Recognition: it’s an absolute joke. People work insane hours and get very little recognition. The finance transformation team recently won a big award, which is amazing. Instead of telling us why he nominated the team for the award, the Group FC spent time talking about getting drunk at the awards ceremony. I think a lot of us would rather he spent time recognising the small wins than spending time submitting award applications or talking about getting drunk at award ceremonies. What about the rest of us who work hard to get the books closed each month or work crazy hours to get suppliers and employees paid on time? I guess if there is no award for closing month end while doing audit and while doing a major accounting system implementation, you don’t get recognition…
No HR: 5k+ employees and no HR? It’s shocking that there hasn’t been a public scandal. Managers don’t know how to be managers. They aren’t taught to show compassion or empathy. Who do you go to when you have issues with your manager? Resign, I guess.
Terrible remuneration and promotion opportunities: I had to write a business case last year in order to have my salary increased to align with three different benchmarking studies I obtained. It shouldn’t have to be so hard to get paid fairly. Drinks in the office on a Friday and hoodies don’t make up for paying staff fairly.
Drug and alcohol focused workplace in London: come Fridays, it’s a free for all with company provided drinks. Go into the loos and you’ll see people taking drugs. It’s not safe. I don’t drink, so I no longer come into the office on a Friday.
No policies or processes: yeah, it’s cool to have start-up vibes, but Octopus isn’t a start-up and people need (and want) policies and processes to guide them. The award that the finance transformation team recently won was in the enterprise category, up against Amazon… There are no policies or processes meaning that some people take the micky and get away with it. If your manager is chill, you’ll go out for team drinks and get gifts because no one polices it. Want to do some kind of professional learning? You’ll have to beg for it.
