Pros
The incredible people I worked alongside in the marketing team - all of whom were extremely overworked, under-appreciated and under-valued by senior management. The wine really is very good, there’s no denying that. However the staff stock allowance is none existent, instead you get a discount off the RRP and you are limited to the number of bottles you can purchase per year. As a general rule the owner is extremely stingy. At Christmas, each staff member was given a gift except for those who had been there for less than three months. Given the high turnover of staff at Nyetimber, that was a lot of people without a Christmas gift. A few bottles for each member of staff goes a long way, especially when you know the net worth of the owner and how much he paid for Nyetimber. The London office is a lovely space and in a great location in Mayfair. Also, the estate is gorgeous, if only it were open to the public for more than 5 weekends a year! No matter how good the wine is, the brand will surely fail to progress as far as it’s competitors in the UK due to the lack of hospitality available. Finally HR are genuinely very good and have the best interests of the team at heart. I can imagine they hear the worst of it at Nyetimber but are positive and as supportive as possible. They make leaving the best part of the job!
Cons
Where to begin! Firstly, the main problem is the extremely toxic culture at Nyetimber. This comes from the top down from the owner and there is a fear instilled in everyone right from the start that you are replaceable and should approach Eric with caution, otherwise you could lose your job. When I handed in my notice, I was extremely anxious about work, something I’ve never felt before, and was having regular panic attacks as a result. Again, I’ve never experienced panic attacks before and hope to never have another! I know I was delivering good results based on review feedback and was in no way experiencing disciplinary action, however I always felt like I was falling below expectations because of the toxic work culture and I know others were feeling the same in the team. Everyone is overworked and working to extremely short time frames which again comes from the top down. Despite work given to the owner with long lead times, he takes so long to respond to emails, proposals and strategies (weeks/months rather than days) that there is very little time to action the work if it does eventually get approved. He will usually then question why the end results produced are of a lower than expected standard, when there was physically not enough time to do a good job because of his response time. The directors are too scared to give him deadlines or chase him for a response so often emails go completely unanswered and the idea or opportunity is lost. This then means managers are left with very little to work with and are producing boring work as a result. It is hugely demoralising - what’s the point in coming up with creative ideas and strategies, to then get absolutely no response from the owner, who ultimately has final sign off on everything? It’s a waste of everyone’s time and ultimately the company’s money to be hiring more senior people for the roles. Also, the winemaker is so up and down in mood it’s hard to keep up. As the ‘brand guardian’ he has final sign off on practically all social media and marketing materials, meaning that anything remotely interesting and unique is stripped out due to it ‘not being luxury enough’ or ‘on brand’ for Nyetimber. It’s baffling that someone who is socially awkward to the extreme in most situations gives advice on how to communicate to the wider company. He is awkward to the point of rudeness but is put on so high a pedestal he’s untouchable. Because of this he operates on a completely different level to anyone else ‘below’ him, constantly missing deadlines and ignoring emails, despite repeated chasing. This means that the team could be waiting for his approval, input or comment on a project for weeks, in which time, the deadline has completely passed and all the work completed up until that point is wasted. He has obviously learnt this from the owner as an ok way of working but both slow down the marketing team to a snail’s pace. As a winemaker he is clearly extremely talented however, why hire experts in marketing, to be overruled by a professional in another field? Frustrating and degrading. There’s absolutely no diversity to be seen within the London office. There are more Rolex’s and ski trips to be had than people from a non-white/middle class background which leads to very closed mind thinking. Luxury doesn’t have to mean pale, male & stale. Finally, it’s wild that as a company producing wine, there is such little fun to be had. Again the culture feels like it’s practically discouraged to socialise with colleagues outside of work. There was a lot of talk that previous employees had ‘too much of a good time’ at work socials and events, so as a result, the next cohort were punished for their actions. Perhaps the company are scared that by interacting with one another, colleagues will discuss their grievances and realise that actually Nyetimber is the problem? Or perhaps they’re just too cheap to consider employees as a worthwhile investment? Either way, a team social, company away day or even just end of week drinks (!) cost a lot less than constantly having to rehire for the same positions over and over again. The problem isn’t the employees, it’s the company.