Vantaggi
curlec today is almost unrecognizable from the company it once was, and the joke is that just when you think it’s bad, it somehow finds a way to get WORSE. what used to be a place led by founders who enjoyed the spotlight, media features, and the occasional party, yet still managed to build a culture that was fun, motivating, and human, has turned into a cautionary tale of how quickly culture can rot from bad to worse. at least back then, people worked hard because they wanted to, because there was energy, camaraderie, and a sense of building something real. now it feels hollow, run by inflated egos and desperate appearances, a place where management behaves less like professionals and more like a GOSSIP mill. the management clique, especially a handful of women in senior roles, have turned the office into their personal broadcast station, where rumors are spun into fact, salaries are whispered across desks, and private matters are treated as entertainment. they stroll in late, leave early (yes, we see you), and yet they demand others stay late to pick up the work they leave undone. we’re a small company, and yet most people don’t even know what the bosses are doing on a daily basis (and can anyone meaningfully contribute if they come in late and leave early?). management are mostly disrespectful with pretences. what senior people don’t realise is most employees are desperately looking to exit the company because of how toxic and driven things are, because of incapable bosses. some bosses who just joined less than a year ago are already looking out, and they openly say this to others. as a fintech that’s supposed to move fast, they’re slow. they announced about insurance about 4–5 months ago, and until now we are not insured. bosses also like to pass work that they’re supposed to do to other people (mind you, people who are paid much lesser than them and yet somehow have to do their work — yes i’m talking about the whole lot of you bosses). because the team is small, some execs are expected to do the work of 2–3 people, plus their bosses’ work. our best time is when they spend half a day in management meeting every week, but what they discuss nobody knows, maybe more gossips. some people from india also go home to india regularly for holidays, and nobody knows how they can have so many leaves when we all have a standard leave package. preferential much? when the singapore boss is in town, the performance begins. they hang around their desks, act deeply invested, and pretend to be indispensable, leaving late and coming early. the moment he leaves, they’re the first out the door. it has become a running joke among staff to guess which one will vanish first, a sign that management here is nothing more than theatre. and while those in charge coast, the hardworking people are punished with more work, carrying the load left behind by bosses who refuse to do their share.
Svantaggi
there’s a constant refrain in this company about being a fully work from office organization, repeated like a slogan, drilled into staff with constant nagging, as if physical presence equals commitment. but scratch the surface, and you’ll see the HYPOCRISY. staff are expected to be in by a certain time, stay until the last possible minute, and never question it, while certain bosses mysteriously enjoy the privilege of working from home whenever they want. they come in late, leave early, vanish in the middle of the day, and yet are never held accountable. one set of rules for the employees, another for the clique. and the worst part? they have no shame in talking down to others about discipline while benefiting from exceptions themselves. it is hypocrisy so blatant that people laugh about it behind their backs, but no one calls it out because everyone knows nothing will change. and then there’s the gossip itself. gossip is the lifeblood of this management team. they thrive on it, they feed it, they spread it like it’s currency. gossip about colleagues, gossip about salaries leaked (yes, we know how much some heads are paid), gossip about the singapore boss and management, gossip even about the CEO himself to clients, merchants, and partners. the irony is painful-they are working overtime to build external credibility, to convince the market that curlec is a serious, growing fintech, and yet their biggest downfall is their own internal management team. because credibility starts inside, and here, inside, there is NONE. i have personally had merchants ask me about the how of the founders’ departure — conversations that should have remained tightly internal were somehow turned into coffee-shop chatter outside the company walls. other sensitive matters have slipped out too, passed to partners and vendors like gossip fodder. and the damage this does to trust is incalculable. you cannot convince clients to believe in you if you cannot even protect your own house. why are some senior managers head and others not? it feels completely arbitrary. some of them somehow ended up in “leadership” roles not because they earned it, but because they happened to be in the right room, said the right things, or aligned themselves with the right people. there’s no logic, no fairness, no actual leadership. it’s like titles are handed out as favors, not responsibilities. they don’t inspire, they don’t mentor, they don’t protect the team they just sit there, pretending to lead while the real work gets done by everyone else. people look up, hoping for guidance, and find nothing. that’s what happens when leadership becomes a label instead of a function. the hypocrisy cuts deeper. A manager blatantly saying their pay as low, as if that somehow justifies their rancid behavior. but the reality is, they says it without any awareness that there are others who actually earn less than them, who work harder, who do more, and who never complain because they know it will not change anything. that kind of blind entitlement is exactly what makes people lose RESPECT. and the gossip mill ensures it doesn’t stop there. those who are hardworking are given more work, those who are compliant are spared, and those who belong to the ladies clique float through untouched. incompetence protected, effort punished, and eventually the best people stop caring or simply leave. i was once even verbally THREATENED for speaking up, which said everything i needed to know about how far this culture has DECAYED. it wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t a misunderstanding, it was an attempt to silence and intimidate. when you ask for help, no one is here to help you, even your bosses, but they’re the first ones to blame you if anything goes wrong. when that becomes the tone of management, people stop talking, and when people stop talking, everything rots faster. the fallout is already visible. in just the past few weeks alone, around ten people have left. even a newly hired hr manager, brought in to stabilize the environment, quit within weeks because the toxicity was impossible to ignore. if even hr can’t survive here, what chance does anyone else have? recruitment is collapsing, morale is drained, and new hires are walking straight into a poisoned culture where favoritism rules, gossip thrives, and hypocrisy suffocates everything else. from bad to worse is the story of curlec now. what once was a company run by flawed but inspiring founders who could at least rally people has been handed over to bosses who act like gossip mills and newscasters, who drain morale, destroy trust, and bleed credibility day by day. they gossip, they leak, they nag, they intimidate, they preach rules they themselves never follow, and they drive out the very people keeping the company afloat. until this cycle of arrogance, favoritism, and incompetence is broken, curlec will keep losing its BEST people.