Refme

1.0

29 Dec 2015

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

The product is good, and there are a lot of fantastic people working at the company, which made it seem attractive. Management talks a good talk at interview stage, outlining great ambition and prospects. The reality after on-boarding is very different, however.

Cons

Strategy was all over the place and changed constantly according to the CEO’s moods. None of the resources agreed upon actually materialized, and commitments were never followed through. Opportunities such as speaking engagements and meetings were casually ignored and constantly cancelled at the last minute, which made it very difficult to build relationships or conduct business credibly on the company’s behalf. I felt uncomfortable with the casual attitude towards paying agencies and contractors, as senior management would agree to clear terms, both verbally and in writing, and then ask you to get out of them even when there were clear legal contractual obligations. When I raised issues around this, however, I was asked what all the “drama” was about. This attitude of withdrawing promises also extended to staff. One example of this was the holiday policy. The company advertised – and specifically mentioned at every stage of interview – that it offered unlimited holiday, but as it turned out it only allowed for 22 days, which is on the average to low side for technology start-ups. Management would respond to communication sporadically at best, and often completely forget or disregard what was said and agreed upon, which made for a chaotic working environment. Ironically, as my contract was terminated with a week’s notice the week before Christmas, the main reason given was “lack of communication” regarding meeting arrangements, when I had in fact clearly notified all members of the management team of my whereabouts weeks in advance, and several times, both verbally and in writing. The management team then announced to the company that I – along with other team members – had been let do due to “performance issues”. Such issues were not brought up at any point before that stage, and I have since found out that the other team members were let go for pointing out that the new share options contract contradicted previously agreed-upon terms.

Refme Response

10y

We are really sorry to hear about your experience of working with us. As mentioned in a previous review response, we are a fairly young start-up working in a competitive market and as such our work culture can be extremely fast-paced with ever changing goals and priorities. This isn’t without its challenges and we know it won’t suit everyone - particularly if they value a more structured working environment. Taking on board your feedback we do need to be more transparent about our work culture at the interview stage to ensure we recruit team members with the right fit. We do appreciate all employee feedback as, whilst we try our best, we know we don’t always get it right. Tom, our CEO usually follows up with anyone leaving RefMe for feedback and to understand the reasons behind them moving on, so we're sorry you weren't able to respond to his request before you left. Our working culture needs to be responsive and dynamic to enable us to remain competitive in an ever changing market and to respond to opportunities quickly. As mentioned in other reviews this gives us a great working environment for creativity and innovation but does mean that we have an ongoing challenge to bring the team up to speed when things change - we will continue to work harder on tightening communication wherever we can. Our volume of activity can also be high and opportunities varied, which can result in C-Level sometimes taking longer than normal to respond to queries. (As an aside, if you’re the sort of person who will get frustrated at this I will say RefME may not be the right fit for you!) Whilst we take on board your feedback, we would have to disagree with your comments regarding contractors and paying agencies. We would also disagree with your comments regarding our unlimited holiday allowance. Our holiday allowance at the time you were employed, was unlimited subject to Manager approval. There was a restriction of holiday allowance for those still in their probation period – we like to offer a wide range of benefits to people working with us but in line with many employers we put some restrictions in place before we make all of them available. Going forward we will ensure there is more clarity around enhanced entitlements on Holiday Policy and other benefits to avoid confusion. We do not feel it is appropriate to comment on any individual’s work performance on a public website except to clarify that we do follow disciplinary and performance management processes in every case of someone leaving the organisation where their exit isn’t voluntary. Once again, we are sorry to hear about your experience. We know we’re not perfect but appreciate feedback to help us in trying!

Chaotic and unprofessional - Anonymous employee Refme Employee Review

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