Pros
I was going to leave this review, until I found out the lies and backstabbing that took place when I left, so I'm sharing this to warn prospects, NOT revenge. You need to know what you are stepping into. PRO's This applies to the cancerous Cape Town Branch > The people on the floor, you will meet some of the greatest people in your life, and make some friendships that will last a lifetime. > I was lucky to push new technology that increased performance, security while having the support of the people on the floor. Of course, this was overlooked and didn't matter. > um, I guess spar is close ??????????????????? > o, wait, The gardens in the area are nice to walk around > and the last 2 aren't even the company - that should tell you all
Cons
CON's This applies to the cancerous Cape Town Branch. Anything positive about Cape Town is highly suspicious and should be treated as such - Environment - Insane levels of stupid micromanagement - Cameras galore - Metrics monitored on a weekly basis based on coding days, tickets etc and that have no meaning to what you actually do, measurements are for management to brag to the directors, not for ANY GOOD AT ALL. - Heavy monitoring on devices time in time out - Not allowed to work on mobile devices, but you have to have teams installed and they use your personal whatsapp - double standard. - Monitoring software on your laptop - Every piece of monitoring is for negative purposes and not to help you - Work till you drop, and then pushed more - Leadership Does NOT understand technology or cares enough to learn, when you repeat the same things over and over. I've had instances where I have explained something, and then immediately asked again - Last +-3 months, constantly ignored my feedback and warnings and requests - Rules by fear, "Business is not happy", "X will do it if you don't" - Make you doubt yourself instead of encourages you - Extreme biased and favoritism - Complaints when take lunch as a tech lead - No appreciation - From tech lead up, you are "expected" (aka forced, if you don't do it they "examine" your role) to work overtime, this was never explained or raised during onboarding or initial interview, very well hidden. - Overtime is paid back in time, unless a specific project is signed off for OT (Once in a year for my role), else you work till your drop and then they complain. - I stopped having one-on-ones with my lead, until I don't answer my phone at 11:30/Midnight due to family emergency, only had time for me to complain and not support - I have been degraded in front of the entire floor, and no apologies - My manager doesn't understand leadership at all, and is all about attacking the bad and ignoring the good - Does not listen, and gets aggressive over people talking to them - therefore constant conflict - VPN issues, her answer is to punish and make you everyday in office instead of fixing the VPN issues - so punish a person for the infrastructure not working - Instead of learning new tech, they want to rewrite into old tech because there is no time to learn, no drive to be better - Told to care about my product, yet I'm the one who got it live, I'm the one giving HOURS into the night, and weekend time to fix problems that they were WARNED were coming - You are expected to do "war room" calls, with no guidance, no information, no explanation on how they work - and if you don't the Head of Software examines your position in the role. - Very quick to attack and very rare to be appreciated. - Cancerous, Toxic environment, WATCH YOUR BACK constantly - HR is non-existant for employee's, it's there to protect management, do NOT be fooled - I have seen 1 HR guy for over 6 months, and only walking past me or when management is upset - People get fired and rarely replaced, my HR rep was fired and never replaced, my Product Manager left and never replaced - Management does NOT care about red flags - you fix it or you go in front of the head who has no idea what's going on on the floor with the devs - Head of software doesn't show interest in the tech being used except the UI, doesn't understand anything about what a development house is, and it shows in the way things work. - They actually have a resignation on oracle, so they know the problems and ignore them - People in the upper tiers, that don't support new people and instead throw them under the bus (Cape Town) - No care or compassion from management - Was told straight to my face that work is more important than family, and you are expected to give up your family for work. - Condescending and rude management - Extremely bad measurement systems - They measure you by COMMITS, yes number of commits and number of tickets - forget complexity, forget being measured on the quality of code, and learning and pushing yourself - this is not something here - pure quantity over quality - It is QUANTITY over quality. You HAVE to get something out, regardless of your time, energy, family balance and warnings. You do not have a say, it's by date X or you are not part of the eco-system, and get worked out - They preach a culture that Cape Town does NOT follow, it's a lie to get your in. There is no work life, personal life balance. - Salary underwhelming, below market share, and only people they pick get increases and promotions - you have to be friends with Cape town management to get anywhere, and they are not worth your time - They use the mid-year and end-year bonus as a hook, don't fall for it - your life is WAY more important than a bonus that is a joke anyway as it's based on a joke of a salary - At least 80% of people that I KNOW, have left within a year - On call 24 hours a day, do not believe the core-hours, which changed 3 times in my time there. Policies will change for management's benefic, NOT YOURS - Punishes the entire team over the the mistakes of the few - NO job breakdown ( I asked my Manager many times ), or requirements list, or training provided - NO benefits like pension, medical aid - there's R1000 to sanlam, but really, that's a joke that isn't even worth talking about - I went away 1 weekend, and complained that I wasn't near my laptop
