Upsales Nordic reviews

The work culture is marked by high employee turnover and a strongly top-down leadership style. Creativity and initiative are often encouraged in theory but rarely supported in practice, and shifting priorities frequently lead to important work being deprioritised or abandoned. Management micromanages heavily and shows limited trust in teams and individual contributors, with decisions often based on top leadership’s own opinions rather than open discussion. The environment is consistently reactive and shaped by informal power structures rather than clear processes, creating a culture that feels immature rather than collaborative and professional. Even employees with strong performance and steady salary progression are not protected from sudden changes in expectations or strategic direction, which fosters ongoing instability. Support for learning and development is minimal, and employees are largely expected to upskill on their own time while maintaining high output. A clear “us versus them” dynamic exists between leadership and the rest of the organisation, and communication is often unclear and non-transparent. High performance is constantly expected, but the culture provides little support for sustaining it. Even highly driven individuals struggle to stay motivated when trust, continuity, and psychological safety are lacking. If you want a place where you can grow, perform and feel motivated, unfortunately this place is not for you.

Leadership is chaotic and reactive. Priorities change frequently and are often driven by impulse rather than strategy. Teams are repeatedly asked to drop ongoing work to chase the next “big idea,” only for these initiatives to be abandoned without follow-through. This leads to wasted effort, frustration, and burnout. Micromanagement is excessive, with little trust in teams or managers to execute independently. Instead of enabling progress, leadership becomes a bottleneck that slows decision-making and execution across the company. The company heavily promotes a “no primadonnas allowed” culture, yet leadership behavior frequently contradicts this message. Communication from the top can be aggressive, emotionally driven, and unprofessional, which undermines trust and psychological safety throughout the organization. There is also an expectation that employees should continuously keep up with new trends and skills in their personal time, regardless of workload or personal responsibilities. This is framed as ambition, but in practice it leads to exhaustion rather than sustainable performance. The most frustrating part is the gap between the values being promoted and the reality of how the company operates day to day. With consistent leadership and behavior that actually reflects its stated culture, this company could perform far better than it does today. When a company loudly promotes “no primadonnas allowed,” leadership behavior should not be the clearest exception.