Inkitt reviews

3.7

64% would recommend to a friend

(119 total reviews)
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Ali Albazaz

62% approve of CEO

66% positive business outlook

Inkitt has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 119 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Inkitt employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

119 reviews
1.0
Jan 29, 2020

WORST START UP COMPANY TO WORK AT!!!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

I am trying to be objective here and unfortunately, I cannot think of one positive aspect of working at this company. If I could score less than one star, I would!

Cons

This startup company is to say the least the epitome of the "modern day slavery of the start up world". The job ad describes working in a flat hierarchy, however the CEO leads all the meetings, only listens to certain co-workers, is a control freak, expects you to work from Mo-Sa. from 10am to 10pm for a basic salary. And then will get angry or "disappointed" when you tell him that this company isn't your life. Basically he wants to create the next Netflix/Google/Amazaon, but sorry you cannot compare Inkitt to the beginning of these companies. He is seeking to push his workers to work as passionately as he is about his project and his idea but without any benifit. The benifits of this company is having a cheap breakfast in the office (trust me, I would have to sometimes go buy the groceries myself) and having a very budgeted team event. You don't have any possibility of personal growth nor learning in this company because the goal is to just achieve the goal of the CEO and to publish as many new books (no matter how good or bad) so he's happy with the numbers. As a book lover, I never got the feeling he was ever interested in any literature he claims to have. To top of this bad experience, the CEO already has a big and stubborn idea of everyones job and how everyone should do their job (and yes, he's very clever) but not open and not humble to listen to new criteria nor new ideas of working. He's an arrogant and unprofessional communicator- it's just a waste of time cause this is a tyranny. In some past reviews, I see the same dilemmas as I stated above and the response from the HR (which is buddy with the CEO) is again very unprofessional and not taking any responsibility; what culture of feedback? how is dismissing ideas empowerment for co-workers? yes, we understand that it's the beginning of the company but employees are not there at your disposition to achieve the goal of the CEO. I wonder why so many people have left? And hence always hiring- cause there is no change!

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Inkitt Response
6y
Hi there, Thank you for sharing all your feedback and thoughts. We are sorry to hear about your negative experiences. We are always doing our best to take everyone’s input and wishes into consideration, and I want to reassure you that we will do our best to improve in the areas you mention. Since you are mentioning benefits and personal growth as lacking, I just want to shed light on that we do offer regular sport sessions with a personal trainer, unlimited self-development budget for books, German classes, lunch on Mondays, dinners every evening to finish the day nicely, and of course company off-sites and various events, to keep our employees happy and healthy (of course all at no cost to the employees). Please let us know if you have any further suggestions on how we can improve! We wish you all the best!
1.0
Mar 22, 2021

People come and go

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice colleagues; all about books and stories

Cons

high staff turnover; toxic culture; if you disagree with founder you are out asap; no creative freedom

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Inkitt Response
5y
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your work experience at Inkitt. I'm sorry you do not have a great work experience, and it's true that working at Inkitt isn't for everyone. Related to your comments on the high turnover rate and the toxic culture, we are working hard in these areas and are going to offer weekly Talent office hours to be available to listen to team concerns and to make sure everyone feels valued and belonging. Thanks again for taking the time to leave your review and I invite you to speak to the Talent Team so that we can continue to work on creating a great workplace.
1.0
May 20, 2023

The workload was extreme

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

I had the possibility of working remotely. My work colleagues were nice.

Cons

A workload difficult to assume for 8 hours. I needed 11/12 even on weekends. The job as a designer consisted of making 3 episodes of a book a day. My average was to do 1 episode in 8 hours. The salary was quite poor. Little more than the minimum wage in Germany. I had to put my own equipment, computers, etc. Buy my own sound libraries etc. One day a week it was mandatory to go to the office. That day you had to participate in several useless meetings which delayed your work a lot. The normal working hours of those who worked in the office were from 10 to 10. It was common for my superior to write to me on weekends and waiting for a response. Abusive working conditions. I think this is the company where I have felt the most exploited in my whole life. They take advantage of the fact that professions such as writer and sound designer are in very little demand.

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Inkitt Response
3y
​​Thank you for sharing your comments. It is sad to hear that you did not enjoy your time at Inkitt. As stated in past responses, like most startups, it's true that working at Inkitt isn't a 9 to 5 job. Having said that, there for sure has never been any expectation to work on weekends, and therefore this statement is very surprising to read. However we recognize that startup working culture isn't for everyone, and we have therefore begun to be much more purposeful during the recruiting process, to make sure anybody we make an offer to is familiar with the differences of working at A) an early stage startup in hyper-growth vs. B) a slow growing startup vs. C) a large mature company with slow stable growth . We are building an industry transforming company from scratch, and we therefore aim to attract team members who are drawn by the prospect of being a part of this journey, and who are hungry to be the ones responsible for building it. We totally appreciate that the level of commitment this requires is not for everybody. You mention that you had to come to the office one day per week. This might be true, and we have even changed the company office policy further, whereby we now come to the office three days a week. This is in part a response to what many employees were requesting (e.g. more in-person interactions, more fluid communications, more opportunities for cross-team collaborative work, etc). We again recognize that not everybody prefers in-office work, and we therefore also communicate this very openly and clearly during the recruiting process, so that we attract those employees who prefer having more in-person interactions. Once more, thank you for taking time to share your feedback with us, and for giving us the opportunity to clarify parts of our way-of-working at Inkitt.
Viewing 16 - 18 of 119 Reviews

Glassdoor has 143 Inkitt reviews submitted anonymously by Inkitt employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Inkitt is right for you.