I've worked for EF for a number years. It has been great, but I haven't been comfortable with several aspects of their business, which I find to be morally indefensible. There is a culture in EF of not highlighting the bad bits of the company, because the founding family, the Hults, have built almost a cult of personality around themselves. If you ever get a chance to go to one of their offices, check it out, it's like being in North Korea with pictures of the Hults everywhere! EF has made many staff redundant during the coronavirus crisis, but even though we get regular emails from the Hults offering support during this difficult time, they will never acknowledge the work of the people they let go. They leave the dirty work to the managers lower down the food chain.
The cult of personality in my opinion, masks deeply amoral leadership. To take one example, EF pay barely any tax, despite making billions for the Hult family. They are structured across lots of small local subsidiary companies, which don't touch any money, and won't appear on invoices and contracts. These are all done through the Swiss holding company. Even though the company makes millions around the world, they pay a fraction of the tax they should. That's all perfectly legal, but during coronavirus crisis I read in the FT that EF have been using taxpayer bailouts to lower the cost of making their staff redundant! The same company that pays almost nothing in tax in the countries where it operates comes begging to the government when things turn rough!
This is just the latest in a pattern of behaviour. The founder, Bertil Hult, has appeared in the Panama Papers and is the owner of a number of private jets, and Philip, his son, lives in a multimillion pound mansion in London. I've even heard rumours that IT had a project to build a system to allocate pilots to the private jets more efficiently. In my opinion, the family have looted the company and the taxpayer and now display some nerve going to the state for help.
At staff parties (of which there are many, always loads of fun) I always make a point to shake Philip's hand. I'm always struck by how soft it is, as if he hasn't done a day of work in his entire life. If you ever get a job at EF, I recommend you try shake at least one Hult's hand. You'll never feel softer skin.
And I should also add one thing that I find morally repugnant. The company has absolutely no position on climate change because their main driver of revenue is to fly people around the world on their expensive package tours. The offices have posters everywhere asking you to recycle and save the planet but nobody is allowed to question the bigger problem that we work for a company that makes millions destroying the planet. Thankfully, coronavirus has destroyed this aspect of the business and I would be very happy to see it gone forever.
