Solugen reviews about "leadership"

Leadership consistently "adjusts to market conditions" which has left it in a position that means "We are chasing government contracts and oil and gas scraps" while performing layoffs every 3-6 months. Company is in a serious identity crisis and instead of working on climate tech has pivoted to almost exclusively doing "energetics" work for the DOD which has left a lot of the company disillusioned and jaded. The vibes are truly oppressive, the organization is very top down, and no one wants to put in the effort for a company that they know **will** lay them off at the drop of a hat even if things have worked well.

When the leadership is terrible, everything falls apart. Here, each person wanted to be a leader, and no one wanted to be led. It was a ridiculous workplace where everyone was stressed due to the poor morale and ridiculous arrogance of those in power. No one knew what their future held. It was mentally exhausting.

I don't recommend working for Solugen if you want to grow your career. Role creep is very real here. Research scientists like me are subjected to extreme pressure because we're given tons of unrelated responsibilities and tasks to do. The leadership here doesn't care at all about the growth and advancement of its employees.

Working here was insanely stressful. I was asked to handle the workloads of several projects at once. Then, the expectations changed, and I had to change the direction of my work constantly. It was brutally exhausting and terribly challenging. The leadership was cruel as they didn't give you time to adjust. They just demanded more and more.

Lots of deadlines some weeks, but in general, everything is manageable

I wanted to like working here at first—there was potential, and the work seemed interesting. But after a while, it became clear that this place was seriously broken. It’s honestly baffling how a company can promote someone who contributes absolutely nothing to the team. The senior manager in question somehow managed to "fail upward" in a way that only added to the dysfunction. He clearly wasn’t contributing in any meaningful way to the work or the overall goals, yet somehow, he got promoted—likely because he was playing some political game behind the scenes. It’s frustrating to see someone who does not understand the fundamentals of the work, and who’s completely out of touch with the team, get elevated instead of being held accountable. The work environment is toxic to the point of being suffocating. This manager doesn’t even try to understand what’s happening around him. Instead, he goes around having other scientists double-check everyone's work—undermining his team’s abilities and sowing distrust. It’s clear he doesn’t have the technical competence to actually evaluate the work, so he leans on others to cover his incompetence. It’s exhausting and demoralizing when you’re constantly second-guessed by someone who clearly doesn’t understand your role or the intricacies of your work. Even worse, the CEO and founder seem to have no interest in transparency. There’s zero clarity about the direction of the company, and it’s impossible to get a straight answer about what’s going on. The leadership here seems to think that misleading employees is the best way to handle things, but all that does is breed frustration and resentment. It’s a classic case of poor leadership and a lack of ethical standards—lying to cover up incompetence, while pretending everything is fine. It’s a culture of cons, where trust is non-existent, and morale is tanking because nobody knows where they stand or what they’re actually working toward. Overall, the whole situation reeks of poor management and dishonest leadership. It’s a company where the lack of transparency and communication creates a toxic environment, making it impossible to feel secure or valued. If you’re looking for a place to grow and thrive, this is definitely not it.

Systems are still maturing, so changes are a common occurrence.

- terrible executive leadership team, especially the CEO - scrapped stated values to make bombs for the government (but can't even make them, the science doesn't work) - work-life balance is nonexistent - if you're not working in the lab when someone randomly passes by you'll be laid off - CEO disregards any negative data or feedback from scientists, consultants, or other leadership figures and just does whatever he wants - frequent layoffs, no transparency