I worked at Eloquent Technologies from October 2023 to August 2025. The first six months were fine, but problems started to creep in quickly.
I started in 2nd line support, but within two months I was already doing 3rd line work. Despite this, there was no recognition, no change in title and no increase in pay. A promotion to 3rd line was dangled in front of me for months, but it was only when I handed in my notice that the company suddenly offered me the role. It left me with the clear impression that the only way to progress here was to threaten to leave, which says a lot about how the business values its staff.
After finally being moved into 3rd line, I stayed in that position for over a year. The workload grew heavier, the support was inconsistent, and recognition was practically non-existent. To their credit, when I raised my concerns again, they opened up a new role — Service Delivery Technical Team Lead. On paper, it sounded promising, with the work meant to be a 60/40 split between management and technical responsibilities. In reality, the split never existed, and I was still being loaded with technical work while being expected to manage on top of it.
As Team Lead, I managed a small but capable team. Both members were technically strong, but one of them struggled with inbound calls due to the amount of work being pushed onto him. I did the right thing and raised it with SLT in meetings, explaining that I wanted time to support him and help him improve.
The week before, the phone system had been changed and new ring groups introduced. Because of that, I asked for just one more week under the new setup before making any drastic decisions. Instead of listening, I was told “it’s gone on for too long” and ordered to put him on a PIP immediately. I warned them this would push him to resign, which it did.
What makes this worse is that afterwards, even though I had raised these concerns months earlier in meetings with SLT, leadership twisted the story and tried to pin the blame on me. They later put out communication claiming they had never been made aware of the issues, despite me having discussed them with them directly and through the proper channels. It later came to light that information already existed at the time which showed the problems had nothing to do with me. Leadership knew this, but still chose to shift the blame — which says everything about how they operate.
Management itself was one of the company’s biggest problems. My direct manager was the Head of Operations, who had no technical knowledge at all yet was responsible for one of the most technical teams in the business. To put that into context, when I first joined she was an apprentice in business development, and before long she was somehow in charge of technical delivery. That mismatch led to poor decisions and unnecessary stress for the team, and it left me having to carry responsibility without real backing.
Another area where the company falls short is sickness and attendance. On the surface, they offer paid sick leave, which sounds like a positive. But in reality, it comes with strings attached.
In 2024, I had six days off ill. I received full pay for five of them, which was appreciated. However, on my return — and in the months following — I was threatened with being put on an attendance PIP. How can a company advertise sick pay as a benefit while at the same time making you feel punished for using it?
They use the Bradford Factor score to monitor sickness, which is a deeply flawed system. It penalises people more harshly for short, separate absences than for long-term illness. For example, someone who catches a few bugs across the year ends up being treated worse than someone who is off for months with one illness. All it does is push people to come into work sick just to avoid being penalised, which benefits no one and damages morale.
The promises about workload balance were also broken. The supposed 60/40 split between management and technical ended up being far more technical, with very little actual management support. Combine that with the pressure, the lack of recognition and the unfair treatment, and the role became completely unsustainable. That’s ultimately why I left.
Pay and benefits are also well below industry standards. The holiday allowance is worse than what many competitors offer, the pension contribution is only 3% which is far lower than the norm, and salaries are not competitive at all. The company tries to mask this by saying “well, you can work from home,” but remote working is now standard across the industry and doesn’t make up for the poor pay and conditions.
Overall, my experience at Eloquent was one of being undervalued, overworked and let down by a leadership team that didn’t listen and often rewrote the story to suit themselves. Recognition only seemed to come when people threatened to leave, and genuine concerns raised through the proper channels were ignored or twisted afterwards. Unless there are major changes in both management structure and how staff are rewarded, Eloquent will continue to lose good people.
