern. Large layoffs pre and during covid, more lay-offs now after over hiring. So much money is spent unnecessarily or unwisely and then only questioned after the event. From above market rates for contractors and RPO solutions to external consultants and navel gazing workshops that could be replaced with an open and frank conversation - however, people are too frightened to do this.
