Pros
Free coffee and food on shift. Average pay (London Living Wage), considering that they look to hire experienced hospitality professionals.
Cons
Advertise to have a lot of growing opportunities, in reality are extremely cheap on labour, would not promote people and expect you to take on more responsibility without extra pay (as well as demotes managers for convenience). Additionally, they keep a lot of workers on guaranteed 16h/week contracts that provides no more stability than a zero-hour contract, just ensures thay you give 4 weeks notice before you leave. The level of micromanagement (called brand standards at WatchHouse) makes you feel like you are working at fast-food place that pretend to be a Michelin restaurant. The head office tries to dictate what, when, and how you should do your job without an actual understaning of how the location works or consideration for staff. It seems like they have no trust for managers and aim to micromanage half a London full of coffee shops from the head office. At the same time, significantly lacks in providing support to the shop (e.g. Fixing broken equipment, finding new staff to cover for leavers) Lastly, greatly emphasises that everyone is replaceable. They never forget to mention that they have loads of people waiting for a job in any position. However, after someone leaves, takes more than three months to replace them.
