Avoid at all costs - bullying, hypocritical, insensitive, bad management.
Pros
The people on the ground can be good (some are utter weapons though) Christmas parties are always good for a reality TV show moment- physical fights between employees in public, (which was ignored back in the office by management), managers taking Class A substances in the bathrooms (again, ignored by higher management), employees openly cheating on spouses with other employees (that's happened multiple years). It's an absolute riot. Oh, we once got a gift card at Christmas, which was nice. But I'm sure most employees would prefer a fair annual wage for the work they do rather than a one-off token gesture used as a distraction technique from the more serious things wrong with the company. Especially as all the job vacancies advertise a 'competitive salary' - one of the biggest lies told.
Cons
The bullying, racist and sexist culture is disgusting - especially as management are FULLY aware and ignore it - some are even responsible for it! So much for Core Values that they asked everyone to sign. A short highlight reel of some of the things I saw/heard during my time at this company: An employee with CP left because they were bullied for their disability. A receptionist at one of the Scottish offices has been heard using the N-word MULTIPLE times by multiple people. Also refers to POC as 'those' people. This is obviously bad enough on its own but the company has black other POC employees. An employee with mental health issues was bullied out. They were suffering and spoke to their manager when recommended to do so. Very shortly after they were let go as they 'weren't working out'. An employee with cancer bullied out. A particular employee regularly makes racist and sexist comments. This includes wrapping a fleece around their head to mimic a burqua. Multiple people have needed to take (unpaid) time off due to stress from work. (myself included) Multiple people leave due to the unfair and unrealistic work load. (myself included) Multiple people leave due to the crap company ethics and oppressive atmosphere. (myself included) A first aider got passed but only when they were walked through all the answers in the assessment. However they were eventually removed when their incompetence was pointed out. And that's only from the handful of offices I spent most of my time in! I hated having to have office days - it was much better at home/on the road. The CEO doesn't care about any of this. He has a 'don't like it? leave' policy. He's also made sure to promote people who came from his original business to form a ring of yes-people around him to protect his position. The entire 'leadership' team are a bunch of out of touch people who couldn't care less about the employees beneath them because employees are all replaceable to them, no matter which office they are in. The annual employee surveys were a joke and were written in a way to be loaded towards the answer the company wants to hear so that they could promote a false narrative. The company has a nasty habit of promoting people to management roles simply because they have been with the company for a long time, rather than any actual qualifications. they also turn a blind eye when patterns emerge around these managers for example the high staff turnover rates under some of them. The people who are actually responsible for the success of the business are paid an insultingly low wage doesn't matter what department you're in. The company will pay you the absolute lowest they can get away with and try to make you feel like you're on a good wage. We were also discouraged from discussing our wages probably because they don't want employees finding out that they pay differently for the same jobs across different offices (there are no offices in London). Overworked and underpaid doesn't even come close to scratching the surface here, but it's probably the short summary of it all. I'm glad I'm out.
