Pros
There are some genuinely good lower-level managers who care about their teams, but they're so downtrodden by the Exec team that they're not able to make their own decisions or have their decisions overturned. There are small pockets of culture still remaining, but these are mostly from acquired businesses like TI media and Gocompare. It's nice to interact with these people but it makes you feel sad that their culture hasn't spread to the rest of Future. You'll know very quickly if this is the kind of business you want to work in. If you like fast-pace and constant change, this is the place for you. The CEO knows what shareholders want and the business is successful.
Cons
Future is extremely hierarchical and the CEO calls all the shots (even where the cost to the company is minimal - I genuinely don't know how she has time to be involved with what seems like every low-level decision). I get the impression that the Exec team hide behind and blame her when they have to make unpopular decisions (or they just don't agree and are too scared to say it to her face). Even if you're a junior employee, your Exec member has to sign off any flexible working request which is just ridiculous when they probably don't even know who you are. Work/life balance is poor. You're expected to take on an unreasonable amount of work for the hours you're contracted for and the workload just keeps increasing. The tech and systems in this business are outdated and not fit for purpose. You'll spend 4x the amount of time a simple task should take, just because of the manual workarounds you have to do. Teams also duplicate work because there's no communication as a result of everyone having too much to do. The WFH piece was poorly thought out/communicated. During the pandemic, the CEO said that working fully remotely would be an option if managers agreed to it. This was then changed to having to be back in the office at a minimum 3 days a week on days dictated by senior managers/Exec. Personally, I like having the option to work in the office and can see the value in interacting with people in person, but the way this was communicated to the business was condescending at best. Your employees are adults and understand how they work effectively. Give people the option to be flexible. Some people work best from home, others from the office - don't treat them like children when they've been making you money for the past two years working from home with no wellbeing support during a global pandemic. There is no culture. At all.
