While I am aiming for fairness, I will provide a thorough account of my experience. Despite leaving on January 1st, I still wanted to leave my feedback
To start the company fell short of the image portrayed during the interview. All the 'fun' things they said they did were non-existent and replaced by relentless work from clock-in to clock-out. Additionally, they lacked competitiveness and failed to offer staff benefits.
Understaffed, over-worked and underpaid
Understaffed and too ambitious. They were already understaffed but then they had a round of lay-offs, which caused the remaining staff to have to pick up the extra slack. Instead of alleviating stress with process improvements, we were made to work even harder. Many of the chats that came in could easily be resolved with FAQ's.
There were a few occasions, where I found myself alone on shift, (even just for an hour), facing a queue of 19 chats with an average wait time exceeding 25 minutes. Newer staff were overloaded with live chats while older staff tackled simpler tasks, leading to burnout.
It wouldn't be such a kick in the teeth if the work was actually appreciated and you may have gotten recognition every once in a while but instead, you are rewarded with micro-management and random people in your Slack inbox telling you when you have done something 'wrong' or in a way that they wouldn't.
The team lacked a sense of camaraderie and rapport, and veteran members seemed to assert authority over newer staff.
Micro-management
The level of micromanagement was exhausting, with certain managers scrutinising minor (1 min) lateness and overlooking extra effort and frequent late finishes. I frequently worked beyond the designated hours without compensation or acknowledgment.
Let me highlight if you were on a 10pm finish, and finished beyond this time, you were NOT PAID for this, you were only paid if you hit the 10:15 mark or the 10:30 mark, anything in between or over this you were expected to work for free.
On one occasion I was asked why I signed off at 10:16 because my last ticket was resolved around 10:07. They did not account for the admin tasks that I had to catch up on, which I was unable to complete throughout the day due to drowning in chats. They always try to avoid paying you for what you have worked for. Greedy mindset that only looks out for the business.
Throughout the shift, there was no opportunity to take a breather, let alone stretch or use the restroom. Despite being at my desk the entire shift, my efforts were deemed not up to standard. I've never worked for a company like this, even in offices, you are allowed bathroom breaks and to stretch your legs. It's definitely an issue if you are more stressed out at home than in an office environment.
Annual Leave
Attempts to take annual leave were always without fail, met with denials or complications.
On one occasion I booked two blocks of annual leave months in advance, one was approved and the other was denied due to 'the costings of the business' whatever that means.
I pushed back on this and ultimately got the time off approved since no one else had booked a holiday for that period. Somewhere between the time of booking my annual leave and actually taking it, we were forced to change our working patterns so I went from a set 2pm-10pm Mon-Fri to a rota where you could be assigned to work 7am-10pm Mon-Fri and 8am-6pm Sat-Sun, they did not care about our other commitments, and had an obvious disregard for staff well-being.
You were expected to be available for the Company 24/7, which is ludicrous given that they did not offer a competitive salary to cover all the bills, so if you had a part-time job on the side you would not be able to do this as you could work 3 shift patterns in just one week.
Returning to my earlier point about my annual leave, I had booked time off from the end of one week through the full next week and a few additional days into the following week, essentially covering two full weeks from mid-week 1 to mid-week 3. Despite this, the manager scheduled me to work a weekend during my annual leave, even though I had arranged it months in advance, before the contract changes were implemented. Unfortunately, she displayed no empathy and made no effort to rectify the situation.
When I asked for a video call I was met with hostility, which was not unusual coming from her.
The main point of the issue regarding annual leave is twofold: the company is severely understaffed while simultaneously overextending its offerings, leaving front-line staff to bear the brunt of the burden. There's a cap on carrying over leave days into the new year, meaning that any unused days, despite repeated denials for leave requests, would be lost.
Front-line staff, particularly in Customer Service, suffer the bulk of these inconveniences. Meanwhile, management and other departments enjoy more flexibility in taking time off, particularly evident during the Christmas period, where some took extended breaks of 2-3 weeks.
Regarding conflict resolution, it's clear that HR's role is primarily to safeguard the company's interests rather than address staff concerns. Despite bringing issues to HR's attention, little to no action was taken to resolve conflicts, whether they pertained to holidays, scheduling, or managerial behavior.
I handed in my notice effective immediately in January, however, a few days after I left a member of the HR team (who just returned from 2 weeks of annual leave) tried to convince me that I was obligated to come back and work my notice when I stood firm on prioritising myself and taking a break before I started my new job, she ordered me about to come in and return my laptop by a certain date.
Now if you aren't someone who knows about employment rights you may have been manipulated to fulfil all these requests but do your research and look after yourself, because companies like this will always try to take advantage, especially if you are young.
As reiterated in the title, this company ranks as the worst I've ever experienced. Accepting this position over an offer from a more established start-up was a regrettable mistake. Despite assurances of prioritising career progression in my interview, which turned out to be false, I still accepted for this role. While I could go on further with my grievances, I'll conclude here.
Some ratings are overly high, despite touching on some of the points that I have raised here. Perhaps out of fear of reprisal or reluctance to express criticism.
