Pros
1. Hybrid working arrangement 2. Helpful and fun colleagues
Cons
1. Hypocritical and unprofessional bosses: Both bosses severely lack leadership and management skills. They actively create a toxic work environment by contradicting themselves like by encouraging people to contribute/take ownership but always needing all final approvals to go through them and scolding people for not seeking their approval. They also love micromanaging and always focus on tasks that have little or no impact on the business. Bosses also actively seek out opportunities to bad mouth employees to other employees just to gossip and not actually help anyone to improve their performance or work. They will use childish language and then insult employees’ character or personality which is just unprofessional and unnecessary. Bosses are so fake and obsessed with how they look but have no substance. They pretend to be understanding and respecting but are the total opposite. Over 20 people have left during my time and everyone has given them similar feedback on how to make the environment and processes better but then they choose to blame the feng shui instead of reflecting and taking actual action. Bosses and also some people in the management team are ignorant and insensitive. It’s understandable that they have their personal opinions on other people and things but for a brand that is about self-expression and being “alternative” they should lead by example but instead they have made rude and unnecessary remarks about external vendors, brand influencers, and their own team members. Everything they say is for show only. 2. Hierarchical and toxic environment: If you’re not part of the upper management then don’t even bother giving your input or feedbacks even if you have ample experience. Management always says that everyone’s ideas are welcomed but at the end of the day they’ll just go ahead with their own decision. It’s so clear to see that only the managers are valued there. This is made worse when some managers are all talk and no action. To them everything is easy to do. And they end up leaving the people actually executing the tasks to be thrown under the bus. The bosses just want things done their way which sometimes is data driven but other times are just based on their gut feeling and emotions or what they like or want. 3. Poor communication between bosses, management and teams: There are always last minute changes, conflicting information, and gaps in a lot of processes. The management will make their own decision and choose not inform their teams who are actually executing the tasks. This leads to a lot of double work and last minute deadlines and then when the changes aren’t implemented it’s the junior team that gets blamed. This also means that the workload is unpredictable. There are times when the workload is extremely heavy and other times when you’re just waiting for approvals or replies. Even the management team does not communicate among themselves as the information received at times conflict. This is made worse by the fact that projects often have to go through multiple POCs for approval and their feedbacks often contradicts each other making deadlines even tighter for the team or person executing the task. This issue is also worsened by the fact that managers and bosses can be absent and ignore requests for approvals. They always talk about planning ahead but then they will change direction last minute or are late to deliver the info needed to execute tasks and are even later at giving their approvals so things will naturally be delayed. One of the bosses is aware that they are causing delays in multiple projects across different teams but then still doesn’t want to hand over any approvals. 4. Non-existent HR: Despite having a physical office in Singapore and a large team here the HR is based in the Philippines which means that they have no context on what’s actually going on in the office and cannot provide the team with support. This also means that they are not familiar with MOM standards. 5. Zero progression: Bosses and managers always talk about upskilling but then fail to recognise that no one actually has time to go for courses with the workload given and the need to always make last minute changes. On top of that because junior members aren’t valued so there’s no plan for your growth and no chance at ever progressing. Certain managers are also poor at managing their team and providing actually useful direction and help. A lot of feedbacks are generic and honestly quite useless.