Quite possibly the most toxic place I have worked.., - IT Consultant Wanstor Employee Review

Where to start.... For context this company has always had employee retention issues, and a fairly dictatorial mentality. You also know there is a problem when more people turn up to the owners retirement party than they do the company Christmas Party (more to follow on that shambles) The owner recently retired much to the joyful hopes of almost everyone in the business, he is inappropriate, rude and just outright aggressive and condescending to everyone and anyone he feels deserves the wrath of his draconian tongue. The problem is that there are two owners left, whom, both share equal if not more oppressive and dictatorial views than the owner, the CEO is the daughter of the owner and while on the outside seems nice and credible, she is a gaslighting sociopath. While the company has always had a revolving door of talent - fresh and really good people never stay long, since the change of management those numbers have only increased - I have seen at least half a dozen if not more people leave this year already, ranging from HR, Sales, Accounts and Support, that is almost every department - absolutely shocking! In my opinion the CEO is too young and inexperienced to be leading a company of this size, there is no credible track record of leading a team or organisation. I find it insulting that someone almost my age can run a business so poorly just because her father owns the business (I genuinely do not know who is/was the worst leader out of them both). Management seem to be involved in almost every aspect of the business which leads me on to the Micro management, you are expected to over work and be under paid (Quite literally colleagues have not been paid correctly) and recently it transpired others across the business haven't been paid correctly - some apparently for months on end, having to chase - absolutely disgusting behaviour, it's either incompetence or just pure ignorance I lean towards the later given how old the company is! This unreasonable expectation and treatment of employees is nothing new either. I have often worked over-time and the pay is wrong or incorrect, recently I refused to work extra hours and have was told it could reflect badly on my opportunities in the business, I would worry about that if there were any opportunities to begin with. People are promoted just to keep them because the company struggles to keep staff. And this means the wrong people are promoted, we have a couple of amazing team leads but their are a lot of inexperienced people in management roles. Our team lead is left un-empowered and reports into quite possibly the most self cantered, self obsessed and narcissistic person I have had the misfortune of having to work for. He is a bully, talks down to people openly in the office and on more than one occasion has been caught out running people down on conference calls in the office, he, like all the other managers put themselves up high (quite literally) in a glass fish bowl. However the irony isn't lost on some of us that while the management look down and out from their glass watch tower we look up at them like they are sharks in captivity, swimming around looking for their next unfortunate person to devour and spit out. This year has seen more people come and go within a matter of months of joining that the old owner has come out of hibernation much to the upset of everyone around me and come back to the business full time! Something that many of us had already placed bets on would be the case anyway - it's not the first time he has tried retiring. I cannot wait to leave - only last week did another team leader leave, I like many are so miserable and unhappy I genuinely feel sick of the thought of going to work on a Monday, it's upsetting to the point I have seriously considered just doing anything else until I find another job in IT. It should not be this way and it is saddening as so many lovely people are just treated like a another number.