Pros
I’ve worked for this company for over 10 years. In general, i think it is a good company with lots of good aspects. But where it lacks is when it comes to looking out for its people individually, when it really matters the most.
Cons
Poor internal governance and oversight when it comes to bullying, abuse, and discrimination in the workplace. HR is simply a joke. There are countless mandatory trainings on the “code of conduct” “harassment in the workplace” “discrimination” and so forth, but when an incident occurs and is raised, they try to do their best to sweep it under the rug I’ve had a history of documented inappropriate behavior from my boss for over two years. This included bullying, mobbing, and outward hostility towards me in full view of other colleagues. I never understood why he had such hostility towards me until he mentioned I’m my annual review that he felt I “wasn’t a team player” and wondered whether it had something to do with my “lifestyle.” Although I’m not openly gay at work, I don’t hide my sexuality either. It is clear that my “lifestyle,” as he put it, is different from everyone else on the team, as I am the only non-married man, without kids on the team, on a team of 5 middle aged white men. Initially, this was raised with HR because I felt my annual was inappropriately harsh and my overall score was unjustifiably low. HR told me that “Swiss law is ambiguous” on such matters, therefore, although they acknowledged the behavior was inappropriate, and forced my manager to change his review, they said there wasn’t much more they could do except speak with the manager and his manager. Afterwards, the overt hostility ceased, but my manager continued to pressure me to find another job for various contradictory reasons rhat never really made sense. Two years later, my manager initiated a termination, stating very ambiguously just that “due to a reorganization, my skills were no longer needed” despite never giving any explanation what skills were actually needed nor giving me an opportunity to show I could adapt to the “new requirements.” HR was completely complicit in this. They dismissed the last inappropriate behavior and refused to even consider that the termination was motivated by the discrimination and inappropriate behavior that had already occurred in the past. They just said that “it’s in his sole discretion to make the decision” without having to show any justification, despite the past behavior and that for over three years my boss kept trying to get rid of me one way or another. First by creating a hostile environment so that I would leave on my own, then outwardly pressuring me to find another role, then finally by terminating without sufficient justification… all the while HR stood by doing nothing, despite clear policies in our code of conduct prohibiting such behavior. It’s even stated that our code of conduct goes “above and beyond the law.” But this is clearly just lip service as HR just bud behind the law in Switzerland, stating if this had happened in the US or UK where the law is more clear, perhaps things would be different…. But shouldn’t the policy be to protect employees at the same level, regardless where we work?
