Esplanade Reviews

For perspective, this is the 10th consecutive negative review for Esplanade on Glassdoor. There are three thousand programmes a year = everyone is overworked and underpaid. Bureaucratic and mundane, but pretends to be creative. A lot of workflows, policies and practices just don’t make sense. They are outdated and messy. People are resistant to change and lack the capacity to address them. No guidance, it’s a “figure it out on your own” environment. A lot of pushback when you try to implement something different. CEO cried in front of the entire organisation when employee engagement survey requested for 2 days of WFH (they only gave 1). CEO also makes a lot of tone deaf comments such as we have to work for “passion, not money”. She is very out of touch with basic facets of people’s roles and lacks the ability to follow through with her own suggestions to improve workflows. Exploitative, no time off for working overtime if you don’t hit the hours. People are perpetually exhausted. Low base, increments are minimal. Environment is hierarchal and ageist, offering little or no progression. They reward the ones who have been around longer rather than who is competent. Endless piles of urgent work create an anxious environment. People lack professionalism when communicating. Workplace bullying is a norm. Many in need of serious anger management. High attrition rate, low morale. Nobody even dares to reveal their job function when posting these reviews because so many employees monitor this page and gossip about it.

Ineffective In-House HR: Unfortunately, our internal HR department consistently fails to respond effectively to employee concerns, showing a troubling bias toward upper management even when presented with valid feedback about work and managerial issues. Prime example was the HR survey conducted last year where instead of coming up with solutions, CEO went on a WFH rant that we are very flexible and HR saying that the survey results are 'up to their standard' ???????? Please get an auditor. Pay cannot be negotiated according to HR policy, therefore promotions or pay raises are not prospective eg. if you get it, you get it. More so since open communication about progression is non-existent. (Appraisals do not count since the appraisers' evaluations are bias) Reactive and Passive Managers: Our managerial team tends to react slowly and often resorts to last-minute one-on-one meetings conducted at their convenience. These meetings typically involve leading questions and accusatory statements that confirm their preconceived notions, creating an atmosphere of anxiety, blame-assignment, and low morale among employees. If you are not a fighter that stands up for yourself, you will be defeated. Micromanagement and the 'Optics' Excuse: Instead of addressing the root causes of excessive workloads and management's inability to gauge performance accurately, our managers over-micromanage on items that are not even important. They even wrongly accuse staff of not working based on superficial observations, justifying this behavior with the excuse of 'optics,' further diminishing staff morale. In reality, the staff may have thoroughly prepared for their tasks. It is disheartening to witness senior management consistently downplay our unwavering dedication and hard work while magnifying occasional challenges.