If you want to be a code monkey (putting your head down, doing as you’re told, never questioning the status quo while putting up with mental abuse), a la mode may be the place for you. Because if you do question anything or show passion about your work, you may get a meeting with your supervisor about “not being so defensive,” “not being a team player” or asked to stop pointing out potential red flags because "you’re not on the risk management team.”
On the surface, a la mode is a nice place for less experienced people because they’ll move you up in the company if you show enough gumption. However, they’ll also grossly underpay you for the title they give and abuse your good naturedness until you’re so stressed out you get shingles or pneumonia (not exaggerating, this has happened). Despite the four-day work weeks, work-life balance has always been a foreign concept to a la mode. Be expected to be on-call at all times, work through lunch and stay late. You should really be grateful since you’re getting all these cool perks.
Even if you are an educated, experienced professional, you’ll be treated like a child who needs to be supervised and micromanaged constantly. Your team’s Slack usage high this week? Obviously too much “chit chat” going on. Have a creative, modern idea that’s shown to work at other tech companies? If it's not laughed off as "amateur" and you’re lucky enough to get to implement it, you’ve got a week to show huge results or it’s killed off as a “failure.” But Lord knows there are some time- and money-wasting processes that will never change because the owner implemented it 10 years ago and no one wants to question it. In fact, if it worked in the 90s it’s even more likely to stay or be brought back at some point. Every single task will need a sign off from an officer (who’s constantly in a closed-door meeting) and who will likely need a sign off from the owner who may be in Europe or the Caribbean.
Communication is horrible and often times contradictory. No one knows what’s going on and plans, requirements and priorities change sometimes on a daily basis with little explanation. Goals seem arbitrary and not thought out so no one is motivated to get behind them. Those closed-door management meetings? Everyone would wait for them to come out expecting a plan or at least a run-down of what was discussed, but we would never hear a thing. This made everyone assume the worst, especially after a series of layoffs and demotions at the beginning of the year. After others started quitting for fear of their jobs, they finally began telling us that these weren’t “layoffs” they were “simplification” and “restructuring” and other such buzzwords that didn’t make anyone feel better.
The problem with a la mode is it’s a small company that wants to act like a big corporation with its bureaucracy and red tape. The owner has one foot in retirement and the other foot in everyone’s business. Every upper level manager is afraid to make any decision without his explicit sign-off because he will make them pay for it if something doesn’t go to his liking (not necessarily that it went wrong, just not the way he would do it). And if the owner makes a call, no matter how risky or crazy it sounds, there is no questioning it. It no longer feels like you’re doing work for the customers there, but instead for what they perceive will make the owner happy at this moment. I often wonder how much could be accomplished if he truly stepped aside.
