Well-meaning, with a big culture problem - IT Professional Ashurst Employee Review

* I was told several times that "The Partner is king", aka no pushback is welcome, be a yes-man. * The times for the calls with Australia are brutal. I had meetings at 7AM REGULARLY, sometimes at 8PM too. I was told that there would be some early calls. I was fine with that. But no one clarified they'd be on a weekly basis... * The days in the office, mandated not because you have to to do your job, but because the partners want to make the office "look busy"...! I'll repeat that. The partners will force you to waste your own time commuting, not because there is a gd, professional reason to do so, but for the sake of appearance, to make the office look busy! * The turnover. So many people joining and leaving all the time. * The disconnect between departments. It's a real turf war out there between heads of departments, leading to very little collaboration and therefore very little that can be done at your level (despite what you'll be told in your interview), which is very frustrating. * The pressure felt by said heads of departments who will take it out on you. I've seen it happen in a meeting. It was honestly shocking, and that's despite all the training around "respecting each other". I myself had to make up an excuse and get a few days off to recover from said vicious attack after it happened. The fallout? Nothing. Both colleague and manager kept pretending like nothing had happened in subsequent meetings, but my colleague confided in me that he had been shaken too but was worried he'd lose his job if he was seen as "weak". * IT is seen as a cost-center, with all the negative aspects that come from it: lack of technology training, investment, large-scale projects etc. I do believe this is the first company I've worked at where there were still data center engineers in my team!