Torchbox Reviews

4.0

73% would recommend to a friend

(36 total reviews)

73% positive business outlook

Torchbox has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 36 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Torchbox employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

36 reviews
1.0
24 Aug 2023

A disappointing experience

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Bonus scheme, some of the social activities

Cons

On the face of it a noble organisation, but underneath it all there are a number of concerning attitudes and practices. There are some very inexperienced and poor managers who deal with situations in a very immature and unprofessional manner. Workloads are unnecessarily high, and senior management assume that it's wise to load people up with work until they crumble. Which makes it no different to every other agency (aside from the clients.) I notice lots of positive reviews which i am sure come from middle managers who have been asked to add "honest" reviews regarding workloads. SMT are often disparaging and quasi corporate in their attitude to teams, showing little respect for those doing the work and are offen openly negative, even when they have very little understanding of the discipline. Overall, there is a lack of focus on career development and training and the priority from managers is that employees just process as much work as possible with a smile on their face because they should feel lucky to have a job here.

1.0
29 Jun 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free vegan lunches on Wednesdays. Likeable founders. Employee ownership started just as left - this may have led to some improvements. I hope so.

Cons

Where to start? There's another review on here regarding the Marketing team that I completely concur with (I almost wondered if I'd written it!). From the way the company talk about themselves, you'd imagine you'd be working in a friendly, open and supportive culture. However, the exact opposite is true within the Marketing team. I've had a few years to cool off and I'm still aggrieved by how I was treated throughout my time there. I was a complete novice to digital marketing when I joined and, within about 2 months, was running my own accounts and billing hours for them. Good work was not recognised and the inevitable mistakes that a novice would make were dealt with harshly (I was threatened with gross misconduct for being late with a client report - no performance management or constructive support with that). Most startling was the complete lack of awareness or sensitivity to managing people as the other review mentioned. I can say first hand, it's even worse for those who are managing mental health challenges. I told my line manager I was experiencing some difficulties (perhaps understandable given the culture I'd walked into) and their response was to inform HR without my consent who then grilled me for an hour about the nature of it. The outcome was something along the lines of 'keep talking to us'. In order for that to happen, you have to have trust and they'd done nothing to suggest I could trust them. And no reasonable adjustments or concrete actions were agreed as an outcome. The pressure to keep billing hours high continued and the volume of work and accounts steadily increased. More widely, there was a strange cliquey culture throughout the company. I've listed free lunches on Wednesday as a pro but it was also intensely socially awkward at times as we did that as a whole company who had very little connection to the marketing team. I often felt excluded from conversations both inside and outside of my team and there was a marked contrast in the togetherness of some teams versus how my team operated. Also, don't believe the hype about skiing trips - those stopped some years ago when I joined but they still say they do it. Perhaps they've resumed? My salary was very poor but I've noticed they've now put salary ranges on their jobs page and look far better now.

1.0
13 Dec 2024

Worst place I’ve ever worked

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible working culture and focus on wellbeing. Some genuinely talented people working in the project teams. The charities they work with can be lovely.

Cons

Toxic leadership that makes you want to run a mile, as so many people have this year. The company operates in a clique that promote themselves to maintain the status quo. Good luck if you’re not part of the inner circle. They spent months working on a new strategy that landed in a chaotic way with little hope of success. The company has just about scraped a profit but only because so many people have left, lowering their cost base.

avatar
Torchbox Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We’re sorry to hear that your experience with Torchbox didn’t meet your expectations. While it’s difficult to read reviews like this, we take all feedback seriously and use it as an opportunity to reflect and improve. We’re proud of our flexible working culture, our focus on wellbeing, and the incredible work our teams do to support mission-driven organisations. It’s good to hear that you appreciated these aspects of your time here too. However, it’s clear from your review that there were areas where we fell short for you. We acknowledge that periods of change, such as launching a new strategy, can be challenging and may not always land as smoothly as we would hope. While we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive environment, we recognise that there’s always room to grow in ensuring everyone feels supported and valued. As an employee owned trust we’re continuing to work hard to increase transparency, strengthen communication and create clear pathways for all team members to thrive. Torchbox is committed to continuous improvement, and our leadership team is listening to and acting on feedback from employees past and present. We’re sad that your time with us didn’t reflect the experience we aim for as an employee owned company, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
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Glassdoor has 37 Torchbox reviews submitted anonymously by Torchbox employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Torchbox is right for you.