Not a good place for minority employees - Senior Consultant The Technology Partnership Employee Review

A severe lack of diversity, and wholly non-inclusive leadership from senior managers perpetuating institutional biases is a substantial down-side. Spending time in a new company has made me appreciate even more how far behind TTP is compared to other places. TTP can be a very lonely and isolating place to be if you are anything other than a middle-class, fit and healthy, white, non-LGBTQIA+ man - but can also be isolating for some "majority" men too who feel alienated by dominating, non-inclusive leadership styles and a very pronounced lack of empathy from some of the most senior managers (behaviour which is particularly harmful from someone in a position of power). There is a culture of "toughness" which leads to overworking, and burnout of some very valuable employees - in keeping with outdated gender-biased, abelist corporate cultures where stereotypically-masculine - rather than feminine - traits gain status (e.g. competitive, confident, dominant, individualistic, athletic, not showing weakness). This company has a mean gender pay-gap of 47%, over twice that of their biggest competitor (this can be found in the "Legal" section of the website), LGBTQIA+ visibility is very low, there are no visible disabled people in the company, and racial and class diversity is very lacking. It is worth noting that few if any reviews here have mentioned the enormous gender pay gap as a "con", and only a couple have mentioned lack of diversity. This is indicative of the general lack of visible interest or awareness of such topics by many employees who don't seem to realise how far behind this company actually is - this lack of engagement can be painful for minority employees to experience, compounding their isolation. Those in marketing, HR, admin and other non-technical divisions in the company - overwhelmingly female employees - do not have the respect or status they deserve, which is painful to see (especially given that the work of women in society in general has been undervalued for so long). This is not a company that invites discussion on racial inequality, gender-bias and the like, and in the years I was in the company, provided no training on unconscious gender-bias, racial-bias, class-bias, disability or LGBT inclusion. There are no written anti-discrimination policies. There is no time-in-lieu, no sabbaticals, flexible working and working from home is barely tolerated - and the company does not appear to have understood how this can particularly disadvantage those with health-problems, disabilities, or neuro-atypical people (for whom working in a busy open office may be particularly stressful). Asking for flexibility typically required "proving" why it was needed in ways that the (unempathetic) managers could understand - a harmful experience when a vigorous intellectual debate and disbelief is the response. The lack of any mention of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on the website is generally in keeping with the reality of the culture (as is the overtly masculine branding design aesthetic of the website itself). The HR team are making significant efforts to improve diversity but there is an implicit sense of "I don't see colour/difference, I treat everyone the same" vibe about the approach so far so it doesn't appear as though the concept of equity is being applied - at the time of writing, the DEI statement in the job-ads does not mention any marginalised groups, consistent with the fact that there was little to no mention of race/disability/LGBTQIA+ within the DEI strategy or policies. The focus almost solely on women (the largest and most vocal minority) in the DEI strategy feels like classic "white feminism", isolating some minority employees further rather than being inclusive, a very confusing situation. Meaningful discussions about racial/gender/class/institutional-bias or the ways in which unconscious stereotyping can disadvantage minority employees simply aren't being had - which is upsetting given the 47% gender-pay-gap, the almost entirely cis-het white male management, and more than one senior manager insisting that they don't have bias (showing deep lack of understanding). Some minority employees are compromising their own wellbeing to try to support/promote conversations about bias - disadvantaging and isolating them still further within the company. Senior managers rarely support DEI-related events such as International Women's Day, or Mental Health events, some even saying they are "too busy" to do so. Although I think many employees would actually care about these things, most people are in such a state of overwork that they simply don't have time to care (symptomatic of how the company has prioritised profit over the wellbeing of their own people - they probably believe that they care about employee wellbeing but this is not meaningful if the work-culture continues to be non-inclusive and to compromise wellbeing). Employees are also so stretched that technical development is surprisingly difficult to come by after the first couple of years in the company - this renders efforts to support professional development to be much less effective than they need to be in order to actually empower people. So, the impact of business decisions and the profound impact of certain leadership styles and actually ensuring all employees are given the space and time to engage in and think about DEI are the things that need to be truly reflected upon if creating an inclusive environment is to be anything other than lip-service. Showing clear accountability for repeatedly harmful unempathetic behaviour from the most senior people is fundamental, but yet to happen - as is explaining what the route into a management position actually is, and how unconscious bias is being mitigated in this. There are a small number of female team-leads in the lowest management levels who have worked very hard to get there, but they are actually sometimes tokenised as "proof" that women can succeed at TTP (thereby effectively blaming the other women and minorities who didn't succeed). I would not recommend this as a place for those who may be in a minority/marginalised demographic, or for those who place high value on empathetic inclusive leadership, beyond maybe just coming here for a couple of years of experience.