Intrepid Travel Reviews

* The management in the UK office. It very much is a boys club at the top. This not only affects promotion of men only, it also means that it's not the best (men) being promoted but the ones that are friends of the boys at the top. * Some more words on the management in the UK (can't really speak for the other offices). Managers, as per the above it's men in all senior positions, are inexperienced and love micromanagement. I believe this is strongly related to their inexperience and insecurity but quickly leads to team members feeling unmotivated as their every step is being watched. * Overtime is expected of you. If you leave 5:30pm sharp, management doesn't think you're committed. * Clock watching is a thing. Even though you work at least 45 minutes longer every day and are expected to get up early or stay up late for international calls, if you dare to come 5 minute late, you'll be pulled aside for "a quick chat". So much to flexible work hours... * Opportunities in the UK office are limited and there is hardly any movement across geos (unless you're a senior manager). * The salary is low. Even for the travel industry, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Senior management is quick to point out that your perks are amazing (and don't get me wrong, a free trip is great but doesn't help you when you can't afford the flights to get there, while the rest of the perks are pretty much below average) and the grass isn't greener on the other side. But it is. The main competitor pays a whole lot more and seems to have a better culture on top of that.

How this company has managed to survive this long is purely down to their superior product offering, because it most definitely isn't down to the internal organisation! Firstly there is a company culture of being expected to work 10+ hour days regularly (12+ hours during January). If you were to leave on time or even 30 minutes late you would considered to be a pariah and ostracized accordingly. It's expected for you to live, breathe, sleep eat the company and anything else just isn't good enough, however even if you were to come in on time (and not early) again you would be considered to not have the values required. The company prides itself on it's value led organisation' and caring for it's 'team (not employees)' however I strongly believe this is purely for self promotion because I saw not one shred of this whilst in employ there. They will tell you that they pay over the industry average for all positions (I think they actually went as far as to say they are within the 80th percentile for this) - THIS IS WHOLEHEARTEDLY FALSE! They pay below average for most positions (especially senior roles) and given the additional workload that is expected of everyone this figure is even lower in real terms. The biggest issue with the company is the fact that it is without doubt the most cliquey, insular company I have ever worked in. The Senior management (Director level) have been handed their positions purely because they were friends with others in the company at a higher level, not based on merit or achievement. The incredibly poor management of the senior managers below director level was 100% down to the lack of experience in their roles. The irony of the fact that you are micromanaged (incredibly poorly at that!) whilst having no guidance & development is laughable. No form of personal development or mentoring is given to anyone outside of the clique and it almost feels as though they are actively trying to ensure you don't succeed in the role/ company. The culture is that of "if you're not in the clique, you're not welcome" and are made to feel alienated at every opportunity. The closest analogy I could make to describe the way the business operates is that of "Mean Girls" blended with "Mad Men" - narcissistic delusions of self grandeur and promotion, whilst actively trying to insulate themselves from anyone outside of their circle. BE WARNED - one of their most commonly used business strategies is "re-structuring" the business to force redundancies. This has happened at every level for years, and nothing has been done about it at Global Leadership level; in fact has actually been encouraged and dressed up as a good thing to promote growth! The reason for doing this has mainly been to keep the 'clique' in the company and weed out anyone else.