Shockingly Outdated Culture – Would Strongly Avoid - Anonymous employee Centrica Employee Review

Red flag number one: 5 out of 8 direct reports were working their notices when I joined, and not a single internal employee applied for the role I’d been hired into. That should have said it all. A colleague I worked with seemed like a completely different person from interview to day one. Warm and engaging initially, then abruptly unfriendly and unable to even crack a smile once I started. A couple of days into the role, I was told I’d be working evenings and weekends (presented as a “question,” but clearly an expectation). This should have been disclosed at interview so I could make an informed decision - I would never have left my previous job had I known. Basic resources were shockingly lacking. It was troublesome to source a pen. I was handed an old telephone directory to use as a notebook. No structured training whatsoever. The atmosphere was flat & uncomfortable. Aside from the token “hello, how was your weekend,” the entire C-suite building was silent enough to hear a pin drop. Don’t even think about taking a lunch break and especially not for the full hour you are entitled to. The expectation to work excessive hours was extreme. I regularly worked 7am–11pm, plus evenings and weekends with zero acknowledgement or appreciation. A temp worker in another team also complained of this, having to work until 10pm and weekend work without being able to bill for the extra hours. This wasn’t isolated to my area - it’s embedded in the wider company culture. General incompetence in key situations. A colleague I worked closely with couldn’t carry out very basic tasks such as hitting a button on a pad to check into a meeting room or booking an Uber during an out of hours emergency & communication was minimal to nonexistent. One of the strangest work environments I’ve ever encountered. The company operates like it’s stuck in the 90s and shows no openness to change or improvement.