You could be fired at a moments notice with no previous warnings.
Pros
Lower level colleagues were generally nice to get on with. Office had a nice view of St peters Square. Office Morale was good, until the managing director took more of an interest in the business at the start of the pandemic.
Cons
I was fired after 20 months of working at this company without a single verbal, written warning or disciplinary meeting. One morning after arriving 20 minutes late (I had told my line manager 40 minutes earlier and he said everything was fine) I was taken into the office by the managing director and fired on the spot. She said I didn't respect the company and that I should leave, but not before I sat and listened to a bizarre 10-minute tirade about why I was being fired and then why I’m too good for this job? The reasons were: - I was rocking my leg in a staff meeting then when I was asked to stop, I was fidgeting my hands, I explained that I do that because i have a diagnosed anxiety disorder and was told "I've heard these excuses before" so the managing director doesn't believe in diagnosed mental illnesses. - I was late twice since coming back from a 5-month furlough, the first time was my first day back to the office (we had just moved to a new office that I hadn't been to before and were told not to use public transport) so I was 5 minutes late after walking a considerable distance to the new office. The second time was the day I was fired, I had to attend to a family matter in the morning and told my line manager 40 minutes beforehand that I would be late, and he said it was fine. Managing director said that I had made contact 10 minutes before my shift started and when I went to retrieve my phone to prove it was 40 minutes I was told "don't get your phone out now you can do that when you leave this meeting" which I did once I had left the building and sent her proof directly which she responded with "ok *name* I acknowledge you weren't lying, that was my error I was looking at the time you called *line manager* yesterday which was 8.49am" and the reason I was calling him was because he was late and we were waiting outside the office. - I didn't wear my work t shirt one day because my spare shirts were in my drawer in the old office and hadn't been moved to the drawers in the new office, and they weren't even the only thing that had gone missing, a colleague has some expensive collectable cards in his drawer that mysteriously went missing too. Admittedly I was late twice since coming back from furlough, but no consideration when I was 30+ minutes early for my shift which was about 80% of the time I had worked here. I was taken into the office with no one to accompany me or be my witness, and told for 5 minutes the reasons why I was being fired and why I didn't respect the company etc. Then the managing director spent the next 5 minutes telling me things like "You have just graduated university with a 1st class honours, you should have quit this job the day you found that out", "you're too good to be sat here on the first line you should be getting jobs in America" like we live in some sort of fairy tale world where I didn't have to pay rent and food to put on my table. There are 3 directors at this company, but in fact the other two are glorified personal assistants. All you have to do is look at the 3 positive reviews that were posted on the same day to know they're not genuine. The one from the commercial director even says “This doesn’t suit anyone” After I was fired from the company two of my ex-colleagues left for new jobs, I was then sent a weak cease and desist order insinuating that I was the reason they left as if they weren’t grown adults with minds of their own, they were already looking for new jobs before I was fired but stepped it up a gear after seeing they could be fired on the spot without any form of disciplinaries. They also said in the cease and desist that they would come after me for recruitment fees if I carried on talking in a WhatsApp group chat that didn’t exist and they didn’t provide any proof of. A solicitor’s comment on the Cease and desist letter: “I have received and responded to numerous pre-action letters over the years. Without exaggeration, this is among the worst I’ve ever seen. From a professional standpoint it’s nothing short of embarrassing.” Every 6 months you’re supposed to have a pay review, but this doesn’t happen, you have to actively pursue this and even then, they’re reluctant to speak to you regarding it. The pay is also dire, I do the same job now at a new company and make almost 6k more than I did here, I currently make more as a 1st line than most 2nd lines do here, which is an example of how poorly they pay staff. They will talk a lot about putting you through certifications etc and not follow through with those promises. So, if you want to be paid a real salary, and not fired at a moments notice with no other previous warnings and purely for personal reasons, then I would suggest looking elsewhere.
