BT Group reviews

Since lockdowns ended, and a few years prior really, BT has been a hostile environment operating a culture of fear in its workforce. BT Group's top priority is keeping shareholders happy. There's two ways to do that it seems; increase profit or cut costs (ie fire people). The leadership have repeatedly failed at increasing sales/profit, so the easy route is always to fire people. The senior management flit in and out of post, with a lifespan of 1-2 years. In this time they will kick off a 're-org', mainly for the sake of looking like they have done something on their CV before hopping to another company and leaving the workforce to manage the fallout. Hence you will likely be subjected to a re-org in your area, and impacted by another with your key stakeholders each year. The 'better workplace' programme combined with enforcing 3 days in office (even for completely remote teams/roles) are cynically used as part of this process to manage people out of the business. "Your job is still there; but you have to do it in this office 2+ hours away. For reasons." The combination of these factors mean you will be lucky to have 1 or 2 months a year where you are not actively afraid of losing your job. The rest of the time, when you are not worrying about justifying your existence, it is extremely challenging to deliver anything meaningful. You constantly find people are no longer there to provide things you needed, or you might deliver something to find it is no longer needed due to the latest shift in strategy. BT has systematically been driving out talent and experience because they are easy outliers on an HR spreadsheet, and because of an executive class who substitute visible action for a sensible plan. The company will remain on a downward slope until this culture at the top changes. It's an environment I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and I remain purely out of loyalty to the few colleagues left standing and the rare fortune of line management who have so far shielded me from HR's attention.

Senior leadership remains steadfast in perpetuating destructive behaviours and a culture of blaming in Consumer Digital. Directors belittle and demean individuals during meetings. The place is all about hierarchy and authority - land of HIPPO or Stakeholder Centered Design. The workforce is burdened to the point of exhaustion; Yet leadership remained apathetic to the team's well-being - Countless individuals resort to sick leave and quiet quitting due to the poisonous environment - and new joiners and colleagues have to work extremely harder to compensate. Developers find themselves detached from product teams strategically. the absence of any coherent plan makes collaboration impossible. User Researchers are manipulated to validate ideas and are frequently silenced. Design serves merely as superficial ornamentation. While there are a few nice people, the culture is awful. In this environment, institutional racism thrives daily, with women and disabled individuals facing discrimination - the opposite of the ESG marketing speech you see on LinkedIn.