Toxic work culture is systemic and it starts at the top
Pros
-Getting paid -Lunch and dinner -Really cool office space -Extremely hardworking and fun coworkers -Potential for career growth if you are lucky (time, place, and luck usually determines your job security or corporate ladder advancement)
Cons
Oh boy, where do I start. There are many things that previous reviews have already addressed concerning the absolute asinine work-life balance, immature handling of laid off employees due to COVID, finger pointing habits from leadership, lack of transparency from upper management and the prioritization of hitting short term goals and projects over investing in and developing long term processes, but I thought I would share what I noticed that was going on. While you do encounter some of the most harding working people you will ever meet, sadly many of them are overworked, taken advantaged of, and underpaid. I cannot stress the fact that most people dedicate their entire time making this a success just to be undervalued. Operations is a crucial driver in meeting important deadlines to the point where heroics are pulled resulting in all nighters and 12+ hour work days. Because operations function in an on-call fashion, working every weekend is a must. I was working on average 60 hours a week with very little sleep. I have had multiple breakdowns and burnt out quite a few times. Mental health was rarely acknowledged at the time and was later addressed as a bandaid fix. Another issue that was quite prevalent before I started working here was the work culture of "us vs them"--referring to QA and how they are viewed in respect to the rest of the company. There is a particular attitude when other people from other orgs interact with QA that I have noted in various meetings. The tone tends to be condescending and patronizing. That does not sit well with me as I view QA to be very essential to how we operate. There is also a review below that did not sit with me as well. The review painted the pictured that framed QA as being noncompliant to the shifting roles and needs to the company and as a result, led to their jobs being terminated. This leads me to believe that most people had no idea what QA did nor were they aware of the versatility and value they put forth to the table. I had high hopes that I would be entering into a work environment that would be inclusive while motivating me to do better at my job. That was not always the case. Working harder does not necessarily translate into rewards or recognition from upper leadership. If a team or org does exceptionally well, no one bats an eye unless you are apart of eng. There is preferential treatment of certain orgs over others which exacerbates the existing power dynamic and make certain interactions uncomfortable. There is a particular culture of shifting blame from leadership and upper management. There is no accountability even if they make poor decisions. What tends to happens if something goes wrong or unexpected, the blame is then dumped onto an org or team and accused of not properly planning for their sudden rash moves. In the end of the day, you are at fault for circumstances you have no control of.
