The Glassdoor post that spelt out Airwallex grief
The internal dissent within Airwallex was so intense that senior executives at the global payments giant had to acknowledge the issues in an all-staff meeting at its Melbourne office following an anonymous review that called it “the first company to make me believe suicide is the best course of action”.
In the post on Glassdoor, an online forum that allows employees to rate a workplace, a user who claimed to work at Airwallex threatened self-harm as they “had to get a credit card to buy basic essentials due to low wage, my debt is now massive”. The review, posted in January 2020, was later deleted. The Australian Financial Review hasobtained screenshots taken by staff.
Former Airwallex staff said they felt partly motivated to write more negative reviews on Glassdoor because they believed newer employees were being encouraged to write positive reviews after just being hired.
“I work three people’s jobs, but that’s normal for everyone working here,” it says. “Conform or die is the standard… working here was enough to make me leave the industry forever, by job search or by window,” the review ends.
The post forced management to call an all-staff meeting at its offices in Melbourne. The discussion was led by Airwallex’s then-director of people Sascha McPherson and head of engineering Craig Rees.
Sources said the meetings, which occurred in-person and only a few months after Hong Kong authorities froze $US18 million ($28.3 million) of its funds over alleged fraudulent transactions, were divided into two groups – one for developers and another for operational, legal, sales and compliance staff.
An Airwallex spokesman said it took the “wellbeing and safety of our employees seriously” and that it “proactively prioritises their
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