RAC Reviews

I was one of a number of IT/website developers who have the displeasure of working at the Bradley Stoke office. A few personal highlights: - No on-boarding process whatsoever. No real site orientation, no basic (and legally required) fire/health and safety orientation. A computer (obvious key tool of the job) was not even provided for over two weeks from my initial starting period. During this time I was left to occupy myself. Upon questioning this with management I was informed that I should bring in my own personal computer to use during this time(!) This was frequently repeated with not only new permanent staff but also contractors. - No internal team or personal management. During the twelve months plus of employment I did not have any performance reviews. - No goals or career progression opportunities were set and work was never reviewed. - No professional relationship with the team management whatsoever. This was the same for the whole development team. - New team members were never formally introduced to the team – adding to the lack of team mentality in the office. I never felt part of a team – a feeling shared by other developers who joined and left during the time I was employed there. - IT procedures were outdated and convoluted. A lack of code maintenance and a large amount of technical debt resulting in a bloated and frustrating development environment (several gigs of data per branch), which frequently crashed. Relatively simple overnight releases took several hours, much due to the technical debt that hasn't been addressed. Some effort was being made to address this by the time of departure. This is not a department for any IT professional who wishes to progress in their career. A culture of being left to work in silos exists. Communication generally within the RAC was dire; the management changing sprint scopes during the sprint itself (moving project goalposts) and no internal reviewing of team management. Also a side note: • Parking is also an issue at The Bradley Stoke office. A lack of spaces means that a “double parking system” has been utilised - however the reality of this is it is frequently difficult to contact those who have parked behind you if you are blocked in.

I don't normally write reviews, but I feel the need to here. Please don't bother working for this company, it will damage you mentally. It turns out it's very far from the reputable and decent company I once thought it was. They only look to employ staff short term. I managed to stick it out a few years, until even I finally broke. Constant hiring and firing. Poor work-life balance. Your life is controlled by the terrible shift patterns, and they are 100% non negotiable, even after the years I've been here, they wouldn't budge, which thankfully, gave me the nudge I needed to move on. And if you want to book holiday, forget it. If you need a medical appointment, forget it. They once refused to give me time off for a medical appointment, which had already been pushed a long way back due to Covid, for which turned out to be just a 10 minute appointment down the road, forcing me to take a full day off sick, which they penalise you for. Go figure. Colleagues regularly signed off with stress and other mental health problems as a result of working here, managers included. Very high turnover of staff as already stated, yes quite the norm for a contact centre, however I've worked in a fair few over the years, and this is by far the very worst. They don't even try to hide how undervalued and unappreciated you are, everyone really is just a number/robot, for which they frequently like to remind you. No loyalty to staff or customers. Unjustified renewal hikes by sometimes £200 or more (they've admitted there is a problem with the pricing system) but nothing gets done about it. And this is for a service that is (to put it mildly) far from satisfactory. Call after call is the same, mainly complaints from angry customers, having been left stranded for hours or even days. The job itself is repetitive, draining, and at times very stressful. No one here is paid enough to deal with the amount of abuse you get over the phone. Unachievable KPI's. No respect for employees wellbeing. Often unfairly penalised for things out of our control. Extremely poor communication across the business. Olde fashioned, outdated style micro management. Treated like children at times, honestly it's actually really embarrassing. The computer systems are also the worst I've experienced. They're just not fit for purpose. Painfully slow, often crash, endless IT errors. IT department who we need to regularly call to report said errors, who are based abroad somewhere, are completely useless. I genuinely don't know 1 person here who is happy or proud to work for the company anymore. A business with no morals, ripping their elderly customers off who've been loyal with them their whole lives. I no longer feel OK working for this type of place. Greedy business that only cares about money.