Funko Reviews

Where do I start? My reason for leaving was poor management - a big chunk of the senior staff don't have a clue and only got to where they got through unsavory means. Bullying, gaslighting, throwing people under the bus for management's problems are all standard processes. Inappropriate ways of speaking to staff, and unrealistic expectations on workload - as others have said, no real solid deadlines, everything is needed immediately with no tangible way to prioritise what is most important. Told I was a highly valued employee one day and then accused of not doing any work the next when I only sent my line manager one email on a particular day (for context - a day after coming back from leave and trying my best to work through the 600-odd emails I'd been left with over a 2 day break). Due to the lack of actual qualifications or experience, a number of the managers have no clue what they're talking about - budgets that in no way align to the project, no real understanding of the market they're working in and therefore unable to advise or support a team of skilled individuals. Frequently absent. Most of the emails I got from my line manager were things they'd forwarded saying 'fyi'. Never set any actual goals or anything to work towards, I would set my own targets (which is far from ideal - I want to be challenged!). Workload issues are consistent across the entire business - everyone is expected to pick up 3-4 full time employees worth of work. They'll tell you they value work life balance in one breath and will send you emails at 11pm, asking why you didn't reply to it at 6am in the next breath. Asking for additional support - even when you stress the business needs outside of just personal ones - is met with 'yeah, well do that' and it never materialises. As a team of one, I was told for a year I'd get extra help that never materialised, and somehow they were still surprised when I left. The lack of resource across the board impacts everyone's ability to do their job - products go out late or not at all, stuff gets lost often - management always gets the product to the big suppliers (and will happily poach from other, smaller businesses orders) with a snap of their fingers while other businesses wait 12+ months for a product they'd paid for to arrive - and when it does arrive, it's crushed beyond repair. The product itself has really lowered in quality too - they're really proud of their high speed to market for products but this has naturally set a precedent where paintwork is shoddy, figures don't stand up, or sculpts are just plain lazy (hello repaints of the same design x8). Honestly, the whole thing is just a mess. I really, really wanted to make it work for me, as did many others, but they're going through another mass exodus currently because there's only so much people can take. At the point that I realised this job was actually making me unwell, I started looking. No job should be like that. Not long before I left, people just kept 'disappearing'; whenever an explanation was asked for, a blatant lie was told. If you're going to fire someone, be honest about it and don't pretend it was a mutual decision between both parties. Constantly walking on egg shells, knowing if you make a suggestion management doesn't like you could be out the door without any notice before you know it. And of course, the classic one - no perks. Good luck getting time in lieu back. Good luck getting free or discounted product. Good luck getting Christmas off (even if the US does). Good luck getting any benefits whatsoever.

Honestly i feel like there are too many. There is a serious lack of direction or strategy in place. This is possibly driven by the fact that amongst the senior leaders there are a number of them who are just 'yes (wo)men'. They have no real motivation for improving things, just having witch hunts to blame people when things go wrong. They come across as pretty clueless to what is going on so end up getting involved in the detail of everything needlessly, making meetings overrun or just generally turning up late to meetings. Then they had the cheek to put in a policy to make 1hour meetings 50 minutes to manage time better, despite being the leading reason why people were late in the first place. The strategy comes across like they are just making it up as they go along, and even though a lot of the product development has been thought through by US counterparts they like to avoid following it and making up their own rules, not because of a better understanding of the EMEA nuances, but just because they didn't bother to engage with the US to understand the product properly in the first place. One of the senior leaders has the job because they are having a romantic relationship with another senior manager. And they're not subtle about it. They are massively underqualified and often at the centre of the drama amongst other senior leaders. But because of their relationship this is overlooked. There are far too many who have a "we've always done it that way" approach so don't bother to update or improve because they arrogantly believe they are right, then scratch their head later wondering why it keeps going wrong. Across sales there is a really worrying lack of compliance and standardisation. Whilst there is a few diamonds in the rough willing to improve, the large majority has no interest in planning activity for marketing and supply chain and will often then complain later when it goes wrong and don't seem to make the connection as to why that might be. But it's not just sales where that attitude comes forth, other divisions will constantly pass the buck on work and claim it doesn't sit with them. Culturally there are some really worrying habits. Senior staff members make too many derogatory comments about women and appearances, and all too often myself and others have heard others mocking people's accents and they way that they talk. The weaker middle management don't stand up and speak up about it and sometimes brown nose senior management by encouraging that behaviour. Senior management will say that they are all about a work-life balance but email you at night with a next morning deadline. All too often I'd get my inbox filled on the weekend with no real understanding of my workloads or how long the task that they've asked for will take. Then because it's usually related to a blame exercise/witch hunt, once I've done the work no real action will be taken from it. So not only did they rush you to do a task, it was meaningless and petty and massively encroached in my personal time. Last year during covid we went through a restructure as the general understanding was that the business was struggling due to the loss of business. Loads of people lost their jobs, yet 2019's and 2020's bonuses were paid out, some of which were £5,10,20k+. That could have been someone's salary and one less person let go. On top of that, they proudly posted on many public forums about how successful our Q4 was which seems like a horrible slap in the face to many who had lost their jobs. The people who didn't lose their jobs but who's workloads increased because they lost a colleague are just treated horribly because they are expected to pick up the work of 2-3 others. HR are ineffective and are essentially an arm of the business that are in it to help shield senior management. The amount of complaints I had seen raised against senior management that had 0 follow up was worrying. Some people even lost their jobs for talking out of turn. Whilst some of this may have not directly happened, it was evident that as soon as they spoke out, they put a target on themselves to get managed out, rather than listened to. Do not work here. The money might be better than other places but it's not worth selling your soul