Sad reality of corporate - What can be done to change it?

Sharing something I saw on X. https://x.com/smb_attorney/status/1745609324544536778?s=46&t=75M9ooHyv6ZxcnXYHYGynw I thought she asked the right questions and that Cloudflare team actually were just throwing corporate doublespeak.

Corporate/Startup culture that needs to be changed: * Office Politics * Favoritism or favors given towards an employee * Micromanagement * Explanations for every leave taken * Glorifying Overworking * Expecting staff to be available 24/7 * Meetings that could have been an email * Unsympathetic Layoffs * Non Appreciating Behavior * Credits due to an employee * More than 3 rounds of job interviews

One of the old employees dropped a bomb of an e-mail against the entire leadership of PhonePe Mass Offline leadership addressing about mental harassment, hostile comments, threatening to sack, and pushing employees to have no work life balance. This mail was sent to the Founder Sameer Nigam and the HR Head.

Majority of Indian startups has toxic work culture and the same is not true for any US or Europe based startup. Indian startups just copy paste ideas from the west and apply it to Indian context. We don't have original product barring few such as Postman and all. Why is it so and how we can improve the situation?

I earn a decent living ~32LPA as a Software Engineer. I really enjoy my work and it is always a joy working with smart people around you. I sometimes wonder if I didn't exist would it matter in the world. At work, I come up with great ideas and insights which my peers appreciate and support, but there hasn't been one thing that they took seriously and moved ahead with. My peers around me constantly belittle me, some unprofessional jokes about my competence and intellect, even though I am actually good at what I do and more. The backhanded compliments and sarcastic replies in front of other people in my company makes me sad beyond belief. It is almost like I give so much of time to this company and although everyone cares about the work I do but no one cares about me. My colleagues constantly try to one-up themselves by bullying juniors and laughing in their glass-walled conference walls. Incidents like these make me want to give up on work. I think the mix of giving all of myself at work(intensity and long hours), constant berating on my competence and the time I spend away from my family and "real" friends(not these fake work colleagues) makes me depressed as fuck. I am now understanding that you can never be happy in life because you can never have all that you want. You will give up something for the other. You think making more money will make you happier but you will just end up losing your sanity.

The company had more than 6 layoffs in the past 10 months. Right from office boys to the company COO was affected by the layoff. The recent layoff happened 10 days back, where the company didn't pay their employees a single dime and instead gave them their value less esops to keep their mouth shut. The company is being run by 2 arrogant adamant co-founders along with their 10 other close ally so called the CORE team. The employees were on 30% salary cut since 10 months in the name of deffered and were promised that everyone would get it back with 8% interest on the cut. In every layoff employees were asked to leave within a day or two without even paying them for their notice period. Nobody was vocal about it as the founders had threatened some ex employees that they would make their life miserable and they will find it difficult to get jobs anywhere in future.

Been working in this firm from quite sometime. Its a service based firm and i work for an American fintech giant. Worked hard, led upgrades, learnt new stuff, delivered complex usecases. Recently i started seeing alot of discrimination from this client as now they have started seeing contractors as 3rd class ppl. It started with not inviting contractors in business discussions to now reached a point where new joiness (full time employees) of theirs are taking credit on a work which i worked on. Sad stuff. I know i have heard that corporate is not family but it hurts to see how self centric people are in this world. I have been very dedicated for them all this while. Now I think its about time to jump ship & get the due respect elsewhere.

- It's hard being the only woman in the leadership, in a room full of older men. If you don't hang out with them, you are excluded. If you do hang out with them, you got to get you act right with nods and smiles along the small talk. If If If If.. thats the loop you are caught in. - Imagine being the only female developer in the team. BRO code is the default setting. DEV code took a sabbatical. All of you go hang out with beer, smoke and whatever and what if I am not into that? I am not a so called BRO then. And dont even get me started on the casual jokes and me not being into gaming and TT. Go ahead ask me.. How does she even fit in then.. Right?? - Declare I’m taking a "Wellness" Day. Might as well hold a flag and say "Guess who's on her period?! ME ME ME!" So much for your policies - I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve been interrupted, spoken over.. - Dress too casually, you're not taken seriously. Dress too nicely, you're trying too hard. I've been judged for my clothes more times than I can count - too much, too little, too fashionable - yep been called that too. It’s exhausting - I think my presence is acknowledged only when it’s convenient for them. My opinions and insights are ignored until they need a female face to tick a diversity box - I’ve stayed late and worked weekends just to prove I’m just as dedicated as the others (even when I was doing next weeks work) - Finding a mentor who truly understands the challenges I face as a woman in tech is nearly impossible. Male mentors often don’t get it, and female mentors are spread too thin - I was told to speak up but when I did, I was labeled aggressive. I'm expected to be assertive but not too assertive, confident but not too confident. Also if I am progressing too fast, I have someone special rooting for me for something special in return - that the peoples verdict. And then the gossip starts. A large majority of Orgs, Founders, Leaders, HR are getting by doing the bare minimum.