How did they make it so far?

Out of all the systems that organize human activity on this Earth, Capitalism is by far the most efficient system in terms of economic growth and flourishing. The system advocates for a free market economy, private ownership and pursuit of self-interest. It creates the belief that everyone can make it up to the social latter. It gives people the hope that anyone can be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. However, working for the last six months in a start-up in Berlin made me highly doubt the opportunities capitalism has to offer to the average middle-class man.

The start-up I worked for was co-founded by a husband and wife both in their early thirties with little previous work experience. He was Danish, she was Romanian and they both invested their earnings (of tens of thousands of euros) to form this start-up. I was never suspicious about the origins of the start-up but soon enough I realized this was a big mistake. A bootstrapped start-up, co-founded by a young couple without much work experience is a recipe for disaster for the following reasons:

Bad management.
She was my sales manager and she had never done sales in her life. One thing that all great managers share is that they are great coaches. They give you advice on how to improve and they encourage your accomplishments. My manager had no experience in sales nor management and her orders made the sales team under-perform rather than reach our quotas. When we under-performed we had to stay longer at work. Each member of our ten people group had to put in eight hours plus every day just so we would keep the management happy. Long work-hours result in stress and dissatisfaction and it often felt like we were slaving for our bosses.

Low pay.
On top of this, most of the employees were under “internship” contracts meaning that the employer was allowed to pay a minimum of 600 euros per month. After taxes, this sum will result in about 470 euros which is just enough to pay rent in Berlin.

Sick work-environment.
The average time an employee spent at that company was about two months. I recall going for lunch breaks and every employee complaining about how bad this job is and how they were constantly looking for ANY other job opportunities.

All of my colleagues including myself could not afford to search for other jobs. The extra hours spent at work will drain us from all the energy to search for other employment opportunities. Moreover, we could not quit without consequences. Previous work colleagues who quit confessed that they were not paid their sales commission and we did not want to end in the same position. With the low pay, we were already receiving we could not risk quitting because we would not have enough money to pay the rent for the following month. Lastly, not knowing the language of the country we were in created lower chances for employment possibilities. The uncertainty of our chances for future employment made us think that maybe things are not that bad after all.

Theoretically, in a highly functional capitalistic society, these things should not happen. First, if an employee needs to change jobs, he must be able to do it at little or no costs. Second, a highly dysfunctional company as the one I was in, should’ve never made it this far (two years on the market and counting).

However, the company did make it this far and the only obvious reason for how they have done is money!

The owners co-founded the company from their own pockets. They have enough money to pay us miserably salaries and get the company profits for themselves. They have enough money not to care about the work environment of the company they founded. They have enough money to afford under-paying us because in case of a lawsuit they would still be able to afford a better lawyer and win the case. They have enough money to afford to have a dysfunctional manager even though this was greatly damaging the company performance.

In fact, they had so much money that they could co-found a start-up with almost no previous work experience. The great start-up entrepreneurs have previously worked in some sort of a corporation, learned the basics of how to run a business, and only after they have pursued their carrier by starting something of their own. These founders had enough money to afford not doing that!

With enough money, you can afford starting companies and getting richer by underpaying your employees. There is no need for a brilliant business idea to become successful. There is no need for education and knowledge to become successful! With enough money, you can buy success, at the expense of the working middle class. Forget about Zuckerberg and Gates, they are rather outliers than rules of capitalism.

After five months of working at that start-up, I finally got a different job. I recommended one of my ex-colleagues from my previous job to join me at the new company. He was accepted too! The start-up I used to work for could not handle both of us leaving at the same time, so they terminated our contracts after we had already presented our resignation letters.

This whole experience taught me two lessons. First, always research the company before applying for a job interview. Look beyond company history, budget, and industry. Look for what others have to say about the company. Check Glassdoor reviews or contact employees using LinkedIn and ask for their feedback. Research the company employee turnover. That is the percentage of employees in a workforce that leave during a certain period of time. The higher the turnover, the higher the risk you might not like the company. Try to understand where the money comes from. A public company with a board of directors is most likely to provide a pleasant work environment. On the other hand, if you apply for a start-up, ask who has the shares in the company. The more people have ownership of the company the more likely that you will enjoy the work environment. You might even get some ownership of the company yourself! Before you accept the job try to get an outside view of the company you apply for.

The second lesson is if you do work for a company with a sick work environment make sure to take actions against the company management. You can start by pointing out current problems and offering solutions. If this does not work, look for other jobs and make sure to leave an honest review for the company you work. Never recommend a bad job for your friends.

I believe if everyone is able to follow this advice, then the middle class will have a bigger impact on overcoming incompetent social entrepreneurs.