Thought Machine Reviews

Some of the things that were said to me by management: On passing probation - "the good news is you still have a job". When struggling to work with a particularly egotistic team mate - "I've decided that it's not that you don't like men" When it came to promotion - "I feel like the bar is so much higher for you" (it was). Also a refusal to let me be on support as I have young children and cannot reliably be at a machine within 15 minutes at certain times of the day. This genuinely harms your career. Sick of the football awards, male fashion reviews, and the bullying that passes as comments on your code.

The core values at Thought Machine seem to be bullying and intimidation, which are instilled by the CEO. He surrounds himself with yes men (and one absolute horror of a woman) who do not dare challenge him and instead just do whatever he says. I’ve noticed a few times that if he is challenged, he can be pretty cutthroat and nasty in response. He has been known to threaten people on the spot that they’ll lose their jobs if they disobey him, including those aforementioned senior leaders. His arrogance is astounding, thinking he can do everyone’s jobs better than they can. Furthermore, the use of racist language by leadership is endemic at Thought Machine, even going so far as to openly laugh at their failed attempts to pronounce new employees’ names at all-company meetings. The quality of the leadership at Thought Machine in general is pretty shocking, especially in tech. The vast majority of leaders have been promoted far beyond their ability, in some cases put into senior roles where they have absolutely zero experience in that field or discipline. Time in service and nodding along to the CEO seem to be the required elements for getting a promotion, rather than ability, achievement or outcomes. People regularly seem to disappear without a trace, usually women. They’re often uncontactable after they’ve been very suddenly removed which makes me and others wonder what’s happened to them. More generally, the company seems to have a real problem with women, especially those who don’t just nod along to the (often far less competent) men. If you are a woman who has opinions and isn’t afraid to voice them, I’d suggest you shut up or your days are numbered at Thought Machine. I also know of multiple instances of serious bullying of a female employee by a senior leader which was reported. The employee then disappeared without a trace a few days later. There’s a culture of fear and blame which leads to people taking credit for other people’s work and others being thrown under the bus. I have never known a company where so many current employees hate it so much. On top of all of this, their Core product doesn’t even work, and their internal systems are a mess (data breaches and data quality to name a couple) - a bit of a concern considering they’re trying to be a system of record for highly regulated financial institutions! Truly the worst place I have ever worked at or known of anyone working at. I can't wait to leave when the job market picks up.