Pros
Office is new and modern. Nice location in Cherrywood beside the sea. People on my team were nice. Pay and benefits were great.
Cons
Be very aware of these cons, as it seems a lot of the responses relating to cons are "nothing to report", suggesting they may not be authentic employees posting. Culture: the atmosphere is really poor. I've never worked in a place with a worse power dynamic between senior management and staff. The amount of backstabbing and complaining about other teams or employees openly on the floor was appalling. Additionally, management were happy to openly discuss redundancies in a very unprofessional manner on calls while sitting at their desk, in front of other employees. A very US corporate vibe which is to be expected, although the European arm of the company feels small and unimportant. Management style: my main reason for leaving. Micro-management is rife, over the smallest details. There is little or no room for initiative and favouritism was evident on my team. The core hours often weren't realistic and yet, negative feedback would be given for working late. Criticism and shaming were used as the feedback approach which doesn't foster a great environment. In fact, a culture of fear of making mistakes was present, with experienced employees often being afraid to make any decisions. IT: awful. For a billion dollar company, I can't get my head around how bad the systems are. The financial systems are archaic and difficult to use. Loading simple reports was difficult and time-consuming. The laptop provided wasn't great either. Support & Welcome; a crucial part to any new joiners' experience, this was very substandard, with a brief morning of inductions but little in the way of on-the-job training. It was a case of being straight onto the job and get stuck in. Which is fine but doesn't really enable a new joiner to learn and grow into the role. Leaving; On handing in my notice, I became a ghost employee. Emails were ignored and the attitude towards me justified my decision to leave. Additionally, small things like not getting a leaving card, not having a farewell coffee/lunch or an exit interview weren't done. While that may seem petty or small-minded, it shows that the company doesn't care about the person, or even the employee for that matter. Overall, this role is for some people as it is very well-paid and in a big multinational company in a reasonably stable industry. However, if you want work-life balance, to have purpose in your work and to feel valued, don't go near the place.
