The company culture shifted and was becoming a lot more corporate. There was a lot of talk of feeling like a "family", but it was clear not everyone felt that way. Morale generally felt low, and there was a lot of change in management which was building tension.
There was a push to come back into the office, which was being posed more like a threat than an opportunity in the tech department. People had private conversations on the open floor, meaning they could be overheard. There was not evenly distributed tech equipment at each of the hot desks. There were pockets of regular attendees who had their regular desks and created a cliquey atmosphere which made me uncomfortable as a more sporadic office attendee.
A restructure took place which offered internal candidates promotions into newly created roles without any form of application or interview process to give opportunities to other internal staff. There was also no standard in the interviewing process at all.
The pay was not standardised within teams, and was below average for the sector. It was also not at all transparent, there were no pay bands for roles or anything like that established.
They offer 29 annual leave days (so the legal minimum of 28 including bank holidays, plus one "giving day"). They close over Christmas, forcing you to use 3 of your annual leave days for that period.
Overall, the company was not a good fit for me culturally. They did not hold the same values that I do when it comes to work/life balance and fairness.