Worst 6 Months of My Professional Career - Mitarbeiter (anonym) bei Boundless Spatial: Mitarbeiterbewertung

I wish I had never accepted this job. It is, hands down, the worst company I have ever worked for, and the worst leadership I have ever experienced. During my time there, I felt as though: There was a complete lack of culture: Most employees are independent/remote, with time zones spanning the globe. There were never team phone calls with the whole staff to make sure we were all on the same page. The platform they provided was a Slack channel that usually represented a chaotic puddle of questions, assumptions, and half pieces of information strung together by whomever happened to be awake and "on the clock." Poor Communication: I saw this expressed again and again from staff; I can not count how many times I saw an employee exclaim that they didn't know how to do something as basic as filling out their timecard because they (A) were not clear on what project they were working on, and (B) didn't even know who they should be reporting to to *ask* what project they were supposed to be working on. Poor Leadership: It was abundantly clear very early on that my supervisor was unskilled in managing people and had terrible communication skills. I did not feel a sense of camaraderie, teamwork, or a supportive environment in my time there. There were even times where she was flat out rude to me. EXAMPLE 1: On my first day of training with my supervisor she explained how she actually did not like managing other people, and that she preferred to work alone. Why someone would tell this this to their subordinate on their first day makes no sense to me. Later on she explained how she did not have a good history of interpersonal relationships in the workplace. All of this proved to be correct; I often experienced her as awkward, rude, distant, cold, and unsupportive. EXAMPLE 2: The company allowed employees to be reimbursed for expenses incurred on days they had to work in an office as opposed to their home (they called them "work from work" days). Initially this sounded great to me, until I realized that for some reason I was NOT being allowed to claim these same expenses (when other employees, including my supervisor, were). I had to go into an office for the better part of my first two months, and when I asked my supervisor whether or not my expenses for these days were reimbursable, she said that no, they weren't. Once I had been there for three and a half months (two of those months were almost daily in-office days) she allowed me to start claiming these expenses (not retroactively mind you, only from that point moving forward) like everyone else was. When she told me that I was finally able to claim these expenses, I said thank you and that I really appreciated the gesture. She replied with, "LOL - sounds like you could be doing a better job of taking better care of your personal finances." Not only was this comment rude, unnecessary, and completely inappropriate, it left me feeling uncomfortable about the fairness and supervision Boundless was displaying of its employees by upper management. I was left asking myself, "why am I allowed to be treated like this?" "What have I done to deserve this level of unfairness, inconsistency, and rudeness?" EXAMPLE 3: I was told that I should get whatever equipment or furniture I needed for my home office, and that I would be reimbursed. I notified my supervisor that I needed a new computer chair, and asked her how much I could spend (there was nothing published by the company about a price range for these kinds of charges). She replied in person that I could spend a few hundred bucks on it - so I did. Then when I submitted my expense report, she rejected/denied it, balking at the cost claiming it was much more than we had discussed (I spent less that $300.00). This situation showed me that 1) apparently I needed to get everything in writing and 2) the communication and consistency at the company was poor. In the end, I was never reimbursed, and was stuck with the cost of an office chair I was told to buy, all the while hearing about other employees being reimbursed for much larger ticket items. I was left feeling like I was not being treated the same way other employees were. The way in which I was fired was terrible, and IMO symptomatic of what it meant to be an employee at Boundless. Two weeks before it went down: I had what would be my only 1-1 with the CFO. We discussed what direction I wanted to move within the company, what skills I wanted to focus on improving, and a general check in. At the end of that 1-1 I asked him if he had any feedback about my performance and he said, "Not really, we definitely DONT feel like we needed one thing and got another with you." What a set-up. Fast forward two weeks: It's hours before I go on a three day vacation, with no warning or disciplinary period leading up to it. I was let go during what was explained to me as a phone meeting to finally "go over those goals you set" with my supervisor and the CFO. These were goals I had set almost three months prior, goals my supervisor had barely mentioned to me since I set them. I was naively excited, hoping the CFO was becoming more involved in my career development there. I felt completely mislead by the whole thing; it felt very unfair, and extremely unprofessional. Cherry on top of the disaster sundae? I received a sweatshirt with their logo on it at my home the next day. My supervisor had even IMed me the day before saying she was excited for me to receive it, apparently all the while planning my departure. As I type this, I realize there are so many stories I could tell. These are just the ones that show up for me as the most *important* to tell. When I think about the ways I was disrespected on a personal, financial, and professional level, it makes me sick to my stomach. I wish I had NEVER accepted this job. The frustration, hurt, and confusion I was left with outweighed any sort of benefit I may have experienced.