7 Nov 2023
90% of people have quit or been fired in last 12 months
Anonymous employee
Jude Response
2yHello,
First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Hearing feedback, especially when it's challenging, is essential for us to grow and improve. I am truly sorry to hear that your time with us was not what you hoped it would be, and more importantly, that it negatively impacted your well-being.
We would like to address a few points you mentioned:
Team Dynamics: It is heartening to know you found camaraderie with your fellow team members. Fostering a supportive team environment is a priority for us, and I'm glad this was a positive aspect of your experience.
Management Style: Your comments about feeling micromanaged and constantly receiving negative feedback are concerning. Although we actively foster a culture of two-way feedback, it's never our intention to make anyone feel undervalued or scrutinised. I take full responsibility for any management practices that have contributed to such feelings and have invested time in 2023 to develop my skills and the practices at Jude. We have made great progress, and particularly proud of the anonymous employee satisfaction survey we ran in December 2023. To reassure you that we have listened and changes have been made, some of the headlines from the survey responses are 88% feel their contributions are valued, 88% feel their achievements are recognised. We now repeat this survey quarterly to create an improvement action plan.
To highlight some of the changes we have made to date:
1) Put in a place a management guideline for best-in-class development reviews; for example we always begin our review with the positives first followed up with development areas;
2) set up a solid OKR system every quarter and use OKRs as formal way to delegate, track progress and assign ownership to avoid micromanagement from managers and myself;
3) regularly celebrate wins in team meetings and publicly and make sure development reviews and feedback sessions are conducted in 1:1 sessions
Work-Life Balance: The mention of extended working hours and the pressure to overwork is something we take very seriously. I regret deeply that you felt your dedication and drive were evaluated by the number of hours you have worked, as that was never our intention nor what we believe as a meaningful way to measure value or quality.
A few systems we have put in place to ensure our team feel fully supported:
1) We have a flexible working environment and work from home policy because we recognise some team members like to start early and find their most productive hours to be in the earlier part of the day, and some might find their flow later in the day;
2) We actively encourage team members to take holidays and block leave to recharge;
3) we regularly conduct anonymous polls to gauge how our team feels about workload. As of 31st Dec 2023, 100% feel their workload is manageable.
Nonetheless, as a growing start-up, there were and still are days our small team put in extra hours to accomplish projects they have ownership over. We value this commitment and acknowledge our team’s dedication to achieving our mission, and we will not take this for granted. We appreciate your feedback as this gives me extra insight as the founder to enable a workplace where one can feel they are cared for, appreciated and challenged in the right way to learn and grow.
In closing, I want to express my gratitude for your feedback. In the time since you left the team, we are really proud of the progress we have made in our team culture and management processes, and how we set strategic direction. If you were to rejoin Jude today, I hope you would find Jude to be a different place, one where you feel valued, heard, and respected. We always have room for improvement, and we really value your honest feedback. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Warm regards,
Peony