No employment representation
Pros
If you are money driven, they give money away freely and CEO has no issues with giving away lots of free stuff- parties, fruit and alcohol in the office, sanitary products for woman- so in that sense they seem very generous but it's all a facade to make you think they care when they don't.
Cons
Just to close down the assumption that because they are happy to spend money freely means you will be paid well, you won't because base pay just passes minimum/living wage and to get a pay rise is near impossible. No HR department so there is no employment representation and dispite what Greg (CEO) says proudly on the BBC, they aren't a small, family like company, they are large enough for employees to become a second thought. They have no concept of work/life balence and WILL ask you to give up your evenings and weekends to get endless work done rather then employ more people. No departments means everything is put of whoever gets the call or email and the few specialists there are, aren't given the necessary time and support to answer queries- complicated queries which includes but not limited to smart queries, can take 12-18 weeks to be resolved because no one knows how to fix it. It is the most chaotic company I have ever worked for and unless you are desperate and it's your first job, don't work at octopus because it will ruin your life. Also, with no HR department, favouritism is a huge problem, not just between management and employee's who are friends but offices- London and Brighton have the most people who are fully invested in the whole octopus ethos of working to the point of exhaustion and sickness and so naturally whenever there is a company wide incentive, teams in those offices win, every.single.time. Its a race Warwick and Leicester cannot ever win because they have normal people that actually value their sanity.