Onja Reviews

The manager's control reaches far beyond the working environment into the private lives of the employees. To persuade the developers and other national and international employees manipulative methods are used. By inducing guilt and feelings of shame the mostly highly staff is made compliant. The company uses oppressive contracts. The problems are denied by the management and suggestions for improvement do not get through. In sum, what is described as a Tight-knit team in Onja’s job advertisements, for me, revealed itself as an organization under authoritarian leadership in which dissent and critical thinking has no place.

It is managed unethically and unprofessionally by the founder and director who exhibits strong characteristics of white saviour complex and maintains a toxic environment of control, fear, manipulation, belittling staff and students. He grooms certain people in the organisation to act as spies for him. Regardless of the amount of experience you have, if you provide any feedback or suggestions for improvement that do not align with the director's, he will dismiss you as not having the knowledge and he will always remind you that he knows better. General operations of the organisation are legally and ethically questionable and there is an extreme lack of transparency with external stakeholders, prospective new international hires, and beneficiaries. International staff are baited into relocating for the job, but are given a different position to what is on their contracts when they arrive. Wages for internationals are not regulated according to skill, position or capabilities, rather it is determined subjectively in terms of your value to the director. Student developers and some local Malagasy staff are made to work extremely long hours. Outside of their work hours with international companies, they are made to upskill, do exams and attend professional communication classes, which often means they are made to do long 12-hour days and don’t have any or much free time during their weekends. The Malagasy staff and students are not allowed to speak their own language and are to only speak English amongst themselves even outside of working hours - a rule enforced by the director and shows one example of his pervasive control over their personal lives.