try simbodies if you want to live a miserable life! - Production Assistant Simbodies Employee Review

1.0
27 May 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

literally can't think of one thing

Cons

This job was the worst I've ever had. I dont even know where to begin. It's been 2 years since I left and I'm still quite frankly not over the way I was treated there. Firstly they pay minimum wage, or maybe slightly above, yet in order to get the job you must have a degree. For a highly skilled position that requires so much patience and dedication, you're paid CRUMBS. Also don't discuss your pay with your colleagues, you'll get massively berated for that. You're constantly watched and micromanaged - they have CCTV in the workshops that they literally have on a big screen in the office which is so weird. You have to put phones off or on silent in a locked box during the day. If anyone's trying to get hold of you, they won't. I had health problems and my manager was always really weird about me taking doctors calls. On that topic, your mental health will NOT be taken seriously. I was told to try taking a berocca to help with my clinical depression, and "just get stuck into work to distract yourself". I was severely depressed working there and felt so alone. They made me move so that I was working on an entire department completely alone, and even then I had my manager on my back because I wasn't making things fast enough, ON MY OWN!? The managers are not trained AT ALL. They're just friends with the higher ups or been there a while so just happened to become managers when the company grew, not because they're actually good at it. If you step out of line (aka being a human being and not a workshop robot) you will be ridiculed, talked about behind your back, given the silent treatment and quite frankly bullied. I've never been around such nasty characters in my life. That brings me on to my next topic, if you call anyone out for bigotry in the workplace you will be gaslighted. Someone in the dispatches team said the N WORD at work, I called the person out at the time and then reported it to the managers. They excused the behaviour, REPEATED THE SLUR MULTIPLE TIMES during the meetings, and then eventually had to bring HR in from Hereford to have a conversation with the entire team about "appropriate workplace discussions" and essentially said that "you won't agree on everything, people will all have different opinions" then went on to compare discussing racial issues in the workplace to discussing SALARY? Not exactly comparable. It's a very unsafe place to work, shoddy equipment, no health and safety practises in place. I worked during the pandemic and NONE of the managers took it seriously. They were trotting about with their masks under their noses, acting like it was some kind of big joke. Not a good look. Absolutely no perks to the job. Favouritism is rife. Really backstabby atmosphere, managers manipulating people against each other. Not a creative job at all, just a great big sausage factory and a bad excuse for one. Its taken me a long time to build my confidence back up after nearly a year of constant belittling and manipulation. Avoid like the plague, avoid like you've never avoided before.

Explore other reviews about Simbodies

4.0
24 Jun 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Monday-Friday no weekend work. sick pay. Health benifits. Generally a good place to work small supportive teams. Can go to my manager about most things, physical health, mental health, work and skills They have different mental health initiatives, charity days now and then that are run by team members.

Cons

Did have a large redundancy because the comany tried to grow too fast and the work didn't match it Can be a stressful environment from time to time not the best with communication from upper management - seem to change their minds a lot about decisions that can worry people including supervisors It is unclear how secure our jobs are due to the large redundancies and continued redundancies in the wider company Some people can be difficult to work with/not very kind or supportive but overall it's not too bad msot people are nice and friendly

1.0
21 Sept 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Let’s get one thing clear this is not a SFX job, a media makeup job or even a creative job so it should not be advertised as this. This is simply a factory job where you are doing boring repetitive work in a factory style environment. Trying to pretend that it’s anything other than this is very misleading. You are expected to stand all day doing monotonous work. Sometimes you’re allowed to sit down but there’s deliberately not enough chairs for everyone which causes arguments between team and when you do sit down to complete detailed work you’re made to feel very guilty about it. You’re not allowed to make a drink, have a chat with your colleagues you’re simply a robot being pressured to make products as fast as you can. You aren’t even trusted during break times as managers watch to make sure you’re back in the workshop not a second too late. You are berated for going on breaks 1 second early whilst managers sit outside for double the time they’re supposed to gossiping behind everyone’s backs. You constantly feel like a naughty school child who’s waiting to get in trouble for something even though you haven’t done anything wrong. Managers are constantly nit picking at you, if you go to the bathroom twice in an hour trust me they’ll notice and have a passive aggressive comment to say about it. You can barely move without managers whispering about you or finding reasons to tell you off in front of everyone whilst they indulge in the behaviours that they claim to be so against. The paranoia and hopelessness I experienced during this job was massive and I was expected to act like this was a normal place to work at and that I should be grateful. If you don’t mind factory work, work in any other manufacturing environment. Don’t spend your time in a cold windowless dull factory that permanently stinks of sewage whilst you get whispered about by power obsessed supervisors and managers.

Cons

Everything about working here is a con. There are some great production assistants that work there but you end up being too miserable to talk about anything other than how bad things are.

3
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