Toxic work place, toxic culture, toxic management - Energy Specialist Octopus Energy Employee Review

1.0
9 Jun 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work with nice colleagues, no other real benefit's

Cons

The entire culture is toxic at present. The business is straining every ounce of productivity out of everyone and it’s mentally draining, absence levels are insane and it’s because everyone is so drained and management are so far out of touch with reality. Octopus has taken on significantly more than they can handle, they exclaim to the industry they can do more with less and while this is true. No one is a miracle worker and the idea that you can manage a 7.5m customer base with 4.5k staff circa is nonsense. Incentives created on a whim with unrealistic and frankly obscene KPI’s Absolutely no transparency to the hiring/ progress pathway outwith who’s face fits and who’s face does not fit and decided by certain people who seem to have a large say in this, the people who do manage to progress are always certain favourites. Management expecting people to stay behind and work overtime dolled up as “ late working “ as they don’t actually pay overtime, for a £25 uber eats, however expect to be scrutinised for everything you have done if you do choose to take advantage of this. Good luck reaching out because behind closed doors no one wants to know, the only time both customer and employee related they want to know is when it goes public as they are so concerned about their image to the public, a marketing machine, a marketing gimmick!!! Bulb Energy once made headlines in the Telegraph for having such a toxic work culture, it would appear Octopus want to foster this culture as it’s no different and actually worst at this stage. Management could not manage to order a set of drinks in a bar, never mind manage the business and it shows! Overall I would suggest you stay well clear of this job right now The response to this review will be as follows “ we are sorry you feel this way etc etc , please reach out on this email confidentially” I can assure you that is not the case at all, totally laughable from top to bottom at the minute.

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Octopus Energy Response
11mo
Hello! Thanks for taking the time to leave your review, we really appreciate you doing this. I'm sorry to hear of some of your concerns regarding our growth, and the workload. Octopus has grown at a fast pace but our model enables this. The model means we can give brilliant service as reflected in our Trustpilot rating, but also make sure we look after our employees by balancing the customer numbers per team member at the right level. Our people are the core to us being able to deliver the service that we are renowned for, and their happiness is incredibly important to us so a lot of focus is put into supporting our teams wellbeing. We use Officevibe to gather feedback from our team members so we can continue to develop further and we also welcome feedback directly - whether you'd want to attend a drop-in, send a slack message or arrange a 1-1 chat to talk through any ideas or concerns. If there is more you think we can do to help manage any stress then I'd love to talk to you about ideas. Regarding progression, we have Skills Academy where our team members can specialise, and we also have other areas that our team members can develop and help in such as recruitment, onboarding and L&D. Your TL and OM can support you with your interests and how to progress in these areas. Finally with incentives, we use incentives at regular points throughout the year when we understand that workloads may be busier to recognise our employees being able to maintain the service levels we are proud of. However, we don't want to do these too often as its also important that our team members get the right work/life balance. If you'd like to talk more about any of these areas please do reach out to me on slack if you'd be happy for us to get some time in. Best wishes Kim Downs Head of Operations Octopus Energy

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5.0
7 Dec 2025
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CEO approval
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Pros

good leave, steady employement, enough lateral movement

Cons

lots of politics, people can be nosey, leadership is a good ol boys club

1
1.0
13 Dec 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some members of the company are the best people you’ll ever meet.

Cons

Genuinely a complete mess. Incompetent, passive aggressive leadership that repeatedly makes both poor and confusing company decisions. I have some absolutely crazy stories from things I’ve witnessed here. There’s things that are so bizarre and dysfunctional, they belong in an alternate reality.

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