Web Summit

Formative but frightening - Anonymous employee Web Summit Employee Review

1.0

3 Apr 2020

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Working here was a very formative time but also a real eye opener into why companies have things such as HR and feedback policies. The best thing about it was the connections made both with other staff and conference speakers, media, contractors, etc. You do end up with a wide network as a result of the nature of working for a conference with such broad scope, which is beneficial as long as you remind yourself to keep stock of that and utilise it when the time is right.

Cons

The sheer lack of any employee welfare policies while I worked here was frightening. At the time, the first HR manager walked out on the job, another employee entered a screaming match with the founder so loud that the office had to be cleared out to allow them to settle it, another employee threw a laptop across the room during a town hall and these are just a handful of incidents. Salaries were also borderline below minimum wage for the hours works and when I questioned the possibility of a rise after a year, I was taken into a tiny storage room where my direct manager intimidated me, threatening me with the founder’s “wrath” if I was to continue asking about salaries. However, I continued to ask and was subsequently summoned by the founder and basically told I should feel #blessed to have the honour of working for such an organisation and money shouldn’t matter... Sadly, I can’t live off my family’s earnings so this was the last straw for me and I left.

Web Summit Response

Hi there, I’ve read your response and I am disappointed to hear about your experience of working at Web Summit a number of years ago. I started with the company over 5 years ago and since then there have been huge changes in our culture and the company. I can’t comment on the exact situations that you have brought up however you do state that “The sheer lack of any employee welfare policies while I worked here was frightening.” I can unequivocally state that we have an extremely strong People Operations and Human Resources team with ten people including myself. We put our employees' needs at the forefront of the business at all times. You state that “At the time, the first HR manager walked out on the job” Our Head of HR has worked for the company for the past three years and is extremely well respected throughout the company. I will say however that we are also improving in every way and our Human Resources team has become stronger over the years and the company as a whole is continuously improving all the time and is different to what it was when you were here many years ago. You also made reference to salaries - we are 100% in line with standard salaries and have improved them over the past four years. If you have any further comments please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our People Operations team at peopleoperations@cilabs.com Thanks Eleanor.

Formative but frightening - Anonymous employee Web Summit Employee Review

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