1. They haven't got a clue what they are doing as an organisation. Constant restructuring makes it impossible to keep up with who's who and what's what.
2. A reactive rather than proactive approach...to everything.
3. Their graduate programme entices you in with promises of great and effective training, worldwide placements. In reality, training is difficult to secure, and is on a first come first served basis so others end up getting it before you even though it may be more relevant to you. As for foreign placements, this is very very rare, although this is understandable in the current climate.
4. Good luck getting a meaningful reference from them. They only give a standard factual HR reference that confirms the dates you worked there. They are within their rights to do this unfortunately. Best to agree something with your line manager to see if they will give you a personal reference from a personal email account or non-company letter-head paper.
5. HR are very inefficient, and really are just there for the company. Do not trust anyone in HR.
6. Some teams value ego over integrity. Reporting scientific facts will be rejected if it disagrees with a previous interpretation from one of the old boys club.
7. The fact that there is an old boys club...and many younger men's clubs too.
8. Their diversity and inclusion policy. Sure, they hire from a diverse range. They just seem to have a massive problem retaining the diversity.
9. Bullying - it is rife. The development review process is often used by bullying supervisors and managers in their favour - it takes a very sharp and exceptionally non-naive employee to make sure they can a) spot dishonesty in their managers comments and appraisal, and b) document the heck out of everything they do and use it to their advantage in the development review process. Most of the time managers are looking to just get this annoying piece of admin out of the way, but a manager not delivering their expectations can try to pass this off on the employee and this is what I'm talking about.
