Slalom reviews

Around 2022 Slalom started to change. The company over hired, senior leadership said they would never fire people, only to have to fire people because they weren't bringing in enough business. Every year the narrative changed, and it became a race to the bottom where people fought for low pay raises. My manager sabotaged me in my ratings to get a higher pay raise. Favoritism has always been a part of Slaloms culture, but it became much more self evident when senior leadership would send out emails congratulating people on promotions, and also send out emails on who they fired. The company claims to have values, such as "do the right thing always," but in practice this is more of a marketing term to bait and switch people.

The workplace environment is hostile to women. During a recent large‑scale reorganization of the data team, no women were on the planning team. After the reshuffle, many capable women who previously supervised several people were reassigned to roles with no direct reports, while men were placed into respectable leadership positions. Advancement requires submitting an application, proving competence, and presenting a business case. Strangely, if the company is already hiring for a comparable role at the desired level, that doesn't count as a business case. Female representation in senior roles is extremely low; the sole woman I’ve observed appears vastly more qualified than her male peers at the same level. The promotion and evaluation system is riddled with bias. Decisions are made in group meetings where senior leaders discuss each subordinate and vote collectively—a process marketed as “democratic.” Research on evaluation bias shows this method disadvantages minorities: they speak up less, face pressure to conform, and have their dissenting views discounted, which erodes their credibility. Moreover, evaluators tend to favor people who resemble themselves, and with upper‑management dominated by white and South‑Asian men, promotions disproportionately go to those groups. Mentoring initiatives for women exist only at an individual level. Although a formal women‑focused mentorship program is mentioned, I have seen no concrete evidence of its operation. These observations pertain specifically to the data capability; other departments may have different dynamics.