21st century product, 19th century management - Robotics Engineer Mujin Employee Review

To begin, Mujin is a company that is inexplicably split in two. The product side and business side work in separate areas with separate leadership. This leads to a sort of odd distrust and disdain between both sides that, while never becomes the focal point for any huge problems or crises, still pervades the company in the background. It impedes growth and unity, and serves little overall purpose. After 2+ years of time at the company, I've seen miscommunications, petty arguments, and general distrust arise from this split time and time again. One may think that for a high-tech startup with high-tech products, the working environment and management style would match. This is not at all the case. Whether you're on the product side under the CTO, or on the business side under the CEO, the company is run like a traditional domestic firm from bygone eras. All workers must be physically present (no telecommuting, no staggered hours, even during a pandemic.) Daily reports are delivered in-person, standing up, in a line like schoolchildren. If you are not in plain sight, then you surely are not working, and certainly cannot be trusted to work without the CTO or CEO over your shoulder. The common response to requests for flexible working hours or telecommuting is that efficiency will drop, and people will slack off. One then must ask, have you been hiring children, or responsible adults? Have you made any positive effort to explore flexible working styles without completely dismissing it as a wasted effort from the very start? This is the prime concern among your staff, who are worried about getting sick and having to use their own paid leave days to escape an office where so much "traditional" face-to-face interactions must occur. Again, much of this results purely from a highly controlling management who tends towards distrust of their own staff. My advice for management: the two heads of this fractured, split-in-two company have only minimal experience working in other companies prior to Mujin. Please consider getting outside consultants in to evaluate your business practises. This can only bring about improvements for yourself, your staff, and the company. People would like to work in a modern, flexible environment - one that matches the type of industry you're in. The company is slowly transitioning from a startup to an established business, however this transition will be long and painful until the CTO/CEO start placing a bit more trust in their own workers and adopt modern ways of thinking.