Mental health. 3 colleagues I’ve worked closely with have had Bulb-driven breakdowns, 2 of whom ended up needing to take long term sick. The other was a grown man who broke down in front of me, who in the end decided it was best to leave. None of these people were naturally fragile but Bulb has established an environment that pushes people beyond the edge. Pre-covid, it wasn’t uncommon to come across colleagues in the corridor visibly stressed out from work pressure. While Bulb arguably has more mental health services than your local GPs (there’s even a flow chart to choose which one), the irony is that the root cause behind high levels of mental anxiety at Bulb just isn’t acknowledged - despite being plain to see. I also have experienced bouts of extreme anxiety since joining Bulb based on the interactions and expectations of senior management, especially the CEO, impacting my work but also my personal life as well. The toxic work culture at Bulb referred to in The Times article is pretty much on the money.
CEO. I’ve seen colleagues publicly belittled and humiliated by the CEO. He’s shown on multiple occasions to be more than willing to publicly tear down staff in large meetings. His personal behaviour at times has been disgraceful, treating Bulb as his own fiefdom. Other SLT members seem unable to reign in the worst of his excesses, impotent to control their boss. Privately a number have acknowledged this. It’s a command and control approach in the extreme – with little knowledge of the human impact on staff. He can turn a room cold and sessions become very awkward, unproductive and the power dynamic becomes acutely clear. A number of colleagues have reported being bruised from encounters with him. I wouldn’t say the word bully is an inaccurate one. He seems unable or unwilling to change his behaviour. For colleagues that have found a way to leave, a number have said the main reason for their departure was the culture at Bulb, especially that fostered by the CEO.
General culture. A lot of the reviews here aren’t representative of how colleagues feel after their probation. While enthusiasm is high after a slick onboarding period (I suspect they're asked to leave a review here), many established colleagues are actually highly disengaged and mistrustful of the Senior Leadership Team. Personally, I’ve found work at Bulb to be regularly extremely stressful, thankless and at times even dehumanising. Teams deliver solid output but it is never enough. I’ve found evening and weekend work common.
Employee ‘engagement’ is collapsed into a yet another management metric. For many teams it’s bobbed along in double digit minus levels - which means teams would actively dissuade others from joining Bulb for many of the reasons explained here.
Recently, even SLT members publicly acknowledged Bulb wasn’t a ‘fun’ place to work anymore. Don’t expect to get to know your colleagues - you’ll be too busy being pushed to land the next project. Workloads are unreasonably high. A long established strategy seems to be pushing staff to their max, happy to see people replaced when they burn out. I started looking to leave within my probation but regrettably decided not to before the economic situation turned bad. There’s definitely a theme of double-sidedness at Bulb: a pubic projection of a feel great brand but inside rafts of colleagues working in misery. Teams are generally are stressed, exhausted and disengaged with the narrative of the SLT. Genuine engagement with teams from them is minimal and not particularly useful. Colleagues in my team have now completely switched off from what they have got to say.
Colleagues are regularly referred by management to as nothing more than units of production – Energy Specialists for example are often talked about as being ‘worth 200 resolves a week’ (a deeply flawed productivity metric the CEO is obsessed with). At the senior end of the scale, it’s been interesting to see SLT roles remain unfilled for months on end, some members even choosing to demote themselves, and others leave the business altogether (including most recently the other co-founder).
Targets. Teams are rated each quarter based on targets known as mission metrics - these measures represent one of the most dysfunctional dynamics in Bulb. Targets can be laughably ridiculous, impossible to achieve and unilaterally set on for teams by the CEO – literally without any discussion. The result? It’s not uncommon for 80% of Bulb’s teams to be rated ‘Improve’ – a smack in the face for dedicated, very hard-working and useful teams. To take one example, last autumn Bulb put through a price rise, something that generated 6-8 weeks of major work for many teams. It was a thankless activity barely recognised beyond a Friday afternoon Google Slide. Imagine being told your team needs to do better having solidly landed a major project (alongside others). As a result, many colleagues have become very cynical of the SLT based on how teams’ work isn’t legitimately recognised. On getting poor reviews, feedback and advice from senior management is woefully inadequate – tips like ‘deliver more impact’ are given. If by some small chance your team is rated as ‘good’, the bonus scheme was changed last year from cash to share options due to fears about cash flow.
Performance Reviews. At one stage it’s thought over 100 Energy Specialists were on performance review with the threat of losing their roles if that didn’t complete more work (quantity of work much more valued over quality). Colleagues who I work with and are solid performers were informed they too were at risk of going on review despite churning out decent and enough work.
Progression. For an 800 person company, promotions outside of the Contact Centre are still personally approved or rejected by the CEO. I’m familiar with one case where someone’s promotion was nearly derailed based on the CEO’s erroneous hear-say. That said, promotions outside the contact centre are rare, so don’t expect much progress beyond what you enter at.
Pay. Normal pay reviews aren’t a feature at Bulb. If you were to be in the same position as you were 3 years ago, you’ll be on the same salary, despite your impact likely being significantly higher.
Strategy. Management are perennially fearful of Ofgem compliance cases around customer wait times when they contact Bulb - a symptom of under hiring, short-termism and underinvestment in tech. As a result, when things are really bad the whole company goes on customer emails – imagine what use a developer is doing that! Strategy and execution has really slid - the proposition has barely moved on in 2 years, and Bulb’s differentiation has been eroded away. It’s embarrassing to see competitors leaving Bulb in their wake – Octopus is now years ahead of Bulb’s offering. Even dinosaurs like SSE are offering in home batter installation to customers. And growth has slowed to a trickle now Bulb’s pricing is uncompetitive. There’s a suffocating approach of landing projects that can show progress on a week-to-week basis, preventing teams from tackling root causes.
If the above reads like a damning indictment of what it’s like to work at Bulb hopefully it’ll prove useful to those considering working there. I don’t have hope of things changing.
