Strong business, weak leadership and a culture built on favouritism - Middle Management Role Flagstone Employee Review

Thank you for taking the time to write this. It's detailed and direct, and it deserves a genuine response rather than a formulaic one. We are a values-led organisation, which means we hold ourselves accountable when our actions don't match our intentions. Some of what you've described reflects a period of significant growth and transition — we grew our headcount by 30% in 2025, and we're honest enough to acknowledge that scale of growth brings real organisational challenge. Processes, communication, and culture all come under pressure when a business expands at that pace, and we put every effort into making every part of that journey as smooth as it could be. On performance and calibration: our new performance framework was built directly from feedback from across the business. Our intent was clear — make the process more inclusive, reduce unconscious bias, and create something more transparent for everyone going through it. In practice that means clearer criteria, more meaningful input, and a calibration process that is objective and less dependent on individual manager context. It represents a genuine step forward from where we were, and we'll keep evolving it. We're committed to merit-based advancement and we take seriously the perception — and reality — that relationships can influence outcomes. Perception shapes culture as much as intent does, and we're looking closely at how we assess internal candidates and communicate decisions. We have invested a significant amount into diversity and inclusivity over the past 24 months, and we continue to do so – and likewise, we are continuing to evolve our internal mobility process. On pay transparency, our Engineering salary bandings are going live now - a first step, not a final one. By the end of 2026, all of our salary bands will be published which is an important step for us – we want to be ahead of the curve, but most importantly, we want to build high levels of trust – a fundamental part of our culture. If people feel that speaking honestly is later used against them, that is a direct failure of our values, and I’m disappointed to hear that we have failed you here and not created the necessary psychological safety. We are driving a high-performance culture and feedback is openly encouraged, both ways, across the business. Your feedback helps us identify where the gap exists. We will continue to invest here. We recognise that rapid scaling can create the feeling of instability, and we're mindful of the knowledge and continuity pressures that come with bringing a large number of new people into the business in a short period of time. That's something we're actively managing, and we have been fortunate, through targeted investment, for our turnover to remain stable, even throughout the period of significant headcount growth. I’m sorry that you had a poor experience with us, and I’m especially sorry given we pride ourselves on our culture. We take this feedback as a challenge to close the gap between our values and our practice — and we welcome direct conversations with anyone who wants to engage constructively.