Sage is going through a very painful restructure, and believe you me it has been painful, horrendous in fact (for people who left and managed to stay)
Restructuring a company is not easy but Sage seems to be a massive contradiction, on the one hand it wants to get rid of bureaucracy but the other hand is obsessed with it when it comes to controlling performance reviews. On the walls of the Shard Office there is the company mission statement, one statement stands out...
“Do the right thing”
This could not be further from the truth. The new Sage setup is a top heavy, institutionalised management structure that is obsessed by measuring its staff against a confusing performance development plan with un-achievable targets due to lack of resources.
I had been working for Sage for 4 years, but after the restructure, I felt I had entered an alternate reality where “Facts, Logic, Value” went out the window and were replaced with “Confusion, Blame, Intimidation”, this place was literally like the “Twilight Zone” and The “Stepford Wives” rolled into one. I am still not convinced that Stephen Kelly is human, he could be a robot sent back in time to crush the souls of all the hard working good people who want a healthy work/life balance.
The default setting towards Staff was essentially to blame them for not achieving and that they needed to “stretch themselves further” under the new structure.
Sage seemed to be obsessed by giving feedback and putting staff under a microscope and finding fault where there was no fault. Feedback is only good feedback if it is not taken out of context and there are specifics you can actually learn from.
Avoid this place for 1 year until things calm down then I am sure "Facts, Logic, Value" and human spirit will win through eventually
