Some of these points may be universal and very common across the working world, but I list them nonetheless for your awareness.
- Shareholders want to see growth, the MatchGroup stock price has been lagging due to subpar growth, so there is a big push for growth and revenue initiatives, so even though POF and MG remain profitable companies, the vibe is still pretty dire and urgent
- The parent company, Match Group, is getting increasingly involved in operations, the culture which was once more relaxed and friendly, is suddenly very corporatized
- POF used to have a small company vibe with big company perks. Things are becoming increasingly bureaucratized and overall annoying in the typical corporate ways (a lot of mandatory online trainings, a lot of process to get anything done, especially IT related, a lot of HR involvement and general caution around a lot of things that POF once was a lot more laid back about)
- Ultimately, management and exec level leadership don't really genuinely care about employees on a personal level despite whatever words they might say to appear to care, they often have a smug attitude, dismissing or mocking people who are not 100% loyal or engaged. For example, after recent layoffs, employees often note how morale is low, a repetitive complaint from employees, individuals in leadership positions seemingly annoyed at its constant mention, kind of smugly or dismissively mock the concern in Q&A or "town hall" meetings. But business is business, you just have to remember this
- From the individual contributor perspective, projects and priorities change constantly, since revenue and growth are a bit dire relative to previous years, things seem like a scramble, random projects and initiatives that, from a technical career standpoint, are not very valuable resume builders, the engineering work at POF right now is simply not in a moment of creativity or innovation that provides interesting or challenging technical work
- The tech stack is moving backwards for the short term, going back to legacy bloated monolithic systems, which will eventually (who knows when) undergo modernization
- Leadership at POF really want to stand out to MatchGroup as being cheap, lean (Canadian salaries, and small team), and fast, so leadership wants things as fast as possible, the goal is always to get revenue ASAP so MatchGroup notices us. This manifests in faster employee burnout, and a lot of context switching, especially because teams are small so work concentrates on a few individuals
- Leadership often sings praises about how we stand out from other brands at MatchGroup, how we move fast and deliver results, but our compensation has room for improvement, it does not reflect this praise, especially compared to our sister brands in the USA
- Salary growth is very slow, and on the lower side, especially relative to comparable tech companies and to other MatchGroup brands in the USA. Promotions dont come with big bumps, and promotions have become increasingly harder to come by as MG seek to cut costs to increase revenues
- There is sometimes an unrealistic expectation from certain people in leadership positions that you should know everything off the top of your head. In my opinion, this is a completely unfair way to assess someone. Especially given how fast things move and change at POF.
- This is common in tech companies but being on call and answering pages is very frustrating, and POF makes a big deal about it
- We used to have a fun yearly retreat to Whistler, which has been stopped starting this year, partly due to cost savings initiatives and perhaps to not set this precedent of yearly retreats among other MatchGroup brands
