The CEO is unethical, unscrupulous, and unhinged
He is both CEO and chairman of the board, which seems to be a conflict of interest, and it's clearly having a negative effect on the company
There's a constant push to expand to new markets, while existing issues goes unaddressed. Most teams are understaffed, so the focus has shifted entirely to firefighting in most of them
Management has been warned on multiple occasions about these issues. They respond that they've heard the concerns, agrees with them, and will address them - then nothing happens
The general understanding among the staff is, that the push to launch in so many places with an incomplete product, is done to pump the stock price, so the CEO (who is a majority stock holder), can sell the company at an inflated price point
The stock price comes before any other concern, which in the last year has led to:
- Saudi Arabia becoming a major investor in the company and management continuously deflecting when asked questions about censorship on the platform because of this
- Several employees being called to what seemed like a disciplinary meeting for asking management to implement a code of ethics after a plan to launch in a country with severe human rights record, was announced. Talking to one of the people who went to the meeting, they told me that the CEO had said, that the company would take no ethical responsibility for its practices. They'd do whatever the country in question would asked them to do, even if it was decisions that violated human rights
- Salaries and pension payments being late on multiple occasions, because adding more capital to the company, would devalue the stock. Management has decided that it's more important for them to earn money by selling their shares, than to pay their employees
- Bills are not paid on time, even small ones that cost less than 5% of a monthly salary. As a result DevOps and development tools and services are often not available, because the bills were not paid in time
On top of all these unethical and unprofessional practices, the CEO is an unpleasant bully. At a company wide meeting with around 180 attendees (including around 30 new hires), he threatened to physically assault anyone found using a competing product while at work
He has multiple times exhibited antisocial behaviour by shaming, yelling at, and/or idly threatening to dismiss employees. He's unable to process any critical questions as anything but a personal attack and he labels anyone who speaks out against him as an enemy
He is a Ayn Rand-esque caricature who thoroughly believes that he's a hero for providing someone with a job. Anyone who isn't praising him for paying them an average salary for a job with little growth or challenge, is ungrateful, self-righteous, and deserving of punishment
I cannot stress enough how unpleasant he is
