Thought Machine Reviews

The core values at Thought Machine seem to be bullying and intimidation, which are instilled by the CEO. He surrounds himself with yes men (and one absolute horror of a woman) who do not dare challenge him and instead just do whatever he says. I’ve noticed a few times that if he is challenged, he can be pretty cutthroat and nasty in response. He has been known to threaten people on the spot that they’ll lose their jobs if they disobey him, including those aforementioned senior leaders. His arrogance is astounding, thinking he can do everyone’s jobs better than they can. Furthermore, the use of racist language by leadership is endemic at Thought Machine, even going so far as to openly laugh at their failed attempts to pronounce new employees’ names at all-company meetings. The quality of the leadership at Thought Machine in general is pretty shocking, especially in tech. The vast majority of leaders have been promoted far beyond their ability, in some cases put into senior roles where they have absolutely zero experience in that field or discipline. Time in service and nodding along to the CEO seem to be the required elements for getting a promotion, rather than ability, achievement or outcomes. People regularly seem to disappear without a trace, usually women. They’re often uncontactable after they’ve been very suddenly removed which makes me and others wonder what’s happened to them. More generally, the company seems to have a real problem with women, especially those who don’t just nod along to the (often far less competent) men. If you are a woman who has opinions and isn’t afraid to voice them, I’d suggest you shut up or your days are numbered at Thought Machine. I also know of multiple instances of serious bullying of a female employee by a senior leader which was reported. The employee then disappeared without a trace a few days later. There’s a culture of fear and blame which leads to people taking credit for other people’s work and others being thrown under the bus. I have never known a company where so many current employees hate it so much. On top of all of this, their Core product doesn’t even work, and their internal systems are a mess (data breaches and data quality to name a couple) - a bit of a concern considering they’re trying to be a system of record for highly regulated financial institutions! Truly the worst place I have ever worked at or known of anyone working at. I can't wait to leave when the job market picks up.

Having seen the company grow from 100 to 500+ employees, it is unfortunate to say that the culture has changed for the much worse. The CEO has no empathy and is out of touch with reality, CPO is, to put lightly, highly unpleasant and undermines diversity efforts around the company by cutting funding and interfering with activities, one of the formidably mediocre founders abuses his position to actively bully, undermine, and harasses people online and in person. The CEO unfortunately only listens to the CPO about people's feedback. What the CPO does in turn is to silence, suppress, and threaten anyone that speaks up in official or unofficial channels, then report back saying everyone is happy and things are perfect. The HR responses here keep saying "if you have a concern or suggestion please speak to HR or the CPO" whilst they are what's wrong with the culture at TM, and the impression given by them is that speaking to them will block your own career progression. Given that management is overwhelmingly white and male, it is unsurprising that sexist comments and sexual harassment are ignored with their existence denied. There is also a complete lack of trust between employees and the company, to list a few events: - the company changing the terms of contract by taking away benefits a day before being posted to another office - terminating people during a previously agreed upon sabbatical - disbanding a team while the manager is briefly absent due to stress from work - paying grads 15% less than when offers were given out earlier in the year and only notifying them a week before their start date, well after application season has passed This review is not here to discredit the positive ones as these management issues do not necessarily impact everyone, but from experience, if you are a minority or a woman in enginnering, these issues will perhaps stand out more. If you've read to this point and still wants to work here, then you will probably fit in just fine.