BT Group reviews

3.7

68% would recommend to a friend

(10,830 total reviews)
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Allison Kirkby

73% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

BT Group has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 10,830 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The BT Group employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Telecomunicaciones industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

11K reviews
1.0
Feb 13, 2014

Loss of direction.

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company has some good technology, but there is very little chance of using it as they struggle to sell it. When you do get to use it, BT is so standardized you only learn their method of implementation.

Cons

Salries, bonuses, and compensation are horrendous. This was a positive factor 5 years ago but now the company, as it loses revenue, is cutting labor costs and is even outsourcing their own labor as they outsource other companies IT services. BT advertises Work / Life Balance and offer a lot of time off but it is extremely difficult to use that time and they will not roll it over to following years. Senior management has been replaced several times for bad vision / direction and a new set of executive managers have just taken over with yet another failed vision. The culture went from a fun place to work (6 years ago) to a very stressful place to work as they pressure employees to work more hours, do more training which will not be put to use, and let you know that cheaper labor is across the border. Salaried employees have to keep strict accounting of time spent on training, meetings, account work, days off, etc and report it in a time booking website. If you book your time a little late you fall in the ranking system of the managers and become the next target for termination which happens often. Many good people have been terminated for missing timesheet entries. They rank everyone based on time entry, the amount of training you do, reports of your work, etc. The ranking has nothing to do with customer satisfaction or your abilities at your job. The management will tell you that all of the extra stuff is now part of your job and will be used in the constant evaluation process that never seems to end.

1.0
Nov 4, 2013

Frustrating and stressful

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There's reasonable job security, and I worked with some decent people. You get free broadband. There is the possibility to learn a lot about telecommunications if you are in the right role. I had a good work-life balance, though I know others who didn't.

Cons

BT absolutely 'misled' me regarding what the job entailed, meaning I was left doing a job in which I wasn't interested and which didn't offer the development that I had been promised. Managers seemed to treat everyone as a numbered resource first and a person second, so felt they were completely within their rights to do so. Most of these managers seemed like decent people who were just used to the company working that way. I know other ex-BT employees who went through the same experience. I know far too many people off work with stress, or just managing to cope with it. There seem to be several reasons for this including over-work and not being listened to. One colleague was working weekends to keep up with the workload, and was also asked on more than one occasion to do work while on leave. BT is a very bureaucratic organisation with an enormous middle-management layer. It is also a technology company run by non-technical retail managers with little feel for technology, meaning that promising projects just peter out; there was a very large cut in the research budget/ department after one of the commercial arms made a large loss. There is quite a significant "personality culture", meaning that who you know and how much you swagger seem to have more of an impact on progression than your ability to add value for the customer.

1.0
Sep 27, 2013

Poor morale

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- There are individuals within the mess that are willing to do their best.

Cons

- The performance management process is tainted. Talented individuals are purposefully marked down to meet the need for a "normal distribution". It's unfair and demotivating. It promotes a culture of fear and a culture of blame. Managers are forced in to providing unfair ratings or risk a poor rating themselves. The union is strongly considering some sort of action on this as it has become a growing problem. - As such, work-life balance is poor. Individuals do not want to risk getting a poor performance marking. Those that do try and maintain a balance are resented by the rest that are working tooth and nail to stay afloat. - Despite giving the impression of being THE Communications expert, only the most senior staff are allowed to work from home. Ordinary staff are having their work-life balance disrupted by forcing them in to the office. - Cost-cutting has resulted in leavers not being replaced. Staff are unable to cope with the workload. Mental health is suffering as a result. - If you're not part of the 'inner circle' or liked by them, you're not going to progress very far.

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