DWF Employee Reviews about "work life balance"
Updated 21 Nov 2020
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Recommend to a Friend
Approve of CEO
Nigel Knowles
10 Ratings
Pros
"The work/life balance is generally encourage firm-wide" (in 19 reviews)
"Agile/Flexible working allows a greater work/life balance" (in 19 reviews)
Cons
"Paralegals overworked with little praise, low pay, consistently criticised and management is non existent" (in 14 reviews)
"Worse still, in a conversation with HR I was reminded that when I DO return to work that I will again be required to work long hours to meet" (in 9 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.
Reviews about "work life balance"
Return to all Reviews- COVID-19
"Good place to work"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Diversity & Inclusion★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookI have been working at DWF full-time
Pros
Work life balance Innovative Relaxed approach and reasonable hours
Cons
Shares have bit hit by covid 19, some snobbery re competitors and because listed we have to sit dirty laundry in public and are never given a fair review in media
"Team orientated, friendly and interesting work"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at DWF full-time for more than a year
Pros
- Friendly teams - Engaging and stimulating work - Good remuneration - Excellent work/life balance
Cons
Slight loss of team spirit/ catchup meetings as a result of WFH
Pros
Work life balance is ok. Salary is ok
Cons
No career progression for support staff
"Good quality work, lovely colleagues"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
I have been working at DWF full-time
Pros
Quality of work, nice office, work/life balance
Cons
Remuneration not on a par with other similar firms.
- Helpful (1)
"Too much of everything"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
I worked at DWF full-time
Pros
Good company benefits and good work life balance
Cons
Too much to do on a daily basis plus loads of silly requests every day. Lack of recognition on the work you do an very poor management.
"Good company, good work life balance but not much reward"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at DWF full-time for less than a year
Pros
Have enjoyed working here - good work life balance, good client base and well led team
Cons
Brought in at an attractive salary only to learn that those less qualified earn the same as me. Don’t think there appears to be much scope for pay increase from what I hear from colleagues in different teams.
Continue readingThank you for your feedback. DWF indeed promotes a healthy blend of work and life and we deliver excellent service to a solid base of high profile clients. We view the pay and benefits we offer as being crucial to driving our business forward and our rewards programmes are regularly benchmarked against a select peer group of our major competitors and key players in the local market. People value different things during their working life, from flexibility, colleague engagement and also remuneration, so we are keen to retain a blended model. Please do keep an eye out for a new recognition platform we will be launching in the near future, which will allow employees to be recognised for going making a significant contribution to the business across all career levels and jurisdictions. #alwaysaimhigher
- Helpful (1)
"Top heavy"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
Doesn't RecommendApproves of CEOI have been working at DWF full-time
Pros
Agile working, good work life balance
Cons
Too many senior staff members. Not much opportunity for growth.
DWF Response
June 27, 2019 – Resourcing and Talent Acquisition Manager
Thank you for your feedback. We're really pleased to hear that you value our approach work-life blending and agile working patterns. We're extremely passionate about the development of our people and want everyone to feel empowered to manage their career development. Our learning and development academy is also open to all and gives lots of scope for self-improvement and development. We are working to develop our people proposition to reflect DWF' growth and reward our people, whilst better communicating our ambitions. Our local HR advisors are always available and happy to help if there's anything our employees wish to raise outside of their immediate teams. We urge you to engage with you line Manager discuss your ambitions.
- Helpful (1)
"Solid law firm"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at DWF full-time for less than a year
Pros
- Good quality work including high-profile international work in some departments - Good admin support - Friendly working environment (I mean it, it is actually friendly!) - Good work/life balance, a lot of people who have families work here, it is recognised and encouraged (!) one needs to have a life outside of work - Dress code is not too strict, in fact it is quite relaxed - Lack of notorious profession's antiques - no bullying of junior staff, no high pressure to work unsociable hours, no excessive drinking culture - Interesting CSR events a number of committees anyone can be involved in - Monthly "Thirsty" Thursdays/Fridays which involve drinks, food and socialising
Cons
- Workload can fluctuate - sometimes as much as needed, sometimes not enough - Quality of work can differ between the departments - Struggle to retain staff - Internal objective manager software/survey which needs to be completed quarterly is a complete waste of time
Continue reading "Average legal employer"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
I worked at DWF full-time
Pros
Good work life balance for law firm
Cons
Very minimal pay rises, insulting bonuses in Birmingham office at least.
- Helpful (2)
"Every day life at DWF Manchester"
- Work/Life Balance★★★★★
- Culture & Values★★★★★
- Career Opportunities★★★★★
- Compensation and Benefits★★★★★
- Senior Management★★★★★
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at DWF full-time for more than a year
Pros
I joined DWF on my qualification as a solicitor in March last year. The interview process was fairly relaxed; being interviewed by two senior members of the team, and discussing my experience and what I could offer to DWF (and indeed what they could offer me!) were I to join. Since joining DWF, it has lived up to all it's promises. My team are very approachable, and as a newly qualified solicitor I feel I get a good balance of worktype. With the more complex matters, I am encouraged to ask for supervision if I feel I need it, and I feel generally supported by the management. The work/life balance is generally encourage firm-wide. Obviously if something needs to be done urgently, we are expected to buckle down and work as a team, but there is very rarely many people left in the office past 7pm, unless something is urgent! The social life is also good in the firm, with summer and christmas parties well attended by most employees, and Friday Fridge always being a very popular event!
Cons
Given the size of DWF, it's inevitable that the promotion process is quite gruelling, and focuses a lot on financials. This can be quite difficult for junior solicitors seeking to climb the ladder, when they don't always have full control of billing of matters.
DWF Response
March 21, 2019 – Resourcing and Talent Acquisition Manager
Thank you for taking the time to share feedback – we're really keen to hear views from our current employees so we can identify trends and make improvements where possible. We're really pleased to hear your feedback on our working style and work-life balance in general. Parallel to the promotion process, keep an eye on our internal vacancies too. If you would like help in shaping your career and the next steps to take please do chat with your line manager at your 121 or your HR advisor and we will be happy to help you create a development plan.
Join the DWF team
DWF Response
July 11, 2019 – Resourcing and Talent Acquisition Manager