21st century product, 19th century management - Robotics Engineer Mujin Employee Review

1.0
Dec 9, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only real pro is the product itself. As mentioned in the headline, Mujin makes a 21st century product, and it has been a challenging and interesting product to work on.

Cons

To begin, Mujin is a company that is inexplicably split in two. The product side and business side work in separate areas with separate leadership. This leads to a sort of odd distrust and disdain between both sides that, while never becomes the focal point for any huge problems or crises, still pervades the company in the background. It impedes growth and unity, and serves little overall purpose. After 2+ years of time at the company, I've seen miscommunications, petty arguments, and general distrust arise from this split time and time again. One may think that for a high-tech startup with high-tech products, the working environment and management style would match. This is not at all the case. Whether you're on the product side under the CTO, or on the business side under the CEO, the company is run like a traditional domestic firm from bygone eras. All workers must be physically present (no telecommuting, no staggered hours, even during a pandemic.) Daily reports are delivered in-person, standing up, in a line like schoolchildren. If you are not in plain sight, then you surely are not working, and certainly cannot be trusted to work without the CTO or CEO over your shoulder. The common response to requests for flexible working hours or telecommuting is that efficiency will drop, and people will slack off. One then must ask, have you been hiring children, or responsible adults? Have you made any positive effort to explore flexible working styles without completely dismissing it as a wasted effort from the very start? This is the prime concern among your staff, who are worried about getting sick and having to use their own paid leave days to escape an office where so much "traditional" face-to-face interactions must occur. Again, much of this results purely from a highly controlling management who tends towards distrust of their own staff. My advice for management: the two heads of this fractured, split-in-two company have only minimal experience working in other companies prior to Mujin. Please consider getting outside consultants in to evaluate your business practises. This can only bring about improvements for yourself, your staff, and the company. People would like to work in a modern, flexible environment - one that matches the type of industry you're in. The company is slowly transitioning from a startup to an established business, however this transition will be long and painful until the CTO/CEO start placing a bit more trust in their own workers and adopt modern ways of thinking.

Explore other reviews about Mujin

5.0
Jul 23, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fast growing company, many opportunities for growth.

Cons

Global company so hours can be irregular.

1.0
Jan 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Colleagues are easy to get along with

Cons

Imagine you work at in a company where deadlines are almost always missed due to lack of organization on multiple levels. Imagine you work unnecessary overtime. Unnecessary not because your colleagues are inefficient, but because leadership has failed to implement any cohesive planning/forecasting, and failed even further to allocate resources effectively. Imagine you feel anxiety about taking a vacation with your family, because you never know when that phone will ring, even if your contract never stipulates on-call requirements. Now imagine that during a company wide all hands meeting, you and your colleagues raise thoughtful questions about the direction of the company, and perhaps even pitch a few ideas of how to improve things. After all, feedback is crucial in any organization. After all manner of input and suggestions from multiple departments, managers and non-managers, the founder and CEO replies with simply this: "All this chaos is by design." That's it. No improvements, no changes, no self-reflection. This is what working in Mujin is like.

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