The biggest mistake in my career - Senior Engineering Manager Personio Employee Review

Contrary to the sales pitch of "aiming to be the best tech employer in Europe", Personio doesn't deliver on any of the promises, at least in Engineering. The hypergrowth created a messy state, which I was happy to join and improve. However, that is no longer desired, as the culture fully shifted to one akin to a dictatorship, with no structure, constantly moving targets, and a "don't ask, just do what I say" mentality. Engineers are burned out, managers are anxious and depressed, people are forced to do menial tasks, and career progression attempts are shot down perpetually. Teams will easily spend weeks setting up "working agreements" instead of actually working on a problem. Bureaucracy and busy work are the company norm, yet execs are shouting about performance and velocity, achieving which is a pipe dream. Roadmaps don't hold even the 8-week windows, and "strategy" boils down to "ship whatever". Raising all of this with superiors and HR yielded "if you don't like it, there's the door", which leaves a bunch of people completely speechless. Additionally, the "All Company Culture Week" felt more like a sermon in a Cult of the Great Leader than a professional endeavour of any capacity. I had really high hopes of collaborating with people I normally wouldn't have a chance to, but the reality was: listen, smile and clap. Finally, for "the best tech employer in Europe" we're putting incredible weight on US at the moment, with all the toxic culture that comes from that (normalising crunch, regularly working outside EU office hours, etc.)