Management does not listen to employees. It seeks quick wins where there aren't any to be had, and will selectively pick evidence or listen to those employees that promise those easy wins. When wins are not delivered, the predictable utter failure is proclaimed to be a learning and thus a success. At this point the management will pivot and repeat. This is not an exception, but simply a routine that most teams seem to go through.
No one really knows what performance evaluations or promotions are based on. It is definitely not the work (e.g. product features) you deliver. And it seems to mostly correlate with how much noise you make. It doesn't have to be anything profound, new or even meaningful - simply opening your mouth, attending as many meetings as you can (and scheduling some more) will bring you the necessary exposure to exceed expectations in the eyes of the managers. And don't be surprised if a manager gives you a very low performance score just to teach you a lesson (while openly admitting to you that your performance wasn't actually deserving of the low score, and that it's there just to draw you attention to the improvement points).
The company says that they want you to #B.Valued and #B.Compensated fairly. The claim to pay for performance (thus justifying the low base salary). But then if you look at internal salary discussions, you may either realize you are either making a lot more than others in your role, or a lot less. Usually it's less.
The culture is supposed to be flat and open. So it should not be a problem to ask your manager or the leadership about the strange discrepancies between salaries and claims of fair and competitive pay. And it's not a problem to ask! Just don't expect a direct answer. Tech employees have been complaining about low salaries for years, and never received a straight answer. In general the answers boil down to "you don't understand how lucky you are and how well you are paid". The low salaries are justified by the low Dutch taxes applicable to expats. Most people join Booking.com and wait until they get a Dutch passport, or until their low taxes expire - everyone knows this, but nobody, especially not the management, admits this.
While there are some truly talented and hard-working people, to grow fast and cheap the company hired many subpar people. Many of them are now Seniors, Managers and Product Owners. As a result, there is neither a good vision, nor a good execution of that vision, and people switch teams all the time to escape incompetent management.
