In short: Working at Gelato is often compared to climbing a mountain, but they don't tell you it's done on a rough terrain, with no breaks, no clear finish line, no compass and no compassion. This is an inhumane mountain race you were bound to fail before you started. If you still want to work here, hire a Norwegian lawyer to review the contract before you sign it. If you agree to work, after thoroughly asking questions about the work time and overtime, do become a member of a union, because you are going to need it.
When you work at Gelato, you are always encouraged to view the glass as full, rather than empty because the "reality is whatever we want it to be". Otherwise you are perceived as a negative person, but that won't stop me today from writing a clear and realistic overview of my time spent here.
People working at Gelato (Globe, Optimalprint, Network and Air), are very sharp individuals chosen for their exceptional skills, and proven track record. The products are great, customer service is top notch, but how our own people who are responsible for this success are treated is something I've never seen in my career. We were indirectly, and then if that doesn't work, directly pressured into working during vacations, holidays and weekends! I've seen colleagues coming out crying out of meetings numerous times. You need to be constantly available on the phone - after work and even though you work in sales, that doesn't guarantee that your data/minutes will be covered.
Turnover rate is self-explanatory. The record is held by former CTO who left after 2 months. Most of people which are leaving/have left now have been here less than 8 months. It is understandable why Gelato hires foreigners in majority, and people straight out of university. Working at Gelato is dull and degrading. The reason we barely manage to get through all of things on our plate is because of "smart understaffing" concept - 1 person doing a job of 3. Nothing is ever good, enough or satisfying. Decisions are made on the spot and they depend on how somebody feels at that particular moment. And this can fluctuate during the day. If it was a bad decision it will fall on the team, if there was no decision it will fall on team again because team members did not take an initiative. If you took the initiative you will be berated for X amount of reasons after you execute because there was no initial feedback from management. Again their lack of clear response will fall on you, because you did not ask for it for the 5th time.
At Gelato you are a number that equals the revenue your work generates. Christmas dinner, the only social event we had in the second half of 2018 was "postponed" to end of January "due to the added pressure during the Christmas period". On-boarding happens in batches and sparingly. You watch The Salt of the Earth - a documentary about deprived societies and then you have dinner. Real on-boarding is you being dropped into the water, and learning how to swim on the spot.
You will not fall short of mental challenges, mind games, brainwashing, manipulations that are crafted well, so you always feel that you are underperforming - thus sacrificing your personal time to reach arbitrary goals which were set without any proper market analysis or data driven calculations.
Here are couple quotes that were supposed to "empower" us:
- "It’s never about the amount of hours you work, because your passion is climbing." If you passion is working days and nights non-stop then you won't mind them not addressing anyone's time.
- "We are a flat hierarchy team." - Everybody and nobody has a say and depending on how stars align, you might be reporting to several people at a time, who by the way disagree on the matters constantly. They will instruct you how and what to do, because there is lack of trust in the skill set you were hired for. You won't be doing what you were hired for anyway because your superior's opinion matters more, and you might be randomly switched to other projects that don't fall unto your expertise.
After long, empty discussions and strings of emails the consensus is reached only when consequences of this miserable process start pouring out and then decision has to come - usually from the top. Management finds it very uncomfortable to tackle decisions and problems, because it's easier to leave things to sort out on its own.
- "We are a startup." - This justifies everything that's wrong with this place, but most of all a total lack of respect for people and their wellbeing. It is mindblowing. The company operates for 13 years now, and I don't know why it's trying to brand itself as hip startup.
There are more generic quotes from Oprah, Steve Jobs, Picasso, Mario Andretti, etc. framed around the office to keep you motivated.
You'll find pristine and ideal image in PR material, and in much acclaimed "culture deck" which took them 6 months to contrive. However, the day-to-day operation is far from what is depicted in that culture deck.
There is much more to be written, but I've already given them enough of my time.
