Pros
Good people across operational teams A free Caffe Nero once a week
Cons
Having been at Starling for years, I think it’s fair to say that Daddy’s hat has fallen off. What was once an incredible team, full of well-informed and well-meaning individuals is being pushed aside for a corporate structure at odds with why any of us made the move to a fintech in the first place. How many more periods of change can a business go through? The CEO has done as he promised, taken a huge bonus (while staff still receive none) and then made 150 people redundant. Those in the upper echelons of management no longer have time for “the little people” when it was common to see Anne Boden on the office floor, sitting with teams and asking how people were with genuine interest. My days are spent on Zoom calls, regardless of whether I’ve been dragged into the office or not, with other people who feel similarly and are desperate for a way out. As a recent example, I was recently forced into the Cardiff office for two days, for a Head of department to spend half an hour presenting some Slides about her second home in the Caribbean and her love of champagne. Tone deaf given that weeks later, they announced that the entire London-based operation were being made redundant. Such a shame as I’ve met so many wonderful people but it’s not what it once was.