- For your first year at the business, you get 0% sick pay, and this is enforced ruthlessly, even if you're an outpatient for a hospital procedure...so better not get sick!
- Australian employees earn a lot more than UK colleagues in the same roles.
- Starting salary is a joke. The 'bump' every year is an insult which (once you do the maths) literally translates into an extra £20 per month, net. They place so much effort and time on annual reviews (since scrapped, so at my last year they never even gave a salary bump at all!) seemed a total waste of time, and a tick-boxing exercise where managers could pick at the smallest issue, and make mountains out of molehills.
- Combine this when you discover new starters being given the same job and spec, but starting at a substantially higher starting salary than what you are on, but with years' of experience. When pointing this out to team leaders in 1:1s, the only outcome was the removal of the salaries shown in Totaljobs postings. Disgusting behaviour.
- These roles are also not advertised internally, so what little career progression you have is stymied by the fact they seemingly don't want you to. They want to keep you where you are, and only give these roles to people in specific geographic locations, locking you out just because you're in the wrong city, but in the same company.
- After taxes, student loan etc. you live paycheck to paycheck even when living in the most frugal way possible. You will have no chance to save any money, for anything. It will be a constant struggle to keep your head above water, financially. Instead, we get given cashplan health insurance, and an 'employee assistance hotline'. I'm sure I speak for a lot of folks when we'd rather prefer to just have more money, spent on what we actually want/need as human beings.
- The office got smaller in a new space, and we increased headcount in a poorly-planned out/designed office. They just added desks onto 3 large back-to-back rows, in one corner of the space. There is no personal privacy, and is an oppressive, soul-sucking environment with the bare minimum of amenities. Solihull and London (the HQ) offices get more, with desk dividers(!) and gourmet office.
- Instead - in Leeds - you get instant coffee, a smaller kitchen and less meeting space. The single under-counter fridge is constantly full, and if two people are making lunch at the same time, it's awkward. When we moved offices, we went down from 2 to 1 microwaves, for no explained reason.
- The management of the building we occupied was non-existent, which is surprising for all this supposed real-estate experience we have. The soap dispensers in the toilets would consistently run out, along with toilet paper, for example.
- We offer customer software training - which occupies precious space - only a few times a week. For weeks this occurs, we would actually run out of milk due to the extra heads - this is not taken into account when ordering, which is done in London by HR. Someone would have to spend their own money, because there are no directors in the office with access to company credit.
- Combine this with the aforementioned increased headcount, and it really sucks overall.
- You're treated like children, apparently incapable of managing your own time. The level of oversight in everything you do is incredible and demeaning. You learn to leave your sense of humour at the door - it's not welcome and only gets you into trouble.
- Across 3 main offices, there is a huge turnover and staff churn for 150-odd employees. During my particular tenure, I counted over 60 people leave the business, plus folks who left in the same year! This was particularly prevalent in Project Managers, who need to balance so many plates and earn way more as a result. This also includes senior managers and even the CMO, who didn't last long either. If they can't at least survive (let alone alter) this toxic environment, that tells you a lot.
- Team leaders are sympathetic and protect you where they can, but they take their marching orders from old, white dinosaurs who enjoy the wining and dining, flying business class and ignore what you have to say about anything.
- They do always ask for feedback, but that's just lip service. When you provide tangible feedback with evidence about a new process, it's either ignored or slapped down in an email chain to your whole team about why the feedback isn't good, even though you'll be doing all the work, and therefore actually know better. There wasn't much feedback vocalised after that, by anybody.
- After being bought up by an American venture-capitalist firm, the business got even more top-heavy, with lots of shuffling around of mates to managers. You'd think there'd be more money going around, but not to Leeds.
- If you're not in certain departments, you don't exist to the top bosses. It's very much sitting at your desk with everybody watching everybody, and at 5:30pm making a beeline for the front door. There is no culture, no happiness and certainly no fun at all.
