One of the worst places I've ever worked in my 25 year career - Head of Brand Jude Employee Review

Hello, Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective on working with us. I am pleased to hear that you found our mission engaging and the passion contagious, and that you had positive experiences with some of our team members and our community manager. However, it saddens me greatly to read about your experiences with the management style and team dynamics. I would like to address the points you raised about unpredictability in strategy, role changes, and a lack of collaboration. Additionally, the mention of a fear-driven atmosphere is particularly alarming, as it stands in contrast to the inclusive and supportive culture we aim to foster. I noted that you left Jude almost a year ago, and I want to reassure you that we have dedicated a lot of time in 2023 to developing our culture and I have adapted my management style. Jude today is a really vibrant place to work with a motivated and engaged team. I'm proud of our most recent employee satisfaction survey and have shared some of the results below. Despite this progress we have already made, I am sincerely grateful for your feedback and want to detail the changes we have and will make as a result to continue to improve, those being: Fostering Collaboration: We recognise collaboration is key in a growing start-up and I feel grateful you have brought up this point of feedback. In 2023, we have made major changes to foster collaboration in our team from different aspects. We added monthly team-building activities, open forums for feedback and discussion, weekly team lunches, weekly team huddles and sprint processes. This is to ensure our team members get to know each other during and outside of work. As of December 2023, 100% of our employees feel actively part of the team and 88% feel empowered to effect major changes across the business. Changing strategy: We relaunched our OKRs process in Q4 2023, company values and refreshed north star for 2024 to provide consistent clarity on company strategy. We have also introduced a weekly management team meeting to enable wider collaboration. In our December 2023 employee survey 100% of the team said they understand the commercial and strategic direction of the business and are clear on the company mission. In addition, 100% of the team said that they understand how their work impacts the overall company objectives. Addressing Workplace Atmosphere: We take the mention of a fear-based atmosphere very seriously. I personally take full responsibility for this concern and I would like to apologise for how you have felt. We have made great progress, with our anonymous December employee satisfaction survey showing a number of encouraging results that I am really proud of. To reassure you that we have listened and changes have been made. The measures are as follow: 1) Put in a place a management guideline for best-in-class development reviews; for example we always begin our review with the positives first followed up with development areas, 2) regularly celebrate wins in team meetings and publicly and make sure development reviews and feedback sessions are conducted in 1:1 sessions. We have conducted an internal review and have also provided additional channels for team members to express their concerns anonymously. 88% feel their work is fun, invigorating and uplifting. 75% of our current team felt motivated and inspired by the leadership. We recognise we still have room for improvement, and we are committed to run these internal reviews regularly and are committed to action on the findings through our structured quarterly culture plan. Retention Focus: Starting any new team is not always easy. We acknowledge in the first year of growing Team Jude, we were still setting up the right hiring and onboarding process. In 2023, we relaunched our recruitment and onboarding process, to set new hires up for success.As of Dec 2023, we are proud that 88% of our team envision a career at Jude and 100% feel proud of where they work. Your advice to management is well-taken and appreciated. While it's regrettable that your experience did not reflect the positive and progressive workplace we strive to create, your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve. I am open to discussing your experiences in more detail, should you wish to provide further insights. Please feel free to contact me directly. Please know that we are dedicated to learning from feedback like this and continuously improving our workplace environment. We are committed to making our company a place where everyone can thrive and feel valued. I’m proud of the progress we have made in 2023 and am confident we have made a big step change in that time and will continue to do so in 2024. We always have room for improvement, and we really value your honest feedback. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours. Best regards, Peony