I was warned before I arrived at Swaybox that they were like this, but I had a lot of gratitude and optimism about the job. I knew I brought skills they needed, and the project they’ve been handed is exciting. Even with that preparation I couldn’t have anticipated just how dysfunctional and toxic this company is.
Unequipped. They had almost no tools to do the job, when I arrived, and everything they had was in disrepair or broken. I was often told; “it’s so much better than it used to be,” even while I was scavenging through boxes of rusty fasteners for a single driver bit. That’s a microcosm for the entire place. If I hadn’t brought my own tools I could not have accomplished anything.
Micromanagement. Swaybox is so disorganized I thought they might be allergic to making plans. In fact, I was repeated told, “DO NOT TRY AND ANTICIPATE!” Despite being hired as a PuppetMech lead and being called “The Puppet Mechanical Supervisor”, I had to ask permission to move forward on anything, under the most restrictive micromanagement I’ve ever experienced.
Shifting goal-posts. I’ve never worked at a place which moved so slowly yet bragged so much about the speed at which things change. Middle-management is concerned entirely with satisfying the needs of an insecure founder—and so, sudden irrational pivots were common—losing sight of the larger goals of the project. Months went by with very little to show for our work.
Poor communication. They had no project management software for months. They didn’t even write punch-lists. Assignments were a guessing game after meetings with the founder. Language and terms were fluid. Take lots of notes and mind-read what was needed based on that, because you will have to translate these rambling meetings into something you think was asked for. It won’t matter because you will be asked to pivot long before anything is complete and whatever you thought you understood will be wrong.
Pervasive fear. The leadership philosophy is based in domination through degradation—I was warned about the public shaming circles and loud excoriations—I’ve never worked at a place with so much fear. The company founder proclaims, “we work totally differently” yet everyone is so immobilized by the fear of making a wrong guess that no one may experiment or move forward. They cared less about results than being in total control. Consequently, very little was ever accomplished.
Disrespect. Management made every effort to communicate that each of us were expendable and we better be prepared to be fired if we failed. Yet, weekly I was begged to call my skilled friends to get them to come work at Swaybox. Invariably I experienced just as many incidents to warn my friends away.
Conclusion: I arrived optimistic, giving dozens of extra hours a week, as I worked on interesting problems. The project was great! A small, unknown company received a truly unique opportunity. But they squandered time, energy and particularly good-will. I’ve never been so professionally disrespected and it wore me down. I worked with great people who were poorly utilized on a fantastic project this company is incapable of completing.
