Toxic Culture and Unrealistic Expectations - Anonymous employee OKG Employee Review

1.0
Nov 29, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The salary and benefits are good, but the demanding schedule makes it hard to use them, even when you're sick.

Cons

1. Toxic Culture and Office Politics The company culture is very toxic, and there’s a lot of office politics. Favoritism is common, and certain groups get better treatment while others are ignored. This makes the workplace feel unfair and difficult to thrive in. 2. Lack of Diversity The majority of employees are Chinese, and there is no diversity. People often speak Mandarin in break rooms, during lunch, and in meetings, even when non-Chinese employees are present. This makes it hard for others to feel included and part of the team. 3. Poor Management Most managers lack technical skills and don’t know how to manage people well. They are often rude, unsupportive, and don’t care about their teams. Favoritism is obvious, and promotions or bonuses go to people based on who they know rather than their performance. 4. Issues in Product and Design Teams The product and design teams are run by inexperienced managers who came straight out of school. They lack knowledge about strategy, product success, or proper design processes. Their lack of experience shows in how poorly they lead their teams. 5. Unrealistic Expectations and Overwork There’s no work-life balance. Employees are expected to be online 24/7, with meetings often scheduled after 5 PM. Most people end up working several extra hours every day. The U.S. CEO even said that if you want work-life balance, you should find another job. 6. Unstable Projects and No Clear Direction There is no roadmap or clear goals for the company. Priorities change constantly because everyone is focused on making the owner happy. Teams are pushed to quickly design and deliver new projects, only to have their hard work on previous projects canceled without explanation. This creates stress and makes employees feel like their efforts are wasted. 7. Lack of Appreciation and Random Layoffs Hard work is never appreciated—instead, it’s rewarded with even more work. Layoffs happen randomly, even to employees who have been loyal and worked hard for years. There is no clear process or explanation for these decisions. 8. Ineffective HR Practices The HR team doesn’t support employees and focuses on covering up problems. For example, they ask new employees to write positive reviews online in exchange for company swag. This creates a false image of the company and ignores the real issues.

avatar
OKG Response
1y
Hello there, thank you for leaving us a review as it helps us improve! It is a key priority to safeguard our company culture and provide a positive and empowering experience for our employees. We also take recognition and career advancement very seriously, and have regular performance reviews that are structured against our principles of We Before Me, Do the Right Thing, and Get Things Done.

Explore other reviews about OKG

5.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Lots of agency - Lots of impact - Smart people to work with - Autonomy over action

Cons

- Lack of work-life balance - Lack of a structured growth plan

1.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Its better than being unemployed

Cons

Everything at this company is so unnecessarily complex. Why do we need two different email addresses, Lark, Google Docs, VPNs, multiple internal systems, and 2FA every other hour just to get through a normal workday? The VPN times out constantly so you’re forced to log back in, random access gets revoked for no apparent reason, and then you’re left opening tickets just to do your job. Half the internal documentation is in Chinese, so good luck trying to figure anything out yourself. None of this makes us more productive. It’s just layers of friction piled on top of each other. Feels like half my job is navigating internal processes instead of actually doing the work. Non existent leadership. Like literally sometimes I forget who’s in charge, we on occasion will hear from our leaders during year end or at random times throughout the year but most of the time they are sight unseen. No work life balance because this company is a global company and people don’t respect work life boundaries. It’s a Chinese company which doesn’t really even try and hide it. The folks from China can be quite rude, sexist and generally very clueless to how to act professionally . It’s pretty sad

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All