Pros
The work-life balance was pretty good, and the people I worked with were all incredible. They were friendly, upbeat, and inclusive. Not only were they hard working, but they were always able to offer help and assistance for anything – not just project work, but also career goals or anything else that was going on in your life. They really made the “people first” approach seem true. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I was accepted for who I was and was finally working in my dream job.
Cons
The recent redundancies that came out of the blue. In the run up to these redundancies, the company announced cost cutting measures to deal with the difficult economic climate – a hiring freeze, loss of upskilling and volunteering days, loss of training budget, etc. The company assured us that they had everything under control. Contracts were honoured for those who had yet to start work and the company was looking to offer financial support for those earning less than £45k to deal with the cost-of-living crisis (now off the table). When asked about redundancies in the future, we were told that this would not happen and we were put at ease. That changed one morning when the company announced that up to 240 people would be made redundant, due to an over hiring spree they carried out in 2022. These redundancies would only happen at a few of the business units. As each BU was treated as an independent entity, the affected BUs would have to make 15 – 19 people redundant (conveniently below the 20 or more people threshold per business unit for the company to open up collective companywide consultation). They also spoke about the criteria that each person would be graded against. Some of the scoring was based on your time at client and how billable you were considered – a real issue for those that had been ‘benched’ for so long and waited for client work. Once that was discussed, we were then told we’d be notified in a mere two days later if we were being made redundant (two days - that was all it took to assess if a person worthy of keeping). I really don’t know how I feel about my time at AND. On one hand, I loved my time there. I loved working with the people, facing new challenges, learning new tech stacks, and applying my own knowledge. I was even told I was a great engineer and operating beyond my current job level. Yet, on the other hand the redundancies. I was one of the 200+ people selected. It was a cold process that was a far cry from the “people first” attitude the company had been so proud of. Despite that, I don’t hold a grudge against my BU. I feel as if this was dumped on them and was something they were forced to carry out. No doubt, some within the company will label us as “disgruntled employees” as we use Glassdoor to communicate our experience. They should be reminded that we were part of the company culture that got AND to be considered the “number one tech company in the UK”. Of course, its easy to call those selected for redundancy “disgruntled” when your role and your club are unaffected. I’m really disappointed that AND decided to go for the redundancy option. This was something that could have been easily avoided months ago and feel could even be avoided even now. I’m heartbroken that I was one of the 200+ people selected, and have been forced out of a job I loved for a mistake made higher up in the company.