Unhealthy working environment - Software Developer JRNI Employee Review

1.0
11 May 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Interesting programming challenges - Strong leadership - Friendly staff members - A great range of projects varying in sizes small medium enterprise - Tech stack is pretty decent RoR (3.2.x & Angular (1.x) - The engineering squad are a great bunch to work with very talented people.

Cons

The backend Rails app is one monolithic application, which was originally written by the CEO. There is a lot of ancient code with a loads of anti patterns. This includes 4000 line controllers (bookings_controller). The entire application is tightly encapsulated. Just to add to that there are no RSpec tests which completely blow my mind. I mean how can you ever write RSpec tests for a controller is 4000 lines long LOL! If you care about clean, tested and maintained code. Working on this application will be a nightmare. With the backend being tightly encapsulated and there not being any RSpec tests, you have to ensure that when you're building out a new feature it is rigorously tested. Because if something breaks be prepared to handle the wrath of the CEO. The CEO does continue to code, and also chimes away in peer reviews. During these peer reviews if he disagrees with something he’ll likely make condescending remarks which isn't good for your personal performance and usually if it continues it will have an effect on your personal life. There isn’t exactly much career prospects in the engineering squad unless you put a lot of graft in which sometimes even that goes unrecognised. Compensation is the most important thing to people. The honest truth at BookingBug you aren’t compensated well. Only those at the top are compensated well. Talented, sales, project managers and developers before and after me have left simply because they weren’t compensated well. A reply to a previous response to a review here on glassdoor stated: our most recent engagement reviews have shown that over 85% of employees strongly support & trust in the senior team. I don’t think any review from previous employees or response from the HR manager can address the personality of the CEO.

Explore other reviews about JRNI

5.0
31 Jul 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great leadership. Everyone is very nice, welcoming, and helpful. great work environment. work life balance is a priority

Cons

Still a growing company, normal growing pains

1.0
7 Apr 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Limited but there are good people left from the original teams the new ownership has cobbled together. They are the glue keeping everything together.

Cons

Toxic and Arrogant Owners "who are operators" think every single part of the company is a Lego. Replaceable and interchangeable in their eyes. And if you are not a male from Boston, you will likely be replaced with an outsourced Lego from India as soon as convenient. Every single executive hired by the new Owners has quit (not been fired despite the fake information) very quickly in the 3+ years of ownership including multiple CEOs, CTOs, and other leadership. Only remaining personnel at the executive or leadership level are NEW or directly tied to the Owners PE Fund. Continue to acquire companies without ANY understanding of how the technologies will integrate and simply yell until their demands are met or the responsible parties have given up and quit. No culture to speak of because it is basically just a full shop of Indian engineers with some American management. Any other individuals in the company are simply isolated. Arrogance obliterates any rational conversation at the decision making level.

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