Rigid work culture, BAD HR policies, no training, no work / life balance, demoralized employees - Anonymous employee JadoPado Employee Review

Hello, Thank you for your review. My apologies that it's taken me a while to get around to responding. We recently decided to engage more actively with Glassdoor and I'm going through every single review to make sure that each one gets a response. My apologies that you didn't have a great experience at JadoPado. From my recall, you were here at a time when JadoPado was just getting off the ground (the business was founded in September 2010 and went live in March 2011) with a little over a year and nine months of live operations. I appreciate the Pros that you've pointed out, but would like to more specifically address some of your Cons: 1. I agree that our HR policies at the time were not as good as they could or should have been. I don't think we were out to penalise anyone, but our context at the time, in terms of being a startup within a larger family owned entity meant that we had a fair amount of legacy policies that were more applicable in a different time and era when Dubai and the city around us was a very different space. For this I apologise and recognise that we should have realised it much earlier. What I can say though is that we've learnt and if you were to revisit the organisation today, I think you'll see that we've grown and matured. From unlimited leave, to flexible working hours, we're really starting to give the type of organisation that we're building a lot of thought. Your feedback has definitely helped. 2. Working at a startup, I think you'll always find that you need to go well beyond whatever it says your designation may be. This remains the case today and we see it as a feature for individuals who want to learn and grown versus it being a bug. 3. That's a fair comment, but I think there was a lot of on the job, hands on training, which remain the case today. 4. Again, you'll find the work / life balance at a startup (and even more so with one that is at its initial stages) to be pretty uneven. Things do tend to even out over time from a compensation and growth perspective - if the business does well. 5. I don't think this was or is the case. We continue to have members of the team who have been with JadoPado from the day we started, who've grown into very senior roles within the organisation. 6. The comment around black points is completely unfounded. This was and has never been the case. 7. I'm not sure what this comment is based on, but I respectfully disagree. We've definitely let go of people, as would any organisation, but there's always been a fair and balanced approach to objectively assessing performance prior to doing so. I don't think any organisation worth their weight can get away with not doing so. 8. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what this is based on as we've always rewarded hard work and performance. There are multiple individuals at JadoPado today who are at many multiples of compensation from where they started off. If there is anything further that I can help with, please do not hesitate to reach out. I'd be more than happy to discuss your feedback in person or over the phone. You know how to reach me! Kind Regards, Omar Kassim CEO