Don't care about the customer or the employee
Pros
My direct line manager was the best manager I have ever had - although that was more down to him than the company. My team were a great bunch of people to work with. I was (eventually) treated with respect and listened to.
Cons
Morally bankrupt company - company direction (not just sales staff) was to knowingly design and sell policies to people that they would never be able to claim on, and then even if they could claim, they would do everything in their power to get out of paying the claim if they thought they could get away with it. Not because they wanted to deliberately treat customers badly, but because it was too hard to come up with anything else. Annoyed just about every regulator going (FCA, Oftel, etc), and practices had the potential to annoy the others if they ever found out about it. The huge FCA fine recently was deserved. Working in IT, I saw many good people leave, and many poor staff stay or get rehired. There were a couple of real stinkers hired whilst I was there, and although they eventually left, it took a long time for management to notice how poor they really were. Considering it was such a small department, that is really unforgivable. The IT systems suffered from chronic under investment, and there were too many managers making decisions on things that they quite frankly didn't understand. All the projects that were run were either not delivered, or significantly late and over budget. There was a lot of 'pet projects' run by people who weren't interested in the good of the company, but wanted something good on their CV - and if they were among the favoured few, then they got incredible leeway to do as they pleased. Discipline within IT was pretty much non-existent. You were either pulled up for the smallest of infractions or allowed to get away with shocking behaviour. There was never a sense of pulling together and all trying to achieve a common goal, because there was never a common goal to achieve. The company direction was non-existent (other than squeeze the customer) and management turnover was high. One senior manager lasted six months (on a six month notice period!). Management meddling was high, and staff dissatisfaction was immense. People were promoted not because they were the best person for the job, but because their face fit or they were mates with management.
