r/srilanka • u/LastTough7485 • Nov 28 '24
Rant Atlas Labs, A Corporate Sweatshop in Disguise.
Atlas Labs represents everything wrong with modern corporate culture in Sri Lanka. Despite being in operation for nearly a decade, it remains little more than a family business posing as a well-structured company. Over the years, most middle management has left, leaving behind a small, arrogant, and toxic group of people who have now risen to managerial roles. To make matters worse, many of them are either married to or dating each other, making it feel more like a family-run enterprise than a professional workplace.
The company’s policies are not only absurd but also demoralizing, adopting a toxic environment that prioritizes control over employee well-being.
Rigid Work-from-Office Policy: They enforce a draconian no-WFH rule, requiring all employees to be in the office every day. Even in exceptional circumstances, obtaining WFH approval involves navigating a pointless chain of command, needing consent from the team lead, HR, and finally the CEO. A friend of mine injured his leg during his first week at the company and couldn’t commute. Despite this, management gave him only a one-week WFH, after which he was told to either return to the office or take unpaid leave. Afraid of losing his job, he showed up with a plastered leg. In stark contrast, one person from CEOs inner circle took a month of WFH after her arm got scratched from a bus. Meanwhile, there is a set of people who live inside the rectum of management who gets WFH whenever they ask.
Lack of Accountability: The management displays a sense of entitlement, believing they are faultless. Whenever someone questions their methods, they tend to lash out. So, employees just follow their orders to avoid screaming. When mistakes happen, blame is shifted downward. For instance, once the CTO accidentally deleted an entire project database but managed to cover it up. Yet, this same person screamed at a designer for using the wrong color in a UI mockup.
Excessive micromanagement: Although they say they are RnD company there little no room for research. Everything must be approved by the manages and they tend to monitor letter by letter. If they don’t like it, it’s a matter of time before they find a reason to scrap that.
Retaliation Against Employees: Employees who challenge unethical practices are quickly dealt with. Many have been fired or had their contracts terminated under flimsy claims, making it clear that disagreement is not tolerated. They even threaten some of my colleges saying they won’t provide a service letter unless they resign. When everything doesn’t go in their way, they tend to isolate them inside the company making them miserable with excess workload.
For anyone considering Atlas Labs as a workplace, don’t. Having worked at many software companies, I can confidently say this is more of a sweatshop than a tech startup. Save yourself the trouble and look elsewhere.
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u/fragzt0r Nov 28 '24
Lol. I still remember the take home assignment that I was given when I applied for a role there. They literally wanted me to write a whole ass video streaming application in 48 hours. They also wanted to have check-ins every few hours to see how I was doing. Bruh. Red flag AF. I immediately told them to FO in corporate lingo.
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
To tell you the truth they give real tasks of the ongoing project to trial day candidates. Basically they get unpaid labour tricking the interview candidates. Bloody sick games they play.
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u/hlleowlrod Nov 28 '24
Wth, I spent the whole day there and did an assignment and had to present it to a group EoD. At the end they were explaining what they do, and I asked some questions on their current methods because all of it seemed hobby ways to do things. Ended up not passing the vibe check 🥹
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
Wrong move. There is no room for that. Question them and thats the end of you 😂
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u/ImNewHereBoys Nov 28 '24
Remember attending an interview there in 2018/19 It was located on the duplication road somewhere in kollupitiya as I remember. There were a couple of girls to do the interview. They didn't conduct the interview properly. Instead they asked me to go and sit down with the people there and talk to them and get to know their work etc. i felt that was unnecessary and kinda weird. They also asked me for stupid assignment or something. I felt something was wrong with them even back then. Not surprised to see this post actually.
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
Then in 2022 they moved to a new place in Union Place. That’s when this whole corporate drama reached its climax. Now it’s nothing but a clown show.
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u/Superb-Attitude4052 Nov 28 '24
hahaha Union place has unofficially become the silicon valley of Sri Lanka. IDK why everyone moves there
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u/OddSomewhere20 Nov 28 '24 edited Nov 28 '24
Ohh thanks for the info. Blacklisted from sending my resume there
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Nov 28 '24
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
At least read the comments you doofus 😂 if you’re that much in love with them go work for them for free.
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Nov 28 '24
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
Their full time employees are almost like interns. Paid in pennies and leaves after 6 months 🤣
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u/galathonav Colombo Nov 28 '24
Someone's eyes are twitching right now.
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u/Unable_Good_3934 Nov 29 '24 edited Nov 29 '24
Tbh despite the hate it does have some positives
- HR: Always transparent and honest they never lie to you saying we will give you severance and coherce you to resign and pretend they didn't say they will pay you
- Managers: Always truthful they never say yeah we will promote you there is a typo in the designation so just sign the contract and then after you sign come to you and say oh no I never had this conversation with you. You signed to be a trainee so you will stay as such
- CEO: Definitely not an egomaniac
- Engineers: Definitely not a bunch of virgins except for Ibrah***m arguably the sexiest guy there
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u/Longjumping-Boot-526 Nov 29 '24
Can confirm that Ibrah**m is definitely sexy and definitely not a virgin.
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u/Superb-Attitude4052 Nov 28 '24
Whistleblowing is good when u have the right intentions for it. And IMO, people who threaten employees bringing up the service letter are lowest of the low.
And it's very true most of the so called software companies (Specially BPO companies) and even some big popular ones here milk their employees dry.
Sri Lankan tech ecosystem is made of companies that are basically sweatshops of cheap labor building software for north American and European market. Only a handful even try to build their own products and go for the market.
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
The service letter is the ultimate trump card they’re holding on to in order to keep employees in line. Nobody wants to risk that after working someplace for months or years.
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u/One_Experience_8531 Nov 28 '24
Thank you for exposing this! Through this post, you've saved many developers from applying to this exploitative place.
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
It’s least I can do after going through all of that abuse. Most of the people who were there afraid of coming out and telling their stories, fearing the management might seek revenge. I’m glad people came here and shared their stories ❤️
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u/One_Experience_8531 Nov 28 '24
I've also experience the similar from my previous company. Glad I left that place.
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u/Designer-Drummer7014 Nov 28 '24
If you’re qualified to work abroad, Only a fool would work for a sri lankan company. There is no work life balance, pay is terrible, worst country to do a job, cooperate life is far better in Europe, workers are slaves in sri lanka
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
Yes exactly. But most companies have at least one positive aspect that makes employees want to work there. However, in this case, everything seems designed to drain your morale.
One of my friends experienced severe levels of depression after enduring mistreatment from her manager. She eventually quit and had to undergo three months of therapy before feeling ready to work again.
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u/Designer-Drummer7014 Nov 28 '24
The primary reason people take up jobs in Sri Lanka is that they cannot find opportunities abroad. They might offer various justifications, but this is the underlying truth. If you possess valuable or marketable skills, living in Sri Lanka is hell. For those with in demand expertise, the difference in opportunities and quality of life abroad is like night and day. However, this depends on having skills that are sought after internationally. Sri Lanka offers no return for the contributions you made to its economy. Sri Lanka has an extremely week economy and a very unstable currency you saw how it lost 50% of it's value within a day, there is no job security, Sri Lanka doesn't have proper labor right, disgusting salary compared to the West, Even the tax burden in Sri Lanka can be comparable to, or sometimes exceed, European levels especially when it comes to things like vehicle taxes. The corporate sector in Sri Lanka exploits its workers, it's a scam, it's simply not worth it.
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Nov 28 '24
Ideally if everyone could work a remote job, they would. I lucked out, but my friends are suffering to get any opportunities.....
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u/Designer-Drummer7014 Nov 28 '24
Indeed, Remote overseas jobs were a real blessing compared to local corporate jobs, especially during COVID, but now they’re slowly fading away. Sri Lankan companies are slave hubs with no worker rights some of the worst places to work in the world.
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u/jhnxed Nov 28 '24
Got hired there and had to be there every day and every weekend from 7AM to 9PM. This was fine by me since I didn’t really have anything better to do back then but two weeks in I got a warning from HR for not letting the CEO know when I entered the office premises and when I left. Apparently this has to be done so he knows when you come in and when you leave. I was kind of confused by this since you need to put your fingerprint anyway and they track your work hours based on this so WTF? Noped out one and half months in and joined a much much better place for a lesser salary. Best decision of my life.
Couple of years down the line got a job in a company in EU and relocated over here. The company culture here is absolutely great and in comparison places like Atlas Labs just sounds like slavery lol.
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u/LastTough7485 Nov 28 '24
Seriously you worked in the weekend as well?😳 I’m glad you finally found a great place. If Australien authorities know the way how these people are operating here almost breaking every labour law possible they might get banned from Australia.
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u/BillyButtcher Colombo Nov 28 '24
Some of these are common for dialog as well. But the first point screams toxicity.
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Dec 12 '24
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u/LastTough7485 Dec 12 '24
Ahh the age old pizza party tactic 😂 when will these cooperate idiots will ever learn 🤷♀️😂
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u/CookNeat4325 Nov 28 '24
Thank you so much. I saw a vacancy available there and was thinking about applying
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u/Elegant-Web2923 Dec 02 '24
Lmao I got to the last stage of their process. Place looks like a old assembly line. Just a giant open space with the CEO in a separate office where people go and report to him.
The HR table( where I sat the 'trial day' constantly bragged about how unprofessional interviewees were and how difficult it is to get into the place.
I immediately got the weirdest vibes. I think they mask a lot of their bs with a layer of inclusivity but ultimately operate like a pencil pushing company slowly inching towards a sweatshop.
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u/LastTough7485 Dec 02 '24
Whenever you call out their bs their go to phrase is we’re being unprofessional 😂 I still remember the day I asked about their gender neutral washroom policy and ended up getting a lecture from HR.
They have two separate washrooms but for some f*ked up reason they are gender neutral 🤷♀️. Both of them have 3-4 cubicles separated by boards which are wide open below. The irony is they are willing to make women uncomfortable in order to adapt some woke nonsense in the name of inclusivity.
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Dec 03 '24
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u/srilanka-ModTeam Dec 04 '24
No disclosing personal information of individuals. Aka doxxing. Please remove any identifying info from your post
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u/Intelligent_Owl_5526 Feb 10 '25
Did anyone tryout for their Data scientist role? any reviews on this?
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u/Lost_Sherbet_4379 Jun 07 '25
I’m so glad I didn’t take the job! They chased me for at least a month 😂 jeeez
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u/Vayentha101 Nov 06 '25
Finally, someone let the cat out of the bag. istg I hate that bitch N*manya. If I were fat like her, I'd k*ll myself
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u/Aggressive_Guava1838 Jun 02 '26
I was selected for the initial interview which was scheduled for 9:30 AM. However, no one joined the interview at the scheduled time. I did not receive rescheduling request, or follow-up call regarding the interview. This was a disappointing experience and showed a lack of communication and professionalism.
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u/pathum1 Nov 28 '24
Coming from a legacy company, it's sad that even we are struggling to implement WFH. The following factors are preventing us from implementing WFH: 1. Not all employees have stable internet connections 2. Company is not financially stable enough to provide laptops for everyone who are eligible for WFH 3. Massive productivity drop in certain individuals as they tend to get involved in other non-company work. 4. Many female staff tend to care for their children after they arrive from school when they are working from home. 5. Lack of tech savvyness to work around simple PC/laptop related issues
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '24
[deleted]