Kool

I’ve been working for years at a small “startup” that has been around for over a decade (you know, the type of place that calls itself a startup to pay you less). In 2020 the company had a 15% drop in revenue and laid off 50% of engineering without warning one morning. Yes, that's all it took for them to have a panic attack and fire everyone. Since then, everyone left had their 401k match cut, got their raises frozen, and had to do the work of 2 or more people. The company culture got fucking toxic. Managers started to micromanage employees, employees were not allowed to speak out about anything, slack conversations basically disappeared, our 1 on 1’s were recorded, and we had 7 status meetings in a week. Yet the company kept pushing the narrative that we are a happy bunch and everything is perfect. In fact, our new CEO said 2020 was our best year financially ever, but we still are operating at 50% staff with the same output expectatios. Magically, all negative reviews from 2018 onward seemed to have disappeared from Glassdoor too, it's a miracle! The worst part is that a lot of people are drinking the Kool-aid and saying everything is perfect. They really believe we are changing the world. It's fucking time clock software. When I bring up the company's glaring issues some people (not all) say everything is perfect or “it could be worse”. They talk about the company's “values” like they are gospel. Every company line they buy hook line and sinker without question.This company has brainwashed people to a degree I have never seen in my career. I have a few interviews lined up, I can't work at this dump anymore. Have you ever seen people drink the Kool-aid this much at your job? How do you avoid companies like this when interviewing?