Avoid like the plague - Anonymous employee Balance Me Employee Review

1.0
17 July 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This company is astonishingly unprofessional - but on a positive note - it's reassuring to know that whatever your next job is, it will be a million times better You will never be in short supply of outrageous stories to share with your fellow team mates about the unprofessional directors' poor business decisions and behaviour towards employees You'll make a lot of friends as employees come and go so regularly and the experience is certainly bonding

Cons

It appears to be a welcoming, small and family-run business, owned and directed by two sisters - but do not let the facade fool you. The owners do not care about their staff in the slightest and have little regard for their own work-life balance, let alone others'. You will be lucky if you actually do the job you applied for. The directors 'do not believe in job titles' (aka they don't want to give you one so you can never ask for a promotion or pay rise). You are given no job description, no performance reviews, set no objectives or KPIs and the owners will constantly change their mind about what exactly they expect from you. If they suddenly think team members are not right for the business anymore - they do everything they can to get them out of the door ASAP, rather than building clear objectives to help them develop and self improve. This leads on to my next point. There is no HR department, instead one of the directors will occasionally claim to 'wear her HR hat', but as the other director is her sister (and the only reason employees had grievances was because of one of the sisters) issues are never listened to, resolved or even recorded. Despite having a private meeting room, the owners were known to take employees to public places, such as a busy cafe or train station, to dismiss them improperly and in a humiliating manner. 'Redundancy' was even made, only one week later the exact same job description would be advertised. Basic admin, such as employees contracts often contained incorrect information, such as the wrong employee name, job title, notice period for their position etc (if you do accept a job here, go through yours with a fine tooth comb). There is an alarmingly high staff turnover. The sisters claim to empower women in the workplace, however during my time there I saw a complete staff turnover (in approx 18 months) and watched confident, intelligent women enter the company only to leave in a matter of months - sometimes weeks - after joining, seriously questioning their ability and career path Good, hardworking employees regularly 'disappear' from the team when the owners tire of them. The third partner also vanished from the company one day without any real explanation or announcement. The two owners micromanage all team members and undermine people's experience, including managers that were experts in their field, so it is incredibly difficult to complete even the smallest day-to-day task.

Explore other reviews about Balance Me

1.0
21 Feb 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people who I worked with who are at the same level as me have been very wonderful. I felt part of the team early on because of them.

Cons

The role I was hired for was not as advertised. They advertised a junior role but in reality the business needed (or wanted) an executive or director level role. Trying to manage the 12+ accounts on my own without any support or guidance, with a boss who spoke to me (in front of others) in an underhanded, dismissive, and derogatory way caused self doubt in my abilities, which caused stress and overwork, which was quickly leading towards burnout within just four months of starting. When a family member passed away early on when I joined, I was not offered any bereavement leave. When I tried to book holiday, I was told to change my dates despite no communication from my boss before hand that she was planning to take time off at the same time -- even though there is a joint calendar for everyone to put in their holiday/time off in. We are not told until the day of when upper management is unavailable either due to holiday or business trips. The goal posts keep changing without proper communication from upper management and we are all expected to just adapt and help out without consulting us on what we have scope to take on. There are hardly any if at all acknowledgement of achievements accomplished and whatever is completely is not given the positive feedback one might expect from getting it done, even if helpful and constructive critiques could be made. 10/10 would not recommend working here. Hearing early on that the company has a high turnover should have been the first red flag, but after coming out from working at somewhere else where I had been overworked and underappreciated I could not see the signs until it was too late. Additionally, the people doing my interviews did not know or understand the full scope of what the role would need, which leant itself to the false promise of achievable workload vs. the businesses expectations.

1
4.0
15 Feb 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

lots of hands on experience and fast paced environment, company cares about the planet

Cons

not a huge room for professional growth

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