I plead with you not to put yourself through working at this hell hole. - Anonymous employee Access Hardware Employee Review

All seemed great at first, happy smiles and warm welcomes, but that soon changed. Within my early days of employment I witnessed a fellow employee get savagely fired without warning. From this moment on, every second was filled with the fear that I was going to be the next to go. Over time, I realised I wasn’t the only one living with this trepidation; the unpredictable and irrational behaviour of the directors makes them completely unapproachable, with even managers who have survived years in the company being terrified to approach the directors for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. This company is a family run business, which sounds great until you realise that the directors were handed the company by their parents and do not have the training or skills to successfully manage employees. Belittling employees and making staff cry in an open plan office was not uncommon. Maybe this is why the staff turnover at this company is extortionately high. For the entire time I wasted at this company I was never formally provided with the details of a Human Resources contact or the process should I have any issues within the organisation. I learnt through other employees that the HR was outsourced to a good friend of one of the directors. This explains why no matters could be (and never were) raised. Dare to say something and you were sure to be fired. The only regulation they seem to be aware of is that you can be fired from the company for ANY reason if you have worked at a company for less than two years, with no standing for unfair dismissal. If you have worked at Access Hardware for more than two years and they decide they don’t want you anymore they will “manage you out of the company”. There is no happy way out. There are numerous recruitment agencies that won’t work with this company due to their rash firing customs and unprofessional manner. During a phone call (which the whole open plan office could hear) a recruitment agency was asked if a prospective customer service employee (who had the perfect CV for the role) had a foreign accent due to concerns of sounding like an overseas call centre. The hours you are contracted are insignificant. If you arrive to work less than 15 minutes BEFORE your start time you are considered late. An extra 30 minutes of work at the start of the day before your start time is the least that is expected. Don’t even consider leaving at your contracted finish time. Regardless of out-of-work commitments you need to meet, leaving on time will be met with raised eyebrows and grounds for disciplinary action for poor time management. Be sure not to ask questions, ever. This will be seen as weakness and used against you for your entire time at the company. Don’t worry about needing to come up with creative ideas or suggestions, these are sure to be shot down without consideration. The all-controlling directors will also not trust you with any form of responsibility or creative freedom in your role. Be prepared to be given absolutely zero recognition for any work you do. Chances are your manager will take it to the directors and neglect to credit your name. Your manager may tell you privately how great your work is but you can be certain that they will not back you up if questioned by a director, the fear of saying a word that doesn’t agree with a director comes before all loyalty. You won’t be able to make any friends with other employees. If directors spot you talking too much to someone they will manipulate everything to prevent friendship, the times you are told to go on lunch will suddenly change and projects you were working on together will be reassigned. I witnessed this happen multiple times throughout my employment. I hope that this review can save at least one person from working for this disgraceful organisation. N.B. Access Hardware own a company called Handle King which is run from the same office under the dictatorship of the same directors. Do not be fooled into working for either company.