Pros
My colleagues on the team were really sweet and supportive. If it wasn't for the management, it would've been a lovely team to work in.
Cons
User research leadership is toxic. My manager was completely unqualified to lead—lacking basic communication, emotional intelligence, and managerial competence. She took offense to me simply asking questions in our 1-1s to understand and learn from her professional experiences and build a friendly working rapport, accusing me of "trying to shift power dynamics" in a formal review. Let that sink in: basic respectful friendly human interaction was labeled as a "threat." That tells you all you need to know about what kind of environment this is. Beyond that, she twisted facts, lied in performance reviews, and rewrote situations to paint me in a bad light—all within my first 4 weeks, while I was still onboarding. There wasn't really much empathy with the struggles/pressures of onboarding in a new role as a neurodivergent person, and expectations were constantly shifting. There was a rush to judge and assign blame without really trying to understand the other person's perspective first. Even when things were already talked about and resolved, they somehow ended up in a performance review. I'm more than happy to admit mistakes and learn from them, but it's despicable when someone flat out lies to shirk responsibility in situations and resurface resolved situations to serve a narrative. Moreover, she was constantly micro-managing my work to the point that I felt paralyzed and unable to confidently take decisions without excessive oversight. She also failed to provide timely feedback—instead, she waited, collected minor issues, blew them out of proportion and then weaponized them. Even when I raised concerns and tried to work through challenges professionally by speaking to HR, they showed no interest in resolution and instead disappeared for 3 weeks until they decided to cut ties–while I was on medical leave due to stress caused by this place. They have no clue how to onboard senior talent, no understanding of realistic performance expectations, and no leadership culture. If you value respect, psychological safety, and actual leadership, avoid this team. Working here was a masterclass in how toxic management can destroy morale and well-being. It's a shame, because the actual team members were really great, i.e., if it wasn't for management, it would be a nice team to work in. And this isn’t an isolated case. I later learned that 3 to 4 other senior hires had been fired within their first few months over the past year or so—after facing similar treatment (micromanagement, passive aggression, gaslighting, bad communication, shifting expectations in projects, mobbing, delayed feedback, catastrophizing & crisis manufacturing/false urgency).
