Your Mental Health Will Suffer! - Anonymous employee Childs Farm Employee Review

Firstly, before I post my experience you should know this review will be hidden by a surge of positive and an amazing place to work reviews. When a negative review is submitted, HR email all staff and ask them to put up reviews. Everyone fears for their jobs and thus create positive reviews just in case it isn't anonymous. Trying to get the positive ones to push the negative down and out of sight. If you look at previous negative reviews look at the time frame between them and the positive. This should be a red flag in itself. When first joining Childs Farm I was quite excited. They come across online as a friendly company that care about their staff and the well-being of others. This could not be further from the truth and everything they post is just based on what they feel people want to hear. The company is medium sized and comes with management with large egos. People will not hesitate to stab each other in the back to make themselves look better to these managers. I never personally had any issues with the owner but many people I worked with did. Understandably she is a woman with drive and wants her company to succeed but in doing so has employed many ‘leaders in their field’ who could not care less how their staff feel or how much pressure they are put under. I witnessed so many people in my time there start as confident, passionate members of different teams and over the course of a few weeks become a crumbled, depressed version of themselves. When speaking about the difficulties they faced or troubles they were having they were not helped and instead scrutinised. Now let’s talk Covid 19. 14 people were made redundant a couple of days before the furlough scheme was put forward. So not only has a world pandemic caused fear in everyone but they decided to let go of numerous members of staff at a time of unease and financial difficulty. When furlough was announced everyone that was made redundant was then placed onto the scheme. Companies did not have to pay for this and it would make them look better. Only for those affected to then be made redundant again in August when they would have to start paying part of the furlough scheme. Understandable if they were struggling as a company, their reason being they were making a loss. No, Childs Farm benefited from Covid. They make hand wash after all. They made the most in one month that they ever had. So, making a loss was not the reason. As the weeks went by, those who were made redundant witnessed numerous job adverts going up for roles like ours but with a slight change in name as to not make it illegal. They wanted new people, the roles varied from those where they would do more and be paid less to those on extortionate salaries that would give direction to the ones that do more paid less. Not only were we all subject to demoralising job adverts but then we hear that other members of staff receive gifts. A company struggling so much to get rid of so many people and then buying the rest of the staff £18 mugs. This behaviour was seen throughout my time there. People crumbling around me, working all the hours, criticised for everything they do but they would buy a Wagamama lunch to make up for it. Do not worry, you may be depressed and anxious, but a Katsu curry will solve that issue. You would think you would be able to speak to HR if you had any issues. Usually that is the place to go if you are struggling. Not at Childs Farm. It was made obvious anything said in confidentiality to them was then discussed with their friends in the business. Nothing was sacred which then in turn made the environment and the struggles even harder. So apart from a nasty backstabbing environment, there was the factor of diversity. I think they may have had a slight panic from another review that was written recently as there appears to be more people of colour in their advertising. Look at all the advertising and bottles pre-covid to get an idea. They may even have employed more diversely. Whilst being there neither of these factors were addressed and it was made obvious that the company was in fact quite racist. There is so much I could say about Childs Farm but I fear there is probably a word limit. If you take anything from this review. Do not work there. They do not care about you. If you look on LinkedIn, most people do not last a year. They will use you to exploit your skills, to then throw you out for whatever reason they can find legally, to get new members of staff with new ideas and new skills. Your mental health and self-esteem will suffer for the price of a higher salary. It’s just not worth it.