Expected more from a listed company - Scientist Victrex Employee Review

To summarise, extremely corporate company which appears to only retain stagnant careers through generous pension. I say this as somebody who went on to work at larger listed companies and the atmosphere is palpably different in a good way. In detail, the level of office politics was overbearing. I understand it's unavoidable, although you either went along with it fully or were ostracised for saying how ridiculous it all was. As a result, the culture became one which was not based on merit, but on random factors. Following on from that, it had a huge knock on effect where people saw new policies as an opportunity to climb their ladder. There was a huge focus on safety and a lot of the scientific team who weren't strong technically went from focussing on the chemistry to focussing on being safety-centric. People frequently got made to feel insane for pointing out the obvious. Being regaled with stories of colleagues who had been reprimanded through politics just because they weren't liked and everybody involved laughing about it made me feel quite uncomfortable. As with most middle-of-the-pack chemical companies set up in the middle of nowhere you end up retaining people who have stagnated and now can't leave as they have been outpaced by the job market. They buy into the office politics (because it'd be silly not to in a place you're going to stay) and everybody who doesn't buy into it gets pushed out regardless if they're valuable or not. The golden handcuffs of the pension contributions and the sharesave is a significant factor in retention rather than company culture and direction. A lot of previous reviews mention location being a hindrance to talent acquisition. Successful companies can set up anywhere and bring in the best. Struggling companies take what they can get and hope it works out.