Not what it used to be (and not in a good way) - intermediate UX Designer Hippo Employee Review

Where to begin! I joined Hippo under the impression it was a User Centred Design focused consultancy that cared about its employees as well as the work (both for the company internally and for clients). Unfortunately, it has slowly gotten worse and there is little-to-no care or support for employees at Hippo, unless they’re in the original members’ cliques or deliver above and beyond for clients, whenever the client wants something. There are almost no active professional communities from my experience as a User Experience Designer. Most times, you’d be convinced you worked as a sole freelancer without the support of an agency/consultancy around you! As the company has grown (way too quickly and without a transparent and employee-involved plan) Hippo has not kept up to speed with the care, support and development opportunities for employees at Hippo that are necessary when a company grows at the scale and speed that Hippo has done. Leadership seem to think they can continue the actions and behaviours that they did when Hippo was a smaller start-up. It’s not professional to have memes as your display picture when you’re on the board/in a leadership position; it’s unprofessional and will confuse new starters who aren’t in the same geographic office location. There is no consideration, let alone choice as to what client work you’re placed to work on. Mental health support is mostly a facade and despite a good number of mental health first aiders around the company, line managers have no training to support employees which is incredibly disappointing.