Terrible Culture - Anonymous employee MHRA Employee Review

The culture at MHRA is appalling. Management is completely disengaged and people go there to do the bare minimum. Staff are constantly made the scapegoat for inefficient business processes or poor management decisions. There are layers upon layers of managers and not a single leader in sight. You either decide to "play the game" and shut your mouth or leave. There is no tolerance of improvement suggestions and all continuous improvement ideas are quickly eliminated. Workers are made to feel like drones- simply doing what they are told and if anything goes wrong they are blamed regardless of what they were told to do. Inexperienced managers are often promoted beyond their capabilities and run around with their hair on fire making massive crises out of nothing. Staff are entirely dis-empowered. The public image of "protect public health" is a joke. The MHRA spends most of their time protecting their own image than fulfilling its mission. I have never heard the term "we need to be SEEN to be doing the right thing" used so often in my entire career. Work loads are unmanageable and risky. Staff are often so overloaded they cannot possibly do the job assigned- often for long periods with management awareness. I have seen departments 150% loaded for two years with little or no support. I have seen staff physically ill and affected as a result. Operational & customer-facing staff are so demoralized that they actively avoid raising issues for fear of workload repercussions. Pay is significantly lower than the private sector. This is usually accepted by staff joining the MHRA, as they join to help the public. Unfortunately, the public sector pay has been frozen for years (below inflation) and will continue to be frozen indefinitely. add to that the crippling pension reforms and increased pension costs and take-home pay has been significantly eroded. This is not disclosed to new recruits- i have seen at least two staff specifically as if there were pay freezes or reforms underway and be told "no"- despite whats happening. To summarize: Terrible culture Terrible management No Leadership No job prospects/career progression High and often dangerous workloads Terrible Pay & Benefits No likelihood of changing