Terrible place to work - getting worse over time - Anonymous employee Ocean Outdoor Employee Review

Ocean is growing and has ambitious plans. Always feels like an exciting place to work.

Internal tech is cumbersome and inefficient.

Not many if you aren't one of the favourites, in the clique etc. Occasional free tickets to events etc, but these are usually reserved for the Sales Team, with other departments (who actually do the work) usually left out whilst they go off on jolly jaunts during work hours.

Quite a toxic environment, with an outdated work culture . Pretends to care about DEI, but this is entirely cynical and for appearances - most people hired under this pretence seem to be given lower salaries and worse opportunities, whilst all the senior positions and manager positions are held by older white people. Managers and senior people seem completely immune from repercussions of bad behaviour. During my tenure, I was either subject to or witnessed verbal abuse and swearing, racism, transphobia, sexist/ sexual remarks about female members of staff and sexual harassment, in addition to just general rudeness and unpleasantness from more senior members of staff who considered themselves better than others. Multiple staff also seemed to resent even having to talk to me, even though it was vital to both our roles that we communicate. The hiring process also seemed suspect and nepotistic - more lucrative roles or promising internship placements were given to the children of influential industry people. Company would also enthusiastically hand pay rises and promotions to said favourites, whilst denying them to hard-working staff who were potentially far more deserving. Senior staff also seem free to just coast and do nothing all day before leaving early - quite galling for those paid less and doing more. Favourites could also seemingly be incredibly lazy or underachieve if they had favour with management whilst still receiving praise. Senior leadership was in equal measure unfair and denigrating to staff they disliked, with one staff member being accused of using another staff member's company card to buy drinks, when he had in fact just been present whilst the card holder foolishly bought drinks for everyone and maxxed out his allowance. This person was never reprimanded and simply allowed management to blame an innocent employee they did not like. I observed multiple staff have struggles with mental health and these seemed to be largely ignored, diminished or outright penalised. One senior Sales manager whacked me in the stomach as a 'joke' as we passed each other because he didn't like my facial expression, Turnover is high, and I watched multiple high quality employees get frustrated and leave for many of the aforementioned reasons, with a senior member of staff joking to me that it was like 'a revolving door'. I hold no bitterness towards the company despite my negative overall review, but it is clear that the company is attempting to bury negative experiences by getting current employees to leave overly-positive reviews here and these are overall misleading. If you are in managements' good books you may well enjoy working here, but any prospective employee should understand the environment they are walking into.