Be really clear with yourself and what you are getting into
Pros
- Good salary - up to £75,000 for middle managers - Responsibility—at the expense of dealing with incompetents - If you're half-decent you'll probably do okay here if you're in a good department.
Cons
- Culture and workload is massively different depending on what department you are in. The majority of departments are poor, some are atrocious. Lots of things that shouldn't be tolerated in 2019 are. - I've heard (and seen) horror stories: plenty of people crying, blatant bullying, screaming & shouting, sexism. A few times I've called a colleague and got the response "so&so doesn't work here any more". There is one department that we refer to as 'the black hole' — people, good people, go in and they never come out the same again (and they come out quickly) - Unsurprisingly, turnover of employees is shocking. You need to get lucky here—if you work for a decent person you will get by—but that isn't a given - Keep your head down. I've seen people stand up for what they believe in, try and tackle the status quo and challenge the poor culture, but they just get beat down. Don't believe the promotional materials! People do NOT want to do it differently here. The model has worked for years in their eyes. If you want to get along, don't rock the boat! Don't come expecting a 'do-it-better' meritocracy. This is very much a 'oil tanker' of a bureaucracy - Poor culture leads to high performers leaving and mediocre ones clinging on. Senior management are largely made up of those who appear to have clung on the longest—but are often not suited to such positions. Or people who did a great job in buying boxes and now are suddenly experts in marketing. This causes the whole cycle to repeat. The high salaries compound this; they encourage mediocre people to stay because know they are highly unlikely to get this salary elsewhere. It's a trap. - This ends up with really poor accountability and a lot of people who think they have re-invented the wheel, or are the next Jesus because they 'made it' and are paid 100K a year and drive a company car. I include a lot of my peers in this. The thing is, they wouldn't have 'made it' at a better company—they just aren't good enough. Making it had nothing to do with work (it's definitely not a meritocracy here) it's got to do with being able to weather the most abysmal culture for the longest, or being where nobody notices how rubbish you are -As such, co-operation and communication between departments is poor because you've got a whole load of people who can't think big (they are too busy thinking they are the next big thing). You'll find out your peer has hired someone to do the same job as one of your team members—they just never bothered to speak to you. Or you'll meet someone who's been drowning in some project in a silo somewhere because their out-to-lunch director 'forgot' to mention it to anyone else's - Highly secretive promotional structure for senior management. You can't apply for jobs, you must be 'chosen'. This creates issues when you have a poor line manager relationship, or if your line manager changes (which it constantly does). I had a colleague who easily should have been offered a more senior role, she brought external experience too—but this was never evaluated as she had 4 line managers in 2 years. In the end she quit and it was such a shame because she was better than our boss. This sort of thing happens a lot - Everything feels so second rate—I wish I'd trusted my gut and not taken a role here to be honest. I sold out for the money. What I've compromised is doing a job that is challenging with great senior leaders and peers you can learn from. But hey, I'm lazy - Mostly it is just disappointing because you constantly feel like the company could be great if they just increased accountability, co-operation and stopped tolerating abysmal behaviour and poor work from management who have been at the company far too long.
