A Place to Progress and Grow! - Anonymous employee AST Language Services Employee Review

- Overall, AST's staff were extremely intelligent, supportive and great to work with

- Management was out of touch with business operations and hindered staff members in their work when involved - Management was erratic and fixated on unimportant issues - Management was too inflexible and resistant to change, e.g. regarding working from home - Staff members often took on additional duties outside their job description without a salary increase - Almost no salary increases were given without asking management

The amazing people at AST. The people at AST are truly wonderful. Just bright, wonderful, clever and all together well rounded people. All of them.

It seems that one of my colleagues who is either the Managing Director or close to him has put down what I can only describe as a boot licking level of review that is not at all close to the experience here. Obviously the two other negative reviews have nothing to do with this. I have also decided to add a review to make is abundantly clear, this is a sinking ship and is a horrible employer. Thanks to the fake review to make AST look good, they are now going to suffer from the Streisand effect. Let’s make a few things clear:

 1. Sacrificing your salary to park is not a perk 2. The WPA scheme provides barely ANYTHING. It’s the lowest level of their offerings. You would be selling your soul to work here with 75% reimbursement up to £65 for dental care. Hardly a massive perk. Almost all other graduate level employers offer WAY above this. 3. Hybrid working? Some employees are not even allowed to work remotely. The others work ONE day at home. AST has taken away sick pay since that first person’s review. Yes, that’s right. An employer that expects you to have a degree has in 2024 taken away ALL sick pay. Can’t work for one day? THOUGH. Struggle. What about annual leave, must be great surely? Nope. Most bank holidays are actually working days now. It’s below any graduate offering in the UK. 
 AST currently has over half of its employees on redundancy or reduced hours. with no consultation with staff and also illegally managed. AST is a company waiting to die either by terrible management or all the tribunals it’ll be dealing with over the next year. Speaking of legalities, here’s a few acts that AST has fallen short of over the years: The Equality Act 2010 Employment Rights Act 1996 Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 CPD? There is none. I have seen staff on the same salary for almost 10 years who were given nothing. No career progression. What Andrew really means by “CPD” is he will get staff to do arbitrary tasks that they are not being paid for. Finally, if you are a supplier to AST you ought to hear how the Director talks about you. If it not been for the amazing jobs of the PMs, vendor manager and accounts who actually know how to talk to and about humans you wouldn’t want to deal with AST. If you knew how this business truly operated you wouldn’t even think twice about either working here or using their services. For anyone else still left, you all deserve better.