Sold a dream - unfortunately, not even close.
Pros
Salary, if you know your own worth and negotiate in your favour. Project idea is a potential game changer - innovative technology Colleagues on the install site and within the technical team have an tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience. Some true diamonds within the overall company and they probably don’t even know they are. Should the project succeed, it will be down to these employees not the ones who will tell you it’s because of them. Annual leave entitlement is better than statutory
Cons
First of all, there are three different places of work. I can only comment on the Daresbury install site as I have no experience or opinion on the other two (London & Geneva). Benefits package is decent but issues with late payments, non enrolment leave you wondering what exactly is going on, a substantial investment coincided with these issues being sorted. Less than ideal working conditions, old and tired portakabins (if you are allowed a desk in them), ‘front of house’ office is messy, not the best advert for site visitors. Health and Safety have a site representative who is very good, however his ideas to implement a safer working environment are frequently dashed as this does not fit into the agenda. The unofficial site motto is ‘remain flexible at all times’, however what this actually means is that management or the specialist engineers are clutching at straws and change their mind on how to resolve issues more often than protons are accelerated in this system. The only people that must be flexible are the site engineering team, double/triple/quadruple work due to poor planning is far too frequent. No wonder the project is so far behind. Interference from those who think they know better than the SME’s is more common than not which results in the project falling further behind. Let the guys with the experience get on with it. System tools used for engineering are not fit for purpose and make your job terribly difficult. It’s expected that you give ‘X’ amount of your own time to the company. Overtime is rarely paid, even if approved. Toil quite often gets lost in the ether unless you are horribly persistent in chasing it up. Issues with on site monitoring equipment being installed before policies being implemented were a bone of contention. Incorrect use of this system was common, leaving many employees feeling like you were being spied on. (If it looks like chicken and tastes like chicken ……..) Don’t challenge any concerns you may have, this may be seen as insubordination. Some members of staff have a falsely placed idea of where this company sits in grand scheme of things. “Delusions of grandeur”, springs to mind. Accept that for now the company is a bottom feeder, respect is earned not given. We were constantly reminded that this is a young company, act like one if that’s the case. Staff turnover on the installation site is high, no incentives are offered to retain skilled members of the team. ‘Resources’ as employees are referred to, are consumable and will be replaced. Unsurprisingly morale is low.
