I joined this company ignoring the negative reviews here because I thought 'those are probably from people who couldn't do their jobs and were bitter about it'. Boy was I wrong. There are probably too many cons to mention but from my experience the main ones are as follows. NO TRAINING. Regardless of your role, you will receive minimal training and guidance. I was shown how to do straightforward tasks and processes only, then left to it. The rest of the time, I only received criticism on my work, which is not without value, but a pre-emptive approach would save so much time and stress later on. When I asked for resources and guides I was told to create my own, despite being new to my role. There is nothing else to support you otherwise, like elearning or other role-specific training. I took free online modules in related topics during my own time to try and improve, because I didn't know what else to do. When your performance inevitably falls short, they blame you for not trying hard enough. It's like they're setting you up to fail and then blaming you for their shortcomings in failing to train you. POOR MANAGEMENT. Senior managers are often unqualified and unskilled, and do not receive training on how to lead, motivate or inspire others. They will tend to just assign you work, and then either micromanage you or ignore you completely with no happy medium. Ignoring is the favourite strategy, though. As an example, the company has an annual employee engagement survey which they claim is anonymous, but from how colleagues have been treated since then, I strongly suspect they try to figure out what you've written and - if unfavourable - you'll probably experience retaliation in some way, like reduced commission or bonuses, which comes across quite petty. During my time, most of the survey comments were about wanting more training, and over a year on, absolutely nothing has changed. Managers will claim their "door is always open" but if you do approach them with any issues, you'll probably be labelled as a problem, fall out of favour, and the only thing that will change is your credible reputation and being denied bonuses. If you have creative ideas or improvement suggestions, they'll probably be ignored if it breaks the mold of how they do things. Basically, senior managers cannot take feedback on board at all. It's their way or the highway. INEQUALITY. Drewberry exudes the culture of a boys' club. If you're a straight white man who knows what to wear on a yacht (which we were advised was the summer dress code), or if you're a finance bro who brings in a lot of business, you'll probably join the "in-club" (which I have no doubt are the source of the positive reviews for this company). If you have any protected characteristics like race, gender, sexuality, or disability, you're in for a bumpy ride. Expect to be treated like a second-class citizen. In my time there, the leadership team showed no empathy, understanding or acceptance for anyone who had different characteristics from them, and the idea of looking after your mental health garnered no respect whatsoever. If you don't need any support or reasonable adjustments, you might be ok for the most part. NO HR. After a while in my role, I learned that the singular person who takes care of the company's hr is related to one of the directors. This makes it almost impossible to speak up about anything, because how can you trust that it will be confidential amongst family? POOR PAY. Drewberry drastically underpays their staff. They say they benchmark it against industry standards, and yet people keep leaving for better pay elsewhere so how can that be true? In expensive cities like London or Brighton, the money you'll bring in from your role will barely be enough to live on. To add insult to injury, they regularly talk about their great shopping rewards system and how, if you buy a Tesla, you can earn some cashback rewards! So I would say that "knowing how to read the room" is also lacking from the leadership team's skills. There is also incredibly poor pay equality. Talking about pay is discouraged, which I can only imagine is because in some cases, people are paid less than others for doing the same role for seemingly arbitrary reasons. There seems to be no consistency in their pay tiers. If they like you, you might get paid more. If they don't, tough luck. Progression in the company is near impossible for the same reason - if they don't see your value immediately, you probably won't progress. You're also told that you'll receive commission or performance-based bonuses, but once again these are arbitrary and can be taken away if you fall out of favour. POOR BENEFITS. If you work in employee benefits, you'll spend most of your time communicating with clients about how great employee benefits are, and how worthwhile it is to spend more on this kind of insurance. Some clients ask 'Oh, so you must have great benefits, then?' You have to sort of chuckle and just say yes even though it's a blatant lie. You'll only get life insurance, a pension, and a health cashplan. Drewberry will tell you this is the equivalent of several thousand pounds extra in your total package, but honestly, in a cost of living crisis, it doesn't touch the sides. TOXIC CULTURE. Drewberry loves to preach about their values of client-focused financial wellbeing, but doesn't do a great job of practising those values amongst staff. Senior managers will often enjoy luxurious holidays (which can sometimes be seen in the background of online meetings), while you choose between eating and heating. Another review mentioned about bullying, and this does happen. I personally witnessed people being harangued in front of colleagues for poor performance and saw many people in tears. They seem to churn through staff - particularly those in entry-level positions - far too quickly for a company of their size. During my time at Drewberry, about 6 or 7 people left the company in the space of a few months because of either the lack of training, poor pay, bullying from managers or lack of progression. Management's response seemed to be that it was good riddance because they were rubbish anyway. They must be absolutely haemorrhaging money on recruitment, and rather than changing anything internally they seem to be digging in their heels and insisting there is not a problem. Management apparently does not hesitate to throw others under the bus if it keeps their own self-image squeaky clean. BOTTOM LINE. Based on my experience, I would only recommend working here short term if you are absolutely desperate. Trust me, they're probably as desperate as you are and need people to do the busy work. My advice would be to take the (admittedly not great) money and jump ship to a better company/role as soon as you can.
