- Expertise Ignored: I was hired for my expertise, but management refused to listen. They want "change" without actually being willing to change themselves or their way of working.
- Strategic Missteps: Attempting to layer AI over a broken data foundation ("cleaning up the basis") is a recipe for disaster.
- Management Incompetence: Leadership lacks the professional maturity or experience found at "serious" companies. My experience became toxic after a supervisor change, characterized by mistreatment and gaslighting.
- Exclusionary Culture: Despite being a global company, some Slack channels are exclusively in Russian, alienating non-speakers and creating deep cultural silos.
- Instability & Misclassification: Constant, thoughtless changes to org and compensation structures. The company uses freelance contracts but acts as a demanding employer (e.g., no vacations in the first months) while offering zero job security. Constantly heard that best to hire interns.
- Burnout & Lack of Support: The combination of toxic supervision and being "squeezed out" eventually led to burnout. When I reached out, HR provided zero support, relying on standard corporate scripts rather than addressing the root causes of the toxic environment.
