Just a warning, this is going to be long.
I mean, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Working at Sinch is like being a character in The Office, except it isn't funny and you don't have the knowledge that your leader is generally well-meaning underneath the flaws. Executive leadership (as many, many reviews have pointed out) is checked out, incompetent, and clueless about employees and Sinch products/services at best, and actively flouts their lack of support and blaming employees for our woeful product suite and "vision" at worst. But hey, why should they care as long as they get paid very well and get to gather in Stockholm for expensive dinners and self-important executive summits every month?
There is, truly, no real leadership at Sinch. Every few months we get a one-way presentation on our "vision" or bad financials or something similar (with comments turned off or heavily moderated, of course!) that ends with a "hope" for a great quarter or year...and then nothing changes. Teams are stretched to the breaking point with new hires being few and far between. Leadership periodically falls in love with a general buzzword concept ("Voice" or "AI") and orders teams to pivot there with no direction or strategy, wasting valuable time and resources we could be using to improve and sell our existing clunky, outdated products. Then, when hiring freezes and layoffs inevitably happen, we're told to hunker down with our tiny teams and scant resources and Win Together (or is it Keep It Simple? I forget).
Nobody knows what other teams or business units are doing, and why would they? Everything is siloed beyond belief, and there is little to no knowledge or information continuity when an employee leaves or takes a different role, with many teams never being informed that someone is gone until they stumble on it themselves. Good luck getting that document or extremely niche info that only 1-2 people had access to. Due to so many quick, poorly integrated acquisitions, nobody has a clear understanding of anything being sold or processed outside their business unit, with leadership trying to rectify this by having periodic Meet The Team presentations where mid-level leaders are made to give surface-level intros to their teams and responsibilities. I'm sure that every Sinch employee dutifully takes a full 60+ minutes out of their busy day to really listen to and absorb these very, very important insights.
Individuality and personality are also ground down by Sinch. Slack profiles are locked to remove any trace of personality or friendly intros besides your official title, and Slack channels for hobbies, office locations, and other non-strictly-work bonds have received scorn from management and have either been shut down or withered to nothing. You would think that a global, mostly remote workforce could use some outlets that aren't the Q4 financial report to form connections and promote increased team harmony, but you'd be wrong, I guess.
Growth opportunities? Promotions? Raises? Even the most engaged and hard-working employees have to fight hard for even a potential raise above 1-2% or any kind of growth opportunity, and that's not when there are freezes in place with a half-hearted promise of next year being better. Since there are employees across the globe, people are often expected to work very early or late hours for meetings or responsibilities that don't really matter (Sweden is favored in these types of arrangements, of course). Additionally, racial and gender bias is clear even for those of us who are white and male, with non-white and female employees often being expected to carry bigger workloads, never show frustration toward unclear or stalled projects or respond to badly-behaving colleagues, and stay invisible while being rewarded with a team photo on Sinch's website when they want to show how "diverse" they are. Win Together, as long as you are a white man who is preferably based in Stockholm and holds the personal favor or friendship of an existing executive team member.
I would encourage every potential employee to really think about what they're being offered in exchange for their work, time, and well-being. Listen to what people take the time to express about Sinch, and act accordingly.
