Living nightmare - Paralegal CEL Solicitors Employee Review

1. Over 40 people were fired or quit during the first 6 months of 2024. These figures say enough on their own, particularly given the drastic rise in people choosing to leave without jobs lined up. Despite claims that there are 150-200 employees, the current number is probably much lower than 100. This is a significant number of the workforce that has left. 2. Unrealistic expectations and excessively large numbers of files assigned. The number of files each person has increases every time there is a mass firing/lots of people leave the business due to dissatisfaction. This makes the workload unbearable. 3. Targets that are only obtainable if you want to copy and paste letters and do not care about the clients. New starters were told by the CEO that they should be working free overtime on Saturdays for £21k. This is ridiculous. Does she not realise that multiple people already have to work a second job to supplement this pitiful wage? 4. Complete double standards. Management are allowed to drink through lunches (instagram post of wine glasses captioned ‘business meeting’ proving this), take 1 hour 40 minute lunches, numerous vape/cigarette breaks throughout the day whilst paralegals are consistently berated for not working hard enough to meet targets/not answering enough phone calls. 5. New managers who replaced competent individuals with minimum 2:1 law degrees. New managers do not have a legal background/degree/do not understand the job. This is highlighted by the way they are only able to add commas when reviewing letters. Paralegals do not bother going to these managers to have questions answered as they have no idea what they are doing. It is no surprise that these managers have either been fired or moved to a different role due to lack of competency. Furthermore, you can repeatedly see the CEO using the wrong ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ on LinkedIn which is mortifying. This proves the ineptitude of management at all levels. 6. Working in a glorified call centre. Certain managers being more concerned with us picking up phone calls than actually being productive. If managers were that concerned, perhaps they could also answer the phone rather than spending the day gossiping with HR, brown nosing, following the CEO around like a lost puppy, taking a minimum of 5 vape breaks daily and excessive boozy lunches. 7. HR who are certainly not impartial, highlighted by them being invited to the CEO’s child’s birthday party. 8. Horrific atmosphere due to people getting fired at the drop of a hat. We are told that our jobs are safe but this is a complete lie and anyone who thinks otherwise clearly has not been with the company long enough to realise that the only people the CEO’s care about are themselves. They have no loyalty to anyone. There is no job security and everyone is constantly applying and interviewing for other positions. 9. Manipulative mind games played by management. Putting all fraud paralegals names on pieces of paper on a wall in a glass boardroom so we know they are discussing us. Mass firing took place a week later. 10. Placing loads of people on PIPs that will be used to justify a mass firing in a few months time once ‘Celia’ takes their jobs. 11. Being incredibly dishonest to clients about who/what is writing their letters and forcing paralegals to be selective with the truth in relation to this. This does not uphold the SRA principles of acting with honesty and integrity. The lack of integrity and liability attached to this was one of the main reasons I left. 12. Consistent unprofessionalism - why was the events team firing people? 13. Hiring people for roles and then telling them that the job does not exist under a week before they begin. Once again, showing a complete disregard for other people outside of senior management. Potentially, these people could have moved to a new city and rented a flat on the basis of this job. Another example of the complete lack of morals held by management who are entirely avaricious in nature. 14. Management selling a lie that they care about mental health and well-being. This is a ploy used on social media to encourage people to apply. If they really cared about people’s mental health, the workload would be manageable and fair in respect of the salary that you could get for waiting tables. You would also be kind, treat your employees with respect and not constantly threaten them with being fired. 15. Being blamed as teams for the financial position of the company when it is the fault of management for over expansion and a lack of business acumen. If you were that concerned, you could sell a Bentley. Since leaving this nightmare job, I am no longer averaging 2/3 hours of sleep a night. As a result, my mental health has massively improved. Anyone considering applying should look at the only authentic reviews on this site which are 1/2 stars. You should note that these are the only ones with likes from other people (although now I have pointed this out, it is likely that management will start paying their employees to like the false 4/5 star reviews which have obviously been obtained through financial incentives following the mass influx of negative ones). The 5* ‘I regret leaving’ post dated 8 August 2024 is hilariously fake. I would like to think that a proper manager would not have numerous grammatical mistakes in a 3 line post.