An honest review - Anonymous employee Agora Business Publications Employee Review

Spectacular location on the Broughton estate at the edge of the Yorkshire dales, with resident peacocks, a spa, a café, walks around the grounds, etc. The colleagues I worked with were very friendly and willing to help. The online training workshops will help keep the business relevant.

Funding was suddenly pulled by the company's German owners and I was made redundant after 2 months of employment (while on probation, so virtually no redundancy pay), along with around 7 other staff members (old and new). On the publishing team there seemed to be a lot of uncertainty and wasted time e.g. I spent a week producing a mock-up publication that was later cancelled because it was no longer deemed viable. Another time, we committed to working on a range of products for which there was evidently no market demand. Advice to management sometimes fell on deaf ears and we would have to plough ahead with projects regardless. There was a lot of customer dissatisfaction around invoicing, which could create an embarrassing situation when cold calling. Unfortunately the company's poor reputation preceded it, and customers would let staff know.

The team at Agora is small and friendly. The office is in a lovely rural location on the edge of Skipton. Work wise, you are given the chance to input in various different projects and there is the opportunity to develop skills via training courses etc. As the company is growing and expanding their digital arm of the business, currently there's lots of opportunity to be involved in various projects and activities that may be beyond your "standard" job role. This is a great chance to show what you can do and also adds more strings to your bow in terms of understanding areas of marketing or management that you may not have had chance to explore before. Every day is different and the work is fast paced but it's not a boring 9-5. There's also the chance to meet up with counterparts in Germany and share experience and there's the prospect of working closer in the future with other international offices which is an exciting prospect. Overall the staff are friendly, the location is beautiful and the work is ever-changing. If you want a set routine and a plan of exactly what you will be doing, this might not be the place for you. If you like variety and the chance to try lots of different things then great!

The location means that being able to drive is a necessity as the public transport links are poor to the office location.