Made Technical Office Redundant just after Securing Buyout funding from Investment Company - Support Engineer bei Smoothwall: Mitarbeiterbewertung

1.0
28. Jan. 2019
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CEO-Befürwortung
Geschäftsprognose

Pros

Autonomy of department from immediate management

Kontras

Company had a management buyout and within 3 weeks of it being complete, they shut down a whole office for "Cost Cutting" measures even though they still had 3 years left on the lease for that office and are still paying for it. Have never seen an investment company / buyout allow the redundancy of all their technical staff within weeks of taking over a company... This review is based on old management, not current management.

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Reaktion von Smoothwall
7y
Hello, thanks for taking the time to leave a review, and I appreciate by reflecting your opinion on old vs new management that you are aiming to differentiate and give 'new' management a clean slate. I do appreciate that, and we have made many exciting changes that I think other recent reviews naturally better reflect. I would like to add some colour to the office closure, which is that whilst it was announced shortly after the MBO, the office was kept open and running with staff for a further 9 months, with options for staff to relocate and stay (indeed some did, both to Leeds and to the US), and extensive outplacement support provided. These decisions are never easy or taken at all lightly, and I didn't want there to be any perception that it was a rushed decision or people were out the door quickly, as neither is true. Many thanks - and good luck with whatever you are doing now! Regards, Georg

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5.0
6. Apr. 2021
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CEO-Befürwortung
Geschäftsprognose

Pros

Great environment, people are good

Kontras

Work life balance is not very good

1.0
30. Dez. 2018
Mitarbeiter (anonym)
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CEO-Befürwortung
Geschäftsprognose

Pros

Used to be a good company to work for...not since it changed ownership.

Kontras

New Management does not care about the toxic environment in the US. Their expectations are extremely unrealistic and the new CEO is clueless.

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Reaktion von Smoothwall
7y
Thank you for leaving your thoughts on here, though I am sorry to read how you feel. I'm afraid I don't recognise your description of the US office. It is important to very clearly and strongly refute the suggestion that anyone would be punished for highlighting problems, in fact the opposite is true. “Problems are good” is my constant refrain as we seek to uncover and improve wherever we can. To support a critical and honest continuous self-review & self-improvement at our company, we have put multiple systems in place to enable feedback including anonymous feedback routes, anonymous employee engagement surveys, as well as HR and other channels outside of management. For the record, only two people in the US have been “fired” (as you put it) throughout 2018, and both were straightforward (and clear-cut) performance issues. We are deeply committed to ensuring our US operations are a great success and as such we are investing significant engineering time and effort into US product, we have improved many aspects of US staff benefits, increased the entertainment budget, increased the training budget, and are planning a renovation of the US office. If, on reflection, you still feel that specific points need to be addressed, I would strongly encourage you to avail yourself of any of the anonymous feedback tools to provide specific advice on specific points and I will personally review it all – as I always do.
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