Used to be a great place, now a complete mess.
Pros
Possibility to work from home at all times is a major plus (at least this is the case in Product Development), unlike other companies that forced employees to return to the office after Covid. Really nice colleagues overall with a shared passion for music. Competent Works Council that constantly fights for employee rights with great results.
Cons
Extremely limited career paths, frozen salaries since early 2023, very low pay compared to most tech companies. Positions of power are often held by incompetent people who are solely chosen through favouritism. I've seen entire units collapse due to terrible staffing choices made by the board, despite them being warned by dozens of employee about the implications of such decisions. Double standards at their finest -> Engineers, Designers and Product Owners go through rigorous, systematic evaluation using progression schemes and other formal tools of evaluation while managers get promoted randomly without any evaluation of their work and their impact on employee satisfaction. Incompetent management board who stubbornly refuse to listen to employee feedback and their customers' wishes. They won't take responsibility for their mistakes, despite the complete mess they caused by aggressively growing the company within the first year of Covid and investing in risky projects that have yielded nothing but losses. Employees who choose to speak up and criticise the board's decisions and leadership style are punished either by being laid off or denied career options. Ableton has fallen behind competition but no actions are taken to introduce fresh blood to the board; instead, board members seem to be holding on to their positions like old-school politicians who refuse to give up their chairs when the entire ship is sinking.
