Defra Reviews
Updated 1 Mar 2021
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Full-time, Part-time
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Job Status (2)
- Current Employees
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- Part-time
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- - England
- - London Area
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Pros
"Great work life balance via flexible working" (in 25 reviews)
"Very positive work life balance" (in 15 reviews)
Cons
"A lot of changing of colleagues as people flit between jobs a lot in the civil service" (in 4 reviews)
"Instead we have to piggy back on other organisations infrastructure" (in 4 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.
Pros
Really welcoming team environment and very friendly atmosphere
Cons
Hard to find permanent roles often fixed term only
"Working at DEFRA"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at Defra part-time for less than a year
Pros
Diversity of roles, purpose and has great values
Cons
Bereaucracy, getting into the building and finding a desk
Continue reading"Very demanding but fun!"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at Defra full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Whilst your constantly under pressure to deliver, I really enjoyed my time working here. Here are the pros: -Everyone looks after the general wellbeing of all colleagues regardless of your level -Lots of learning and development opportunities from Apprenticeships to external training -Great flexible working arrangement and the work/life balance can be met, especially as many of us working from home. As they are not extremely London centric, there are many Offices across England you can move to without any hassle -The work is really interesting and I had the opportunity to be the backbone of many Projects. Everyone is passionate about the Environment and we all play our role to make a difference. Generally with colleagues on the same grade or just 1 grade above you, you will get along well and teamwork will come naturally -You can really see your work come into full force and the change it is making. The data team are really helpful and collaborate with you constantly -Great colleagues! Honestly, I expected everyone to be very serious headed and mundane when I first started but everyone is really energetic and bright which is great as some work can be repetitive -As it is the civil service, the job security is incredible and many people are loyal to the Department
Cons
You may perceive the cons overtake the pros, here it comes: -It is extremely demanding despite me saying above flexible working is available, you will regret it as the workload is endless. Due to the incredible workload as a Personal Assistant, you will be forced to stick with 9am-5pm or 9am-6pm. Work emails are a nightmare! You will always need to watch your emails and I remember having to reply to emails at 11pm. Senior Management frown upon flexible working as it leads to an overall disorganisation -The pay is terrible compared to the private sector. With the expected output, they should be paying us a lot more especially as we are sometimes made the Director's slaves! -Lot's of office politics and red tape. Being one of the youngest in the Department, I was treated like a toy by some senior management and directors. Particularly, colleagues from BAME background's told me that they feel uncomfortable near Directors and some where unapproachable. -Lack of career progression. You will find yourself applying to more senior positions with different Departments (also being a Civil Servant and an internal candidate, why do you need to go through the same procedure as an external candidate?). In addition, Senior Management tend to "bring in" their friends from the private sector or from other Departments. Hence, if you are an external candidate or an internal candidate from a lower grade, your chances are really slim. -Poor IT systems. A Government Department. 2021, yet half your computers are on Windows 7, which constantly crashes! -The hierarchy is somewhat unorganised. Nearly 70% of all colleagues were on fixed term contracts, that is really unorganised especially how in 3 years the staff turnover has been sky high and I am often baffled and left isolated when 4 Managers have different strategies for the same thing.
Continue readingPros
Great people and varied work
Cons
Limited progression and uncompetitive salary
- Helpful (1)
"Positive first job experience"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Defra full-time for more than a year
Pros
Good work life balance, interesting work, focus on general well-being, great colleagues, flexi time
Cons
Often demanding, some areas have low resource for the amount of work that needs doing
"Generally good"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI worked at Defra full-time
Pros
Interesting work, flexi time, good work life balance
Cons
Terrible IT equipment, generally quite old fashioned culturally
"GES Mainstream Assistant Economist"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsApproves of CEOI have been working at Defra full-time for more than a year
Pros
Friendly environment, good learning and development opportunities
Cons
sometimes too bureaucratic, salary could be higher
- COVID-19
"Fairly good place to work if you get on with your manager and team members."
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookI have been working at Defra full-time for more than 8 years
Pros
Good flexible working arrangement. Permanent secretary and directors doing their best to support colleagues during this pandemic lockdown.
Cons
Low pay. Things can be tricky if you don't see eye to eye with managers. Promotion prospect for BAME colleagues can be slow.
Continue reading "Good employer"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo Opinion of CEOI have been working at Defra full-time
Pros
Good breadth of roles, good working environmemt,great colleagues
Cons
Buracracy and slow to change
- COVID-19
"Good culture, bad IT"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Defra full-time for more than a year
Pros
Everyone is very professional and solution oriented. Management are always very understanding and flexible to people's individual needs, which has been really important over the pandemic. Some of the people in senior leadership are incredibly driven and capable, which is inspiring.
Cons
The IT is really bad. I have an old windows 7 computer that frequently crashes when using standard MS Office applicaitons. As a data analyst I need to do a lot of coding, but there is no real DevOps solution. Instead we have to piggy back on other organisations infrastructure. Data is passed around in spreadsheets rather than being held in robust, practical databases.
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