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 has obtained 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 health with a range of tools including company-sponsored professional mental health services, counselling, and coaching support”.
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.
“Airwallex does not control what is posted on Glassdoor and does not direct anybody to make inauthentic posts,” the spokesman said.
The Financial Review reported on Monday that Airwallex staff struggled with a gruelling and demanding work environment, led from the top by the company’s chief executive Jack Zhang, who founded the company in 2015.
Airwallex is now worth $US5.5 billion, and has the backing of major companies including Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Its local investors include Paul Bassat’s Square Peg Capital, superannuation giant Hostplus, ANZ’s 1835i, and the venture capital funds of Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar – Grok Ventures and Skip Capital.
The company employs more than 1400 people in nearly a dozen countries, including 200 staff in Australia, and is targeting a sharemarket listing as soon as 2024.
Airwallex has long faced questions about its internal culture.
Internal documents leaked to the Financial Review show staff churn in the three months to September last year was about 10 per cent – 132 people – with the marketing and legal and compliance teams particularly hard hit.
Mr Zhang was central to many complaints aired by current and former staff who spoke to the Financial Review. They claimed he would call out and belittle junior developers in front of their colleagues, even threatening to fire them, and often required they work into the early hours of the morning.
Mr Bassat, ANZ and Mr Farquhar’s Skip Capital declined to comment. The company last year reported an after-tax profit of $17.5 million, reversing from a loss of $18.4 million, in filings submitted to the corporate regulator.
Airwallex said it held over $500 million in its customer wallets, which are ultimately backed up by a corporate trust.
“Each of our Airwallex entities complies with their respective and applicable regulations and requirements, including Airwallex Australia. These include regulations and requirements on corporate structure, governance, risk, compliance, HR and tax,” the company spokesman said.
Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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