GEP reviews

- No freedom to work as per your style of working - Extremely micromanaged team - Feedback from employee was never appreiciated

One of the worst companies and worst colleagues I have ever seen in my life after joining GEP. Joining this organization was a total nightmare for me. PLEASE DO NOT EVER JOIN THIS ORGANIZATION. SPECIALLY FOR TECH ROLES. ONLY FOR CONSULTING AND FINANCE TEAM ARE HAPPY U CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCES IF U BY BAD LUCK JOINED THIS ORGANIZATION. WHOMEVER IS THINKING OF JOINING, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT JOIN THIS ORGANIZATION. First of all, GEP Worldwide is not a product-based company; it is a so-called cheap service-based company. It looks like a product company, but it actually isn't. Their main business is solely consulting, not their software, unlike competitors such as SAP Ariba, Coupa, and JAGGAER. Here, the software often feels secondary to consulting revenue, and because of that, the overall technology culture feels neglected. The company talks extensively about innovation, AI, GenAI, digital transformation, and modern engineering practices, but the reality on the ground is completely different. There is very little investment in building a strong engineering culture, technical excellence, documentation standards, or employee development. 1. Frequent Layoffs Every 6 Months / Hired-and-Fired Policy Layoffs happen frequently and are not always based on performance. What I observed was that new joiners are usually the first targets whenever cost-cutting exercises begin. There is a constant atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Many employees spend more time worrying about job security than focusing on meaningful work. Several people who joined around the same time as me either resigned during probation or were asked to leave shortly afterward. The company appears to want highly skilled employees with expertise in AI, GenAI, cloud technologies, architecture, and multiple domains while offering compensation that does not match those expectations. 2. Toxic Leadership and Fear-Driven Culture One of the biggest issues is the leadership culture. The environment is heavily driven by pressure, urgency, and unrealistic commitments. Deadlines are often announced without understanding the complexity of implementation, dependencies, testing, deployment, or production support requirements. There is very little room for challenging decisions or providing alternative viewpoints. Employees often avoid speaking openly because they fear being blamed, ignored, or targeted. This creates a culture where people focus on protecting themselves rather than solving problems collaboratively. 3. Long-Tenured Politics and Knowledge Hoarding There are employees who have spent 5, 10, and even 15+ years in the organization. Many of them understand how the internal politics works and have built strong networks over time. New joiners often struggle because knowledge is concentrated among a small group of people. Knowledge transfer is usually outdated, incomplete, or ineffective. In many cases, old KT recordings are simply passed from one employee to another for years. Instead of helping new employees become productive, people tend to protect information because knowledge has become a source of power. If these people entered Indian politics, even major political parties would struggle to compete with the level of tactical politics they play internally. 4. No Proper Documentation and KT Process Documentation is either missing, outdated, incomplete, or scattered across multiple locations. New joiners are expected to start delivering immediately despite having little understanding of business processes, architecture, dependencies, historical decisions, or existing challenges. The expectation is often: "Figure it out yourself." There is no structured onboarding process, no proper handover framework, and no standardized KT methodology. 5. Unrealistic Timelines and Continuous Firefighting Planning is one of the weakest areas. Tasks that realistically require weeks are expected to be completed in days. Estimation exercises are often ignored. Dependencies are not considered. Risk assessments are rarely performed properly. Everything becomes a high-priority item. Employees continuously move from one urgent issue to another without ever addressing root causes. Instead of strategic execution, the culture promotes firefighting. 6. Incompetent Management and Blame Culture A major concern is the blame culture. When projects succeed, leadership takes credit. When projects fail, individual contributors are blamed. Managers often shift accountability downward instead of taking ownership. Many leaders appear disconnected from actual implementation challenges and focus primarily on status updates, escalations, and pressure. Rather than enabling teams, management often becomes an additional source of stress. 7. Favoritism Over Meritocracy Career growth frequently appears dependent on visibility, relationships, and politics rather than actual contribution. Employees who genuinely work hard are not always rewarded. Meanwhile, individuals with stronger internal relationships often receive better opportunities, better ratings, and better visibility. This creates frustration and destroys motivation among employees who want a merit-based environment. 8. Poor Appraisals and Compensation Salary growth is disappointing. Annual hikes often fail to match market standards. Employees are expected to take ownership of multiple responsibilities while receiving compensation that is significantly lower than comparable opportunities in the market. The gap between expectations and rewards is extremely high. 9. No Recognition for Extra Effort Employees frequently work late nights, weekends, and during critical releases. However, there is little recognition for these sacrifices. Going above and beyond quickly becomes the new baseline expectation. After some time, employees feel that no matter how much effort they put in, it is never enough. 10. Excessive Meetings and Low Productivity A significant amount of time is spent in meetings, discussions, follow-ups, escalations, and status calls. Many meetings do not result in clear action items or decisions. This reduces productive engineering time and increases frustration. 11. No Long-Term Career Growth There is very little focus on building careers. Employees spend most of their time fixing bugs, handling support issues, responding to escalations, and meeting short-term deadlines. There is limited opportunity for innovation, research, architecture ownership, or meaningful skill development. Instead of learning and growing, many employees feel stuck. 12. Family Business Mentality Certain groups behave like closed communities where a small number of people control information, decisions, and opportunities. New employees often feel like outsiders regardless of their skills or experience. This creates an environment where integration becomes difficult and collaboration suffers. Final Verdict For anyone considering joining this organization, carefully evaluate your options before making a decision. Expect heavy workloads, poor work-life balance, office politics, limited documentation, unrealistic timelines, constant pressure, weak knowledge transfer, job insecurity, below-market compensation, and a culture where blame is often prioritized over accountability. The company talks extensively about innovation, AI, GenAI, transformation, and growth, but the employee experience often feels very different from the image being presented. In my opinion, the biggest problems are not technical challenges but rather leadership issues, organizational culture, politics, knowledge hoarding, lack of planning, and the absence of a genuinely employee-friendly environment.