- Hostile Leadership & Lack of Transparency: The company is run by a CEO and CTO who are a married couple—a fact that is not clearly disclosed to new hires during the interview process. This creates a "fortress" dynamic where there is no objective management. The CEO has a volatile temper and frequently shouts at employees in the open-plan office, creating a culture of fear and high anxiety.
- Patronizing Management Style: The CTO treats professional engineers more like schoolchildren than adults. The tone is often condescending, and there is a total absence of clear benchmarks for success. When you ask for expectations or success metrics, the response is vague, making it impossible to know if you are meeting requirements until management decides to be critical.
- Extreme Micromanagement: This is a "presence-over-productivity" culture. Management is extremely particular about time spent in the office, regardless of your actual output or completion of tasks. Monitoring phone usage and a general lack of trust regarding your schedule makes the environment feel like a strict classroom.
- Payroll Dishonesty: Be extremely cautious regarding final pay. In my experience, the company attempted to short-change my final salary by falsifying the leaving date on my P45 and refusing to pay for my notice period and accrued holiday. They only rectified this "oversight" and paid the hundreds of pounds owed after I filed a Formal Grievance and a Subject Access Request.
- FYI, Be skeptical of 5-star ratings here. They appear to be written by leadership to drown out consistent, honest feedback from former staff.
