Kraken did well as a start up but has not yet figured out how to operate as a midsize company. This is leading to stressed and frustrated employees, mounting tech debt that is a serious outage waiting to happen, and upper management that is entirely disconnected from the reality of the business.
- Everything is last minute and an "emergency", almost always due issues that could have easily been foreseen if people had the time, understanding, and support to actually plan
- Team leads are forced to juggle what are three separate full time jobs: manager, engineering lead, and product manager. If you point this out you will be told that it's "part of the culture"
- Pushing back against "emergency" demands doesn't go over well, but you'll also be questioned on why you aren't completing the assigned goals that get constantly dropped to cope with sudden incoming requests. No one in management seems to think this is a problem
- Several people in mid to upper management are there because of length of time at the company rather than competency or maturity
- No one knows how to get promoted. There are no templates, processes, or attempts at fairness
- Multiple people complain about burnout, frustration, feeling under-appreciated and confused, but none of this is taken seriously or treated with understanding
- Any feedback to higher-ups is shrugged off with responses like "just talk to your manager" (despite managers also not having any answers), telling you that you are "empowered" to fix the systemic and far-reaching organisational breakdowns, or being told that "chaos is part of the culture". If you ask Person A they'll tell you to ask Person B, and then Person B will tell you you should be speaking to Person A
Ah, and as I found out firsthand, if you are audacious enough to resign in good standing, you'll suddenly be treated like an enemy for your remaining notice period.
