The company has recently experienced significant challenges, including widespread redundancies, reduced workloads, and a noticeable change in workplace culture, with some passive-aggressive behaviour from senior management.
McBains Response
5mo
Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re sorry to hear that your time with the company was impacted by the challenges you described, and we appreciate your honesty.
It’s true that the organisation has faced a period of significant change, bought about by challenging market conditions affecting the wider industry, leading to difficult decisions around redundancies and restructuring. These transitions have understandably affected workloads, team dynamics, and the overall culture. We acknowledge that this has been a challenging time for many, and we are committed to learning from it.
We regret that your experience did not reflect the values we strive to uphold. Your feedback will be shared with leadership as part of our ongoing efforts to improve. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours and thank you again for helping us reflect and grow.
Explore other reviews about McBains
3.0
25 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Current employee, more than 1 year
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook
Pros
Some really nice & talented people work at McBains.
Clive Dowcra is very visible and tries to foster a spirit of openess and team work.
Social and volunteer opportunities are present
Good opportunities for graduates.
Hybrid working.
Free tea & coffee
Relaxed dress in office
Variety of projects is good
Cons
High turnover of staff seen in last 12 months.
Unprofessional management practices including the quite obvious intention to 'force' people out if their face doesn't fit.
Very little confidence that concerns over some management styles or practices would be addressed appropriately.
HR very much in the background and not visible.
Poor on boarding with no effort made to train new staff or provide an overview of company practice or project background.
Disparity in treatment of people within teams.
Under resourced in some disciplines creating unduly heavy workload.
A shame that the culture promoted is not uniform across all the offices.
Trust is missing between staff and senior management and in some cases between disciplines.