Blog #28: Team Wallraff at Med-X-Press?!

By Lars Dörhage 

Every now and then I take a look at company review portals and read comments that I find excessive, sometimes offensive and confusing. When it comes to Med-X-Press, I think they are talking about a different company. This cannot be the company that I run as managing partner.  The reviews have given me food for thought in many respects.

To make it clear from the outset: Of course it is legitimate to evaluate a company, to put personal experiences into a judgment. But I always advocate the priority of direct communication before informing the whole world. 

A review platform for every concern 

You are all familiar with platforms such as Tripadvisor or Amazon. On the former, people leave reviews about travel; on Amazon, they are asked to review the products delivered immediately after making a purchase. There are over 400 such portals online in Germany alone. The procedures are relatively standardized, mostly involving the awarding of stars: from the worst rating with one star to a five-star rating. We are familiar with this categorization in the hotel industry. A five-star hotel offers the highest level of comfort in terms of facilities and the best service.  However - and this is the crux of the matter - this is an assessment based on objective criteria, which I have learned are 270 in total, transparent and reviewed at regular intervals. Evaluations by employees or consumers, on the other hand, are always based on individual perception and are therefore subjective. 

Subjective employer ratings 

A large number of portals specialize in certain industries or services, and some specialize in evaluating employers. When I read through the reviews on Med-X-Press, I am aware that employees are sometimes angry, sometimes don't like decisions and then need to vent their frustration. I fully understand, but please don't make sweeping generalizations. There is no question that everyone can formulate criticism as they see fit and there is no question that criticism can be voiced. But it should be constructive and lead to solutions that are acceptable to everyone in a personal exchange. 

Many alternatives 

Med-X-Press has a whole range of options for this: 

• Regular staff meetings provide a space to discuss unsatisfactory working conditions, for example 
• At our hall talks at the individual sites, the managing directors provide information about current developments in the company and there is the opportunity to ask questions or to present and discuss your own topics. 
• Any employee can use our whistleblower system to report misconduct in the company, anonymously and without any traceability of identity. 

Irrespective of these "official" communication channels, managers in the company can be contacted via various channels. 

Constructive criticism takes us further 

There are also many examples I could list right now of improvements we have made based on criticism and suggestions from employees. I am annoyed when employees or even former employees and applicants make serious public allegations without first finding their way to the management. And I would also like to mention one point in this context: I expect and hope that employees or applicants are very well able to differentiate and recognize how certain evaluations should be classified.

And by the way: I don't know about you, but I sometimes get the feeling that it's a typical German characteristic to criticize everything and always complain. Just like a French woman and a German woman who visit a magnificent castle together. While the French woman is enraptured by the magnificent building, the German says: "I wouldn't want to clean any windows here."

There are also positives 

In every company, there are difficulties that we have to deal with and, despite all the criticism I've expressed, I also experience a lot of approval. Often it's just a sentence, an email or a phone call, and sometimes it's also collective positive feedback. Like recently after our company party. The unanimous opinion was that it was a great party. Many people thanked the Med-X-Press team for organizing such an event and for us as a company financing the party. This praise made me very happy. It also promotes team spirit and strengthens communication.

To come back to the starting point of my blog post. I mean, Team Wallraff doesn't find any TV content at Med-X-Press. If my face and my presence in the company weren't so well known, I'd get in touch with Undercover Boss. But honestly: we have a lot to do and times are not exactly easy, so we do what we have to do with commitment, without the accompaniment of TV cameras. 

Do you have any experience with online reviews of your company and if so, how do you deal with them? I would be happy to discuss this with you! 
blog@med-x-press.de