Where to start?
As recent reviews have outlined, there is a LOT wrong with Net Consulting - toxicity, bloated, inexperience at senior level, compassionless etc - and I agree with everything they have stated. It is sadly the company I recognise also, a place I used to enjoy. Net Consulting is simply a badly run, blood thirsty slice of corporate IT America living in South Wales. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
Whether the CEO replies to my review is another matter, but I'd expect the usual platitudinous, meaningless stock phrases in response if he does. It's too late to appear as though you care, however. You certainly didn't when I was employed by you, so why should you now? I'll expect the usual default comment to denial and your 'best wishes' if you do.
1) Career opportunities
Opportunities do happen, but as Net Consulting is a small SME (it was around 60 last year but now much less), lack of quick progression is not unusual in that regard.
When progression opportunities do appear, whilst they can certainly be on merit, they are also mixed with a classic case of face fits and / or expediency for the Board / Senior Leadership Team for whatever reason - a yes man and someone who will be unable to challenge their poor business acumen and strategic ineptness. I've also seen in-house employees who would have been perfect for roles, and have been there for a good while too, simply overlooked for outside candidates. Strange for an SME.
Do not go to NCL if you expect rapid or any career progression of note.
2) Compensations and benefits
One of the only good things about Net Consulting. Renumeration can be handsome and the benefits package has been updated recently and is now extensive, although there is no gym offering which is usually quite standard, and the company pension contribution is certainly on the low side.
3) Culture and values
Ha! Culture and 'values'.
Yes, Net Consulting likes to pride itself on its 'values' and 'behaviours', and readers will note how the CEO in some of his responses to other reviews proudly likes to promote these, along with 'honesty' and 'integrity', citing them as shining examples of Net Consulting as some bastion of sound business morals for all to see. This couldn't be further than the truth. So, let's dig out a few examples.
Imagine working for a company for around a decade then being told you're now surplus to requirements. To rub salt into your wounds, at your last Christmas party, you have to sit through the annual awards ceremony MC'ed by the CEO and one other director who then casually announce and give out an award for 'Long Service'. Needless to say, you don't win it. Crass, insensitive and unforgiveable.
Imagine working for a company, again for around a decade, giving your all, working long hours, being that 'company person', working over holiday periods and regularly giving up your annual leave to support business needs, only to be told out of the blue that you're surplus to requirements. No warning, nothing. Thanks for the years of service, professionalism and dedication. Classless and deeply distasteful.
Imagine having to work with a new appraisal process and then find out your grades for some of your team need to be altered down at the insistence of senior management, despite no close knowledge of how your team has been performing. This process is apparently called 'normalisation', or whatever.
Imagine having a new appraisal process introduced across the company and your annual feedback is sprung on you without any prior indication whatsoever of how and where you have underperformed and where you need to improve. All a nice surprise. And imagine having to go on an appraisal performance improvement plan because your performance grade has been marked down following your appraisal feedback; feedback you've had no sight or knowledge of until the actual appraisal itself. Your low performance then means you miss out on your bonus. A first. Unprofessional, mickey mouse and unethical.
Imagine...I think you get the picture.
Net Consulting also needs much introspection as to how it treats its female employees, a fair proportion of whom have childcare responsibilties, as well as those employees who have elderly parents and have to provide care for them. The lack of flexibility I have witnessed to support both issues, notabaly working mothers around childcare, most of whom had been there a long while, was poor to say the least. These female employees could have easily been supported with a more considerate and compassionate approach, but they ended up leaving the business as there was little flexibility from the top. Maybe a more diverse Board and Senior Leadership team would help here? Personal support instead comes from lower down the chain with private arrangements that go no further, or indeed employees taking matters into their own hands and creating smokescreens for their own needs. Hardly encouraging.
Culture is one now of distrust and fear following the loss of their main customer. The number of staff who have left for various reasons recently, and the scrambling around at the top to secure their positions through vacuous decision making, only exacerbates a worrying time for those left on the shop floor, and who are caught up in kneejerk and amateurish strategic decision making from the top.
Only a few years ago Net Consulting was an enjoyable place to work, despite a few obvious, nagging doubts. When the chips are down, as they most defintely are now, the knives have certainly come out and now we see people's true colours. Such a great pity.
4) Diversity and inclusion
Net Consulting is a thowback to a bygone era. Diversity and inclusion have been non-existent until recently, and even then it could be argued it's merely tokenistic. If you are white, male, middle aged and drive a nice car, you're likely a Board member. The Board has no women or anyone from an ethic background at the table. All non-executive directors also fit the above stereotype.
The Senior Leadership Team is comprised of the exact same demographic although some are younger. It is only until very recently Net Consulting has included women at this level. There is no one from an ethnic background on the Senior Leadership Team either.
5) Senior management
One word: Dreadful. The Board is a classic example of pomposity, intransigence and myopia, and also believing your own hype for far too long.
There should have been a vote of no confidence a long time ago in the Board, in particular the CEO, but it's a closed shop and dominated by the CEO so there's no chance of a shake-up. Outside of the CEO, the others on the Board are either far too timid to challenge him and make him see the error of his ways, or are simply there just for the ride, regardless of the pressures that come with their roles.
Net Consulting has had ample time to grow into other markets, but for whatever reason they haven't, especially as they've been over-reliant on one customer for years. Certainly they have tried and have also branched out overseas, but for whatever reason, nothing has kicked on. Again, you can only look at the Board for why this is so. They drive the strategy, they drive the business. The buck stops with them. They just became far too cosy with their cash cow that has now moved away. Diversification should have been king, and they certainly had ample time to achieve this, but they got fat and lazy.
Challenging the CEO, perceived or otherwise, is a no-no, and will only result in your own ostracism. You may even be privileged to have his henchmen from the Senior Leadership Team breathe down your neck too, as they do his bidding and set about you. Sadly these are the very people you thought you could rely on at that level and that you thoguht you had a good relationship with. Et tu Brute!
The CEO's go-to message of 'Your Voice' in other review feedback comments as some panacea for shaking out any issues and being a conduit for transparency is just an illusion. It's all for show. He will even go as far as ignoring employees in the office when he knows they are leaving, regardless of how long they have been there, or simply if they have had the temerity to stand their ground on issues with him. If you're lucky, he may even go through your line manager to micro manage you by proxy, simply because he can't bring himself to talk to you directly. Classy.
Senior management also has a deep fondness for excessive and regular Board and Senior Leadership Team meetings. One wonders what happens in them apart from having to sit there and listen to the CEO dominate the conversation? The recent run of seemingly incessant meetings felt like an exercise in pinning the tail on a donkey blindfolded, concluding with half-baked, splattergun approaches designed to solve all the company's problems and turn things around quickly, only to then come up with a 'newer, improved' version a few weeks later. The lack of experience in the management team and also the power vested into one person at this level is for all to see, and is sadly coming home to roost.
6) Work / life balance
It depends in what area you work in, but those who are typically client / supplier facing and those who are technical, are expected to pull out all the stops whatever the weather, whatever the day and whatever the time. Expectations on sales staff are particularly onerous in comparison to other places I have worked.
Whilst of course many companies have similar unrealistic expectations of their staff, I can guarantee from experience, Net Consulting will treat their employees with disdain and scorn at the drop of a hat, regardless of the amount of blood, sweat and tears they may have put into their job. I have seen this happen to numerous people over time (see above examples) and no doubt it is still continuing. A leopard cannot change its spots.
