Complete lack of respect - Anonymous employee Smallpdf Employee Review

1.0
Feb 23, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I generally enjoyed my time there, some nice people and decent perks.

Cons

They told us late last year that there wouldn't be any layoffs, and then in November I was let go along with 21 others (including people who had large impacts on the company culture). I was initially told it was due to "market conditions", which alone is pretty bad, there was no remorse or even acknowledgement from management that they had made mistakes that lead to this. We then later found out that certain things are meant to be done before a mass layoff in Switzerland, which smallpdf did not do. Their response to this was that only 9 of us were actually laid of, and the rest were fired due to their own performance, and I was now one of the latter (and apparently this is legally totally ok). We weren't given the performance improvement plans that employees are promised (they were quick to point out that they aren't obliged to do this, but couldn't give me a reason beyond it being a "company decision" as to why I didn't get one). I got a meeting with a couple of managers in which they gave all the things they'd come up with to justify me being let go due to performance, most of which were largely unfounded but of course they hadn't taken the time to discuss these things with me beforehand, so I had no opportunity to explain and defend myself. They made a pretty awful offer of one extra months pay than I am legally entitled to, but given all at once at the end of the year, so once you factor in the taxes it didn't really work out that favorably. I was told by just about everyone involved that I could reach out if I needed any assistance, but most of my questions have been ignored and it's taken me months to chase them up for various documents, including my reference letter. During this time there has been multiple more rounds of firings, including the C levels and just recently another 26 people gone, as far as I am aware still with little communication to the current employees.

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Pros

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Cons

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4.0
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Pros

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Smallpdf Response
3y
Thank you for your feedback and for investing your time and knowledge into our growth! We are happy to have you with us!
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