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      Future

      Engaged Employer

      Future reviews

      3.2

      44% would recommend to a friend

      (714 total reviews)

      Kevin Li Ying

      60% approve of CEO

      36% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.6

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.3

      Work/Life balance

      3.1

      Culture & values

      3.0

      Compensation and benefits

      2.8

      Career opportunities

      2.7

      Senior management

      Future has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 714 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Future employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      714 reviews
      1.0
      Sep 26, 2017

      The Future's not bright.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The company still exists. In the current media landscape this counts as a win, and was by no means guaranteed three or four years ago. Only someone incredibly naïve could claim that no changes were necessary. The specialist nature of the business means there’s a good chance you’ll be working in a field you have real passion for. Though many people have left, driven out by changes to the company’s culture, many talented and creative people are still clinging on by their fingernails because they respect and admire their colleagues, and are proud of what they can achieve together. With luck, you’ll get through it together with the aid of plenty of gallows humour. Perversely, Future has managed to create a strong sense of camaraderie amongst its workforce… by uniting them in a shared distrust of the board.

      Cons

      The constant undercurrent of anxiety. When I left, the fear level wasn't as in-the-red as it was a couple of years ago, since Future switched from mass redundancies to a drip-drip approach to axing jobs which is easier to hide. Still, you can expect to feel insecure in your position - and constantly on edge, wondering what will be the next ill-thought-out “innovation” enforced without any consultation. It will probably involve a spreadsheet. Management love pointless spreadsheets. Lack of resources. If you get through six months without suffering cuts to budgets or head count, count yourself lucky. Teams are now absolutely pared to the bone. A merger with Imagine Publishing in 2016 felt more like a takeover, with Imagine’s worst working practices (inflexible control-freakery; undermining of editorial authority; cheap-jack recycling of “content”; a reliance on graduate labour) lauded as best practice and rolled out across the entire company. Appalling work/life balance. If you’re committed to producing something you can be proud of, you can expect to work a great many evenings and weekends with no reward. This makes Future’s recently introduced “unlimited holiday” policy a joke – a great many people are taking less time off than they did before it was introduced, because of the increased workload. The company communication style is widely viewed with scorn for its perceived lack of honesty. The classic Future pattern is to hold a gathering trumpeting how well everything is going; two days later, the news will start spreading on the grapevine about the latest cutbacks and redundancies. Future doesn’t seem to believe in treating its employees as grown-ups who can handle hearing a mix of good news and bad, or putting its managers in a position where they have to justify "difficult decisions". A bread and circuses approach, rather well summed up by initiatives like “Monthly Munchies” - a doomed attempt to detoxify morale by giving everyone a dry 10p burger once a month. The tiresome ubiquity of Future’s trite and vacuous “company values” (such as “We’re all in the boat” and “Let’s do this!”) which are painted on office walls and repeated ad nauseum in every company-wide email.

      avatar
      Future Response
      8y
      Thank you for your feedback. We recognise that Future has been through a challenging few years and, as you know, our people have worked tirelessly to turn the business around. We believe the benefit of this hard work is really starting to pay off and we are delighted to thank our employees in many ways including payment against the FY17 profit pool. We have lean teams with a lot of expertise within each field. Within our competitive market we are proud of their flexibility and dedication, this contribution allows us to remain agile within the market. We have recently taken the opportunity to introduce a People and Culture team, led by one of our Executive team, so that our people truly have a voice at the table and ensure our actions and intentions are as transparent as possible. The team are launching several initiatives to make Future an even better place to work as well as gain more internal insight, with the intention of making Future a fantastic place to work. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
      1.0
      Sep 8, 2022

      Avoid… you don’t want this in your future. CEO creates a hostile working environment

      Manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - global opportunity if your face fits - great brands - good place to cut your teeth if you’re starting your journalism career, but expect to be worked to the bone

      Cons

      - CEO is a puppeteer. She is compelling, she has loyal followers, but she consistently burns them out. It’s hard to ignore the amount of senior leadership that the company goes through. Five CPO’s in 18 months is worrying?! The turnover of staff, especially management, is mind blowing. - Lack of respect and no one is trusted. Zero autonomy. The CEO seemingly trusts no one to be an expert in their field, and it’s not uncommon for her to be the only voice in a meeting. Not only is her voice very loud, sweary and shouty, but there is no room for collaboration. It’s a dictatorship. - Diversity and inclusion isn’t a priority. They say it is, it isn’t. It’s all lip service. You’ll find very little inclusion anywhere in the business and very little in place to improve it. - Culture is dying before our eyes. This will not improve with the forced return to the office and leadership team need to listen to employees voicing their desire to work from home. A lot of talent has been lost. And this company runs leaner than any business I’ve been in. AKA not enough staff, can’t afford to lose any more. - Hostile work environment, not a nice place to work - mainly because of the way the CEO treats employees - Management do not care about anything other than profit. - no budget for learning and development. No room for colleague improvement. This surprised me, I expected a business of this size to want to develop their staff. No. - Can the person that writes the CEO weekly emails (we all know it’s not Zillah) please stop.

      avatar
      Future Response
      3y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We've been working to make improvements across the organisation and following our recent engagement survey have hosted numerous listening sessions, giving everyone an opportunity to have their ideas heard. We've already started taking action to make meaningful changes to make Future a better place, including ongoing work to invest in our people and give them more opportunities for progression and development. If you have any further thoughts you'd like to share please feel free to get in touch with us directly.
      1.0
      Jul 21, 2022

      Clueless company who can’t manage rapid growth

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      New London office Good amount of data

      Cons

      Prioritise process over people Senior leadership have no emotional intelligence The company leads with fear over reward Arrogance, sense of entitlement, rude Staff treated with a lack of respect and no one is trusted Company is run through penny pinching; everything is done to safe money not to make money

      avatar
      Future Response
      3y
      We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and are sorry to hear that you feel we don't value our people. We agree with you that the people are an important part of the success of a business and any acquisition. Periods of change such as acquisitions are stressful and can take time to navigate and we're continuously working to make the transition smoother for new colleagues so they feel welcome and valued. If you have any further suggestions on how we can improve please feel free to contact the People team.
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