Bad for engineers: good potential but massively let down by management - Software Engineer TomTom Employee Review

Sports software suffers from a few problems as is evident from other reviews here. Below is an analysis of the situation, with the hope that it will be taken on-board in a constructive spirit. Root cause of these problems is weak leadership of sports software - both in terms of understanding of tech as well as vision. This has two major consequences: first, the management is touchy and paranoid and second, it relies on political support structures (as opposed to merit). Paranoia is evidenced by strong and persistent attacks on other departments on one hand, and extreme resistance to accepting any new ideas on the other. Both of these claims are also repeated in other reviews here on Glassdoor. Regarding new ideas, your suggestions will be rejected without discussion or debate. If you ask for reason, you will get an arbitrary excuse. If you try to persist, even the higher management will tell you that you should only do what you are told and provide you with examples of people who have left who didn't do what they were told. This is deeply unfortunate for a business that has to rely heavily on innovation in order to survive. Regarding political support structures, that has led to formation of an unofficial group, patronised by higher management in sports software. Outside that clique, you are a second-class citizen. For example, if you want to work on a different project, you may be denied that opportunity - despite the skills you may have worked hard to acquire in anticipation of that project. You may be given the reason that the team working on that project is remote (e.g. one hour time zone difference). A blatant contradiction with some members of the clique working remotely from time zones which are more than 12 hours different. A side effect of having a clique is that outside of it, some people keep quiet and not cause trouble while others actively try to become part of the clique. Third option of trying to fix this will soon see you out of the company. All this has created a highly toxic environment. Surviving and progressing as an engineer is a function of your political skills. That has led to, among other things, suppression of innovation. Management can and does easily shift blame to engineers for their own mistakes. And because they can get away with such behaviour they can afford to be myopic. Short- termism is rife. Managers only want the quickest solution which usually means plastering over the symptoms rather than finding and addressing root cause. If things go wrong, engineers will be blamed. Then there is also a whole set activities dedicated to "mushroom management" - all on company's expense. There is also a high employee turnover - something that has already drawn some attention within the company. There are other problems too but these should give you the picture.