Pros
Good quality office environment if based in Milton Keynes (largest headquarters building) with staffed gym and good (if not cheap!) canteen. Support for professional training. Opportunities to develop career and move with the company. Genuine commitments to staff welfare. Headline 35 hour week though longer is worked in practice.
Cons
NR is under a pay freeze since 2019-20 with no end in sight. Modernisation and change is under way. A lot of experienced staff recently left under a voluntary redundancy/early severance scheme and more cost cutting is on the way. Uncertainty about how transition to GBR (Great British Railway) will impact staffing - especially with a competition for "a new headquarters" - assumed to be outside the south east/south midlands. Little surprise that morale is poor at present. Too much is delegated to line managers not all of whom understand work-life balance, etc.