Chaotic culture with questionable leadership
Pros
Lots of smart people. Teams work well together, and are motivated to solve challenging problems. Colleagues are willing to help each other and openly share ideas.
Cons
Micromanagement is getting BAD! It is trickling down from leadership to management, and is showing up in ways that hurt how we get work across the line. Lots of toxic behavior displayed from senior leaders without any repercussions. We witness it, but fail to report it out of fear of being pushed out or ignored by HR. In general, there is a growing bias when it comes to how decisions are made. Everyone knows that nepotism is a factor when it comes to who is getting hired and who will get promoted at GitLab. Lots of leaders hire friends from their last company or play favorites based on who they decide they will trust or will go along with whatever they say. Senior leaders are reactive and often chase the next big thing without any thought to long term strategy or team workload. Recent company direction, and decisions around headcount all feel like they are in support of a future sale or in favor of making an acquisition easier. Lots of recent hires joined from well known companies, but often leave GitLab under a year because it is such a mess. Many talented people that have been around for years have finally decided that enough is enough. If they haven’t left by now then they’ve chosen to accept mediocrity, or are actively planning their exit.
