It took me a long time to put a finger on what is exactly wrong with this company. I'd say, Aiven surely struggles like any growth company who accepted a huge investment. The financial projection was way off charts and actual growth doesn't match the promised number. Investors get nervous, board is unhappy. This creates panic and tension in the C-level and afterwards all cascades down into complete chaos to the lower levels. This is my guess ofc, because I can't explain the chaos otherwise.
Chaos looks like unbalanced workloads, some teams are burning out, others -- severely underutilized, contradicting requirements in product, overly optimistic sales targets, systematic internal mess with processes, unhappy colleagues across all departments complaining non-stop. This drains the energy dramatically.
There was no clear guidance from upper managers who oftentimes didn't contribute at all and were just sitting on their hands. Tbh I never really understood why Aiven created an army of managers, directors and execs. This is a highly corporate vertical structure that is not needed in the 400ppl company. It would take you in some cases 5-6 levels of approvals for certain things, just ridiculous waste of time.
Some of the most talented and loyal folks actually left, or worse - were laid off. Some of the most toxic and inefficient guys would be still there. So go figure who is responsible to keep talent. It definitely broke my professional heart to see folks who would really care about Aiven leaving. Many of those were actually women recently. As of now, majority of the leadership at Aiven are middle aged white males. Tells you something about the vibe.
