Typical startup
- Micromanagement
- Reporting directly to founders stressful
- No autonomy - you can get something done very quickly if green-lit by management, but those things are few and far between + management flip-flops
- Startup salary (underpaid)
- Work can be unnecessarily stressful because of poor communication
- Deadlines can be unnecessarily tight because of poor planning
- Hours can get much longer depending on workload. EDIT: Presenteeism. I was told that it was about "getting stuff done", but when I could get stuff done before 6:30 - or before 6 - and want to go home, that was not acceptable - I was told to stay later (and did so). Fair enough - the hours in the contract were 9:30 - 6:30, lunch break = 1 hour
- Cliques and favouritism
- Unprofessional use of Slack to relay sensitive information which should be delivered face-to-face in a proper meeting room
- Few meeting rooms
- On average, employees are young and inexperienced - rewarded for not asking too many questions when it comes to management
- Office noise level high
- Women’s opinions shot down and then "hepeated" by men to great success
- Very bad commute unless you live in West London
- Career development depends on whether management think you're "smart"
- Professional discussions can turn personal very quickly
- Attempt to conform to 'happy-clappy' startup culture versus high-stress environment is awkward
- Management follow contracts to the letter on their side but are upset if you do the same e.g. notice period
- Lack of boundaries between professional and friendly behaviour
- Split in culture between founders and everyone else
- The mission fades into the background - seems like it's more about the business opportunity than helping people - and the day-to-day is too hectic to remember what the point of it all is
- Some poor product decisions made in the past haunt the current product
- Decisions are "data-driven" except when management want to do something else
- Management overrule domain experts in specialised fields e.g. dietetics, UI design, software engineering for no clear business reason
- Corporate KPI-type systems from big tech companies half-heartedly implemented with no follow-through
- Several long, unproductive all-hands meetings which seem more to give an impression of a "startup" culture than to actually produce deliverables or foster collaboration or just plain old communication
- Frequent (monthly) socials awkward if there are professional issues
- I personally found it awkward to say no to a monthly social
- Sometimes can feel like management are making it up as they go along
- Somewhat intellectually elitist vibe and somewhat unpredictable emotional responses from management makes every little mistake or miscommunication - or even perfectly reasonable request for help or information - into emotional rollercoasters
- A few strange incidents like a mug being put in a toilet, and instances of poor hygiene (urine on floor?) in bathroom, which shouldn't be the case for any office, let alone a health-tech company
- Employees too young/inexperienced to know when they're experiencing low-level workplace bullying or being "managed out"
- Too much emphasis on branding and stash, not enough on fundamentals of workplace culture
- A lot of effort expended by management on never EXPLICITLY being judgmental/unprofessional which makes it harder to call out
- Part-time employees pressured to go full-time, stopping short of explicit ultimatums
- Stressful not knowing what management's true values are - lots of disingenuous "friendly" behaviour - a cutthroat culture is made better if one is just honest so people know what they're getting into
- A lot of hoopla around getting honest/anonymous feedback from employees/ one-on-ones, which is impossible in such a small company
- All of the above waste everyone's time and energy which is a shame as there are many talented employees
