Would give negative stars if I could. An absolute disgrace. Absolutely avoid. - Anonymous employee HARROLDS Employee Review

1.0
20 May 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very few staff were nice but that's about it.

Cons

Where does one begin??? Let's start from the surface level and make our way down. The office: I don't know if I would even call it an office. It's more of a warehouse with a few rooms attached. There are no meeting rooms except for an enormous boardroom that does not have privacy panels, so everyone has to take meetings at their desk and sometimes on loud speaker because it would involve a whole group of internal staff. Extremely distracting and unprofessional. This also means it's not possible to have a private conversation unless the boardroom is free or you go outside lol. The technology infrastructure: It basically doesn't exist. Nearly everyone is given a gigantic computer to use, which means, it is impossible to take your computer with you and have a private meeting even if there were proper meeting rooms. The computers are heavy and makes blended wfh and office arrangement extremely cumbersome and just not feasible. Furthermore, only the free Zoom plan was used, which meant meetings could not go for further than 40min without restarting; meaning no funding was invested into making wfh easier. Workflow: Some of the teams don’t know how to collaborate and ensure the workflow is smooth. When in lockdown, there were no daily meetings (initially) to run through the day’s tasks, which meant, miscommunication and confusion was prevalent. The marketing department seemed to think they were running the show instead of working collaboratively with other teams. Starting to see a pattern? Training: There was none apart from a 1 day handover prior to starting. No time was allocated to watch training modules, instead, they were expected to be “watched in our own time”. Staff members: Most were not courteous and would not introduce themselves despite the fact I was new to the team. In general, it was not a welcoming environment. The feeling of being ignored was definitely apparent. Management: Line manager did not touch base until one week after start date. And no one-on-one’s were ever set up. Upper management and HR did not touch base at the end of week 1 despite stating they would. No proper introductions were made to the team. HR has absolute no clue what they’re doing or how to even speak professionally. This was evident right from the initial conversation, where they called to ask if I was still interested in the job and I said potentially, to which they responded with “what do you mean potentially?” in an annoyed and mocking tone. Upper management will reprimand you by calling you out of the blue or request to see you in the boardroom and tear you apart for the most minor “error” and saying they want their staff to "sink before they can swim", this was after being there for one month, mind you. Other staff members seem to conspire with upper management instead of providing support; they would proceed to demean and undermine you and treat you like a child by continuously admonishing you and asserting their authority. I shudder writing this now. I could go on but I think the picture is pretty clear.

Explore other reviews about HARROLDS

5.0
10 Mar 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Incredible opportunities if you're willing to put in the work. Everyone is a self-starter and management really appreciate new ideas and encourage you to form your own opinions on things. - If you want to develop your career this is a great company to work for, there aren't your usual road blocks that other bigger companies posses. - Super creative and encouraging environment! Collaboration across teams is amazing and the people there are an amazing bunch!

Cons

- Smaller teams, so theres a lot of responsibility on head office to deliver. - Communication between stores / head office could be improved, however isn't bad - just could be better!

1.0
19 Jan 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Discounts may be offered to staff

Cons

It has been determined that the founders of Harrolds have engaged in conduct that has created a toxic and hostile work environment for employees. This includes consistently unprofessional behavior, a lack of empathy, and the use of the owner's residence for company events. Furthermore, the ongoing involvement of a former founder, who has been implicated in previous misconduct, has served to compound the discomfort of staff. It is also noteworthy that the actions and behavior of the owners have been widely discussed and are not perceived to be met with appropriate accountability. Despite attempts to manipulate public perception through fake reviews, the company's negative reputation is primarily based on word of mouth. The company's dire circumstances, including gross mismanagement and financial struggles, have become increasingly apparent in recent times.

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