No development opportunities (have not been put on any courses since I began work here). There's meant to be a budget per annum for employee to take courses but when these are asked about, more or less get ignored. One to ones with managers happen very infrequently. Experienced staff are paid exactly the same as new entrants to the same grade. No payrises. Opportunities for promotion are rare and are usually taken by people joining the civil service from the private sector after having gained the relevant qualifications and experience from those roles.
Extremely toxic work environment. A lot of bullying from the senior management. When staff make complaints against senior managers for bullying, this is often simply dismissed at the next senior's discretion as groundless. However, they have a system whereby the manager can then make a complaint against the junior staff member for having made a "malicious complaint". To put it simply, if you make a bullying complaint against management, they will then make a complaint against you which will usually be formalised. Several people in my department ended up with formal warnings after having accused the SAME manager of bullying.
Once you're working here, it's extremely difficult to get out, as you're not allowed to talk about your role outside of the department, which makes interviews both in the civil service and private sector extremely difficult. Once you're working here, you won't get a pay rise, will be waiting years for a promotion that will result in an extra £200pcm, and if you end up under a manager who is a bully, you could get a warning if you try to do anything about it. That warning will be a final warning for serious misconduct which will last 18 months. Set a foot wrong during that time and you will be dismissed for gross misconduct and have an extremely hard time finding other work.
My advice is don't work here!
