Targets keep going up every week and are completely unrealistic. You can’t physically do that many interviews/decisions in a week, and management knows it.
Really toxic environment. Staff turnover is insane—people you trained only few months ago are already gone and new people come in every week from job centre.
Leadership says they care about wellbeing, but that’s just talk. Wellbeing Surveys come back with low scores and nothing actually changes.
Feels like glorified retail, but with the huge weight of handling people’s lives. Targets and “sales-style” pressure make it feel like selling cars or houses, but these are human lives—and the Home Office doesn’t care.
Flexible working is heavily monitored. You have to log exactly when you’re coming in or working from home, even when some tasks can only be done remotely.
You deal with abuse from the people you’re trying to help and hear incredibly difficult stories like trafficking, drugs, prostitution, death, etc. It takes a toll. Impossible to do this long term.
Career progression is minimal. Mostly dead-end roles, and even the few internal positions are highly competitive like tech spec or team leader or other home office roles but in reality no one is keen on these they just want out of the DM role.
Overall, high stress, low reward. Honestly, even retail would be less stressful for similar pay.
