What it’s really like to work for a ‘cool’ company

SEXUAL harassment, bullying, and having to constantly tell the boss why you love working there — what it’s like inside one so-called ‘cool’ company.

SMALL, hip start-ups thrive on image. Who wouldn’t want to work somewhere with bean bags, table tennis and Spotify tunes all day?

Lists like BRW’s annual Best Places to Work and JobAdvisor’s recent Coolest Tech Companies place a big emphasis on culture, but sometimes all is not as it seems behind the glass doors.

One young woman has told news.com.au that she worked at a well-known start-up for seven months, and it sucked. A lot.

Sarah (not her real name) claims this company gets a lot of media coverage over its supposedly ‘cool’ culture — but in her experience, working there was anything but. This is what she had to say.

SARAH’S STORY

“Young companies are often portrayed as being incredibly cool to work for. They market themselves on social media as being trendy, progressive and easygoing, yet in reality they consist of a formula of poor management, narcissism and a sense of obnoxiousness which can be hard to come by.

“I worked for such a company in phone sales for seven months. When I started, I was overwhelmed by how relaxed and easygoing the place was. The managers and even the CEOs were so personable and approachable — what a fun place to work! It wasn’t long before the cracks began to show.

“I may look happy, but I’m actually dead inside.”

“There were no systems in place. My manager would constantly be undermined by his colleagues and superiors. We frequently had no idea what our role was, because they would sporadically change it. He would communicate his frustrations about his own role to us, his staff, and routinely complain about his colleagues and employers. I developed a friendship with a colleague from another department and my boss’ sage advice was for me to not be friends with him, because ‘he’s a little bitch’.

KEEPING IT CASUAL

“I was employed by this company for seven months, working the same hours and days every week, yet still remained on a casual contract of $20 an hour plus commission on sales. My co-workers routinely came to work despite being ill, simply because they couldn’t afford to miss a day.

“Other co-workers were fired for not generating enough sales. They received no warnings, no coaching or support, just a meeting at the end of the day with literally five minutes’ notice to pack up their desk. The majority of us were constantly in fear of being fired, and wondering how we would manage to pay our rent if that did eventually happen.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

“In my last few weeks of the job I experienced sexual harassment from a male colleague. I expressed this to my manager, who would later ask me, ‘Are you happy with the drama you’ve caused?’ I raised my concerns with the general manager, who — with obviously no knowledge of human resources procedures — proceeded to copy and paste a list of behavioural guidelines from the internet into a whole team email. That was the end of the issue, and the staff member involved is still employed there.

Don’t let the cool hair fool you — this may not be a great place to work.

BIZARRE EMAILS

“Emailing was often a bizarre communication channel used by management, whether it be a passive-aggressive email about keeping the office tidy, or one of the weekly or sometimes daily emails demanding that we profess our love for the company. One email which seemed to circulate an abnormal amount was from the general manager.

“He would send an email to everyone ranting about how amazing the company was, then make it compulsory that we all respond with what we love about our job. We were all forced to sing our praises for the company, ranting and raving about how cool it was that we got to listen to music all day, drink coffee and play table tennis!

RUBBING IT IN

“One day the CEO was thrilled to buy us all lunch and announce that they had turned over several million and had just concluded their best month ever — days before this spectacle they cut our commission so that we were making about a quarter of our original bonus.

“They also had a weekly review over email where employees were asked to reply with any comments. But if anyone ever said anything critical, they would get annoyed. One colleague said he wasn’t happy with our commissions being cut, and my boss basically said, ‘Get over it’.”

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Originally published as What it’s really like to work for a ‘cool’ company