Yeesh, where do I begin?
- Amateur / inexperienced contributors promoted into leadership roles that aren't equipped with the proper skills. Micromanagement is RAMPANT in this place. For a company that prides itself on autonomous, asynchronous , remote work, they sure like to have their hands in everything. My entire reputation with the folks I worked with there was ruined because of an individual, who happened to be my manager, who red-taped and blocked me from actually ever getting my job done. This was either due to zero trust in ICs, or due to strategies to shrink their workforce following the overhiring of 2021 - 2022 (more on this later). Again, if you like being an autonomous body who is trusted to do their work well, DO NOT WORK HERE.
- Absolutely zero accountability on leadership's part. They do no wrong, and you better not question it. There were many times that I was called out on something I did wrong, or a deadline I missed (whether or not I was aware of the deadline - which is another story) - and when I tried to correct it, I was still given warnings because I hadn't made it obvious enough to leadership that I had corrected. Despite tagging leadership on issues, Slacking directly, copying on emails - if they missed those communications, it was my fault.
- As others have alluded to, or called out: GitLab's values are just a façade. Pretty much everything in their public handbook is way outdated, and the values do not hold true.
- The main reason I joined GitLab was due to the "Family and friends first, work second" value, a sub-value of their DiB value. I was so excited to work for a company that put this at the forefront of their values, but boy was I wrong. Any time taken to support family members during business hours was tallied behind the scenes, and put a mark against your work. I thought bringing my family to an on-site was going to be encouraged, especially with the value to "make family feel welcome". However, GitLab made it near-impossible to accommodate my family tagging along on a trip, to the point where I wasn't able to make final plans until only a week or two out, and spending much more than if I had booked it the month prior as planned.
- No respect for neurodiversity here, despite that being a major part of their values.
On another note, I suspect GitLab is still (or was, when I finally left on my own accord) trying to push people out the door after over-hiring in an attempt to shrink their workforce, but without having to pay the absurdly good severance advertised in the "public" layoffs that were done in early 2023.
I've spoken to MANY other folks, former and current employees of GitLab who had similar experiences of getting written up for things that were unclear in the first place, vague, lacked deadlines or details, or were just flat-out unreasonable expectations, and felt like they were getting shoved out.
Some folks have even claimed to me that GitLab discriminated on the basis of disabilities and race.
As someone else in these reviews said - thinking about my time at GitLab makes me want to puke. The tension between management there and myself, the tension it caused among my family, and the time it wasted for me is something I never want to experience again. My anxiety and depression worsened to where I had to increase medications, and they had me convinced there was something wrong with me - to the point where I saw a shrink for the first time in my life.
I literally have PTSD from my time there, and had to rearrange my home office before starting my new role so I wasn't sitting in the same corner being reminded of the horrible conversations I was subjected to with my "manager" there, particularly at the end. I've spoken to others who have also described PTSD in their post-GitLab life, having to rearrange furniture, work in other places, paint their walls new colors, etc.
