A letter to the Berlin Startup Scene

Dear Berlin Startup Scene,

I am writing to you because I am tired of you. Your narcissistic attitude annoys me and your oh-so flourish working culture is nothing but a lie.

I am tired of you not investing in human capital. In a startup, employees are not seen as an investment. They must be cheap and willing to work way past their working time. What happened to employees growing their expertise in a company? What happened to proper mentorship? Startups simply aim for the short term. They don’t care about where you are in two years or what you have learned as long as you function right now. Extra hours and running like clockwork is essential. Nobody cares about employees forging close links to a company.

I am tired of your management. Head positions seem to only care about the money but not for the team below them. Having any sort of trouble? Don’t even try to talk to them about it. Having doubts about a piece of content going life on the companies website? Well, you’re just a junior, how would you know? The higher positions don’t care about what you think or what you have to say. Don’t ask anything, don’t question anything — just do as you’re said.

I am tired of your perks. You have a Friday night drinking culture? Nice for you, but I don’t care. Neither do I care about your table soccer or club mate. I care about personal growth. I care about mentorship. I care about responsibilities, team-building and a decent life-work balance.

I am tired of your so-called seniors, seniors who rotate management jobs, seniors, who only care about their salary but not about mentorship. Seniors who know what is going wrong in their rows, but don’t change anything about it.

I am tired of your expectations. You want to hire a junior? Nice, but that only happens on paper. In real life “junior” simply means junior salary with senior demands. Junior means three years of working experiences, a strong network but only a little paycheck.

What “junior” doesn’t mean in a startup, is a starting career after a university degree, a proper mentorship, as promised on job offers, or a decent salary. But hey, you get lots of responsibilities and freedom to bring in your own ideas. There is just nobody there to help you learn to distinguish between a good and a bad idea.

But dear CEOs, what you should be doing is investing in me as an employee.

The returns of investment will come once I grow in your company. The ROI will be me having close links to your company, me being passionate about my job, willing to work the extra hours because I actually like what I’m doing. The return of investment will be someone who cares about your company, someone who is willing to do just this tiny bit more than the target, that little action that actually brings the results.

However, I don’t care about you if you don’t care about me. My work will stay average; I will write my blog post for you, but don’t expect highly unique content. I will do SEO, but I won’t use long-tail keywords. And I will work with influencers, but I won’t use any personal contacts for that. Plainly, I will do my work, but I won’t move mountains for you. I do however, move mountains if my employer cares about me. I move mountains because I am passionate about what I am doing and because I like where I am working. I move mountains because my employer respects that there is a mutual exchange between employee and employer; that I give back as much as I am given. But should I move mountains when nobody gives a shit about me?

Don’t see me as another opportunity to exploit. See me as an investment.

Dear Berlin Startup Scene, I hope you will get well soon.

In case your company is different or you want to respond: berlinwhatdoyouthink@gmail.com

All the best, your startup employee.