Pion made me suicidal.
Working at Pion was one of the most damaging experiences of my professional life. I have gone back and forth on whether to write this, because remembering what it felt like to work there is genuinely upsetting, but I feel it is important to share the truth for the sake of others who may be considering joining.
Let us start with the ethics, or rather, the total lack of them. Pion employs a team based in the Philippines who are paid less than £300 a month for full time roles that are identical to those of their UK counterparts. Meanwhile, UK employees earn five times that amount for the same work. This is not a secret internally. It is just quietly ignored. The company masks this exploitation with empty talk about fairness, global collaboration, and being a values driven business, but when you scratch the surface, it is clear that profit comes first no matter the human cost.
On top of that, there is absolutely no diversity in leadership. Not one person of colour in a managerial role, yet there are constant LinkedIn posts and internal comms about how inclusive and progressive the company is. It is performative at best. Token gestures instead of real change.
What made everything worse was the day to day culture. Toxic does not even begin to describe it. Management often acted like a mean girls clique, exclusive, two faced, and emotionally immature. If you were not part of the in crowd, you were out. Completely. I witnessed countless instances of managers gossiping about team members, being passive aggressive in meetings, and treating people with thinly veiled disdain. Feedback was rarely constructive. Instead, it felt like you were being punished for existing outside the clique.
I was constantly contacted outside of working hours, with no respect for personal boundaries. The expectation was to be always on, late at night, weekends, holidays, it did not matter. I dreaded checking my phone. The anxiety became unbearable. I remember crying during my lunch breaks and after work, just trying to hold it together. At one point, I felt so low that I genuinely questioned whether I could keep going. That level of emotional and mental exhaustion should never be part of any job.
Job security was nonexistent. People were let go regularly and without warning. One day someone would be in a team meeting, and the next they would just be gone. No explanation, no update. Every meeting started to feel like it could be your last. You were expected to keep smiling while walking on eggshells.
To make matters worse, the company has been steadily stripping away its benefits. They reduced the pension contribution, took away small but meaningful perks, and reversed their remote first policy, forcing staff into a hybrid setup with barely any consideration for how disruptive and demotivating that is. For a company that once prided itself on being flexible and modern, it felt like a complete backslide. People built their lives around being remote, and suddenly we were being told to adjust with no real choice.
All of this, wrapped up in glossy branding and fake positivity, made it feel even more isolating. You start to wonder if it is just you, if maybe you are the problem, but you are not. This environment chips away at your confidence and your self worth until you no longer recognise yourself.
If you are thinking of applying, I urge you to protect your peace. No job is worth your mental health, your stability, or your self respect. And if you are reading this as someone still working there, feeling stuck or broken, please know you are not alone, and you deserve so much better.
