A sinking ship with no lifeboats — stay far away - Software Development Engineer (SDE) 3 Phenom Employee Review

1.0
7 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The only silver lining is that you will gain experience navigating complete chaos, dysfunctional processes, and a broken engineering culture — skills that may help you recognise red flags faster in your next job. That is genuinely all I could find after working here.

Cons

This company has no future. There are no new investments coming in, clients are actively leaving, and the business is reportedly in talks to be sold. A workforce reduction of nearly 50% is expected in the near future, yet management continues to act as though everything is normal. There are no hikes, no bonuses, and no increments. The work-life balance is non-existent. There is a mandatory 9-hour daily policy enforced strictly across five days, and if you fall even a second short, your pay gets cut. As if that were not enough, management openly and shamelessly asks employees whether they can come in six days a week. Weekends are consumed by so-called hackathons, where both Saturday and Sunday are taken away from employees under the pretense of innovation — in reality, these are just sessions to complete deprioritised and unplanned tasks crammed into a smaller timeline with no additional compensation. WFH and hybrid work options are dangled as perks but are effectively a joke in practice — do not count on them. The management culture is deeply toxic. All the managers and directors follow an outdated, old-school mindset where they measure dedication purely by hours spent suffering at a desk. They went through the same grind in their time and genuinely believe it is acceptable to impose that on the current generation as well. There is no empathy, no understanding of modern work culture, and absolutely no respect for personal time or boundaries. To make matters worse, even taking a simple leave is a battle in itself. Despite being entitled to privilege leaves, getting them approved is an uphill struggle every single time. You are made to feel guilty for even asking, questioned extensively about why you need time off. The privilege leaves you are promised exist only on paper — in practice, there is no privilege whatsoever. You are expected to be available at all times, and any attempt to use your entitled time off is treated as an inconvenience to the company. The HR team is equally disappointing and ineffective. Before joining, they make all kinds of promises that quietly disappear once you are through the door. The moment you try to leave, HR turns hostile — threatening to give bad remarks and using the 90-day notice period as a weapon to trap and punish employees who want to move on. On top of this, it appears that fake positive reviews are being submitted to mask the reality visible on platforms like this. Anyone can see through it by looking at the attrition numbers from the past few months. The engineering and operational culture is just as broken. There is no proper documentation for cross-team collaboration. Work is always rushed with no emphasis on doing things the right way — just the fast way. This leads to an endless cycle of support requests and escalations, each of which gets addressed not with a real fix but with another patch on top of an existing patch. Technical debt is completely ignored. To top it all off, the food provided in the canteen is unacceptable — it has been found to be full of bugs and is frequently undercooked. Basic hygiene standards do not appear to be met.

Explore other reviews about Phenom

5.0
16 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Have lot of scope to get involved and know the product and have the free will to try and fail

Cons

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10
3.0
3 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Phenom offers exceptional flexibility with unlimited PTO and minimal micromanagement. The benefits are top-tier, and the free food in the office is a great perk. Overall, it’s a very employee-friendly environment that values autonomy.

Cons

There is a significant lack of direction within the CV team, with constantly shifting priorities and inconsistent delivery cycles. Methods and tools change frequently, and data collection is manual and inconsistent, frustrating both clients and employees. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge sharing between teams, which exacerbates inefficiencies. Leadership also lacks a clear vision for the department’s future, and there is no intuitive framework to streamline processes or deliver value more efficiently, creating ongoing friction for the team.

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