Atlassian

The company is good with its intentions. It started out well but progressively got worse. Decent employee benefits. It's a good place to start a tech career but there's no growth. The company became like a typical politically driven corporate firm. It's no longer the Atlassian it was.

I'll start by saying I was really proud to be working for Atlassian at a time. I worked extremely hard and learned a lot here, and I am thankful for it.

However, for a company that claimed so much about employee well-being, I feel really disheartened to be writing this. I was overworked constantly and put down all the time. I had multiple managers who were unsupportive and didn't care about my career at all or my mental health (my manager literally told me to get over it and toughen up). Everyone has horrible people management skills.

There were 1 or 2 people who were always preferred for promotions and career growth. Basically, you have to already be a mega-genius and show 100% exceptional capabilities for management to care about your growth. Otherwise, they won't waste time on you because there isn't anything in it for them. You are on your own always.

The company isn't competitive at all in salary offers compared to the market. Constant changes happen. People leave all the time, and when I asked later, I found out it was for the exact same reasons that I had left: bad salaries, incompetent management, poor decision-making, and disrespectful behavior.

When asked, they give incomplete and false justifications, saying that their market research is really good and they are paying top dollar (which isn't true because numerous sites online have reviews from similar employees saying their salaries are much higher for the same role). A simple Google search showed me it wasn't true.

There is always an expectation to work more than 12 hours a day. They will say all the nice words that you can take breaks and take unlimited PTO, but when asked, they will complain and ask you to work harder. I was essentially strung along for my promotion and growth from day 1. I was set up for failure from the get-go.

I wasn't given the voice to properly speak out. I was never given the kudos for the amount of responsibility I took on for my level. I was operating at least 3 levels above my pay grade (which is a requirement here). I mean, it's good to have high standards, but frankly, where is the line? You are basically getting free labor at this point.

Managers say things like, "You matter, your growth is tied with mine," but it's all a lie. It's just to get you to work harder. An IC level engineer is expected to act like a principal engineer, manage people, and do everything.

There is constant context switching, which gets exhausting and is the top cause for unproductivity and mental fatigue. There is too much work and too little resources. You should never ask for help here because if you do, it counts against you (even though managers encourage you to ask for help, they use it against you when it comes to performance reviews).

It progressively became more and more "corporate" over time. It was demoralizing, disrespectful, and downright destroyed my confidence. They give so much emphasis on their company values. My manager never played as a team; he/she screwed me over.

I was told to pursue another career because engineering wasn't for me. I worked very hard to get where I am, and to hear that from people I once looked up to was very heartbreaking. I am personally not a person to push back on criticism. I value it and I use it for positive growth, but putting people down and telling them they aren't built for something is just wrong, IMO.

I personally do not think my manager lived up to the "open company, no BS" value at all. He/she had no clue what they were doing and told me to do certain things for which they docked me points later. I had to ultimately decide that for my mental health and the sake of loving what I did, I had to leave the company.

"Don't f*** the customer" was another big value here, but I guess I wasn't a customer technically because my career got completely messed up here.

"Be the change you seek" - while I was constantly pursuing this to become a better engineer, my manager didn't do anything to see that and set me up for utter failure and my ultimate decision to leave. My manager had 1 job: to manage me well and mentor me in a nourishing way. In other words, to help build my career with "heart and balance." Safe to say that they didn't do that at all.

I would be very careful here. I started my career proud to be here, but it slowly got horrible and wouldn't, in good conscience, recommend it for anyone looking for a fair environment.

We need to get proper people managers. Just because someone is technically good doesn't mean they know how to manage people. Managers are pushing people to leave. Just one or two bad managers can completely ruin an employee's perspective and give a really bad outlook on the company.

People growth needs to be shown in action, not just words. Promote people, give them encouraging words. Stop expecting everyone to perform at the level of a CEO and instead look at their potential and help them grow.

Listen to your employees and truly understand what they want. We all want what's best for the company, but with it comes some understanding and empathy.