Pros
My time at Oscar was definitely an eye-opening one. Beginning with the positives, the training at Oscar was very good, although I’m not sure that is the case anymore with the whole of the L&D department being made redundant. In addition to this, the Commission scheme was good which meant you can make some decent moneys. Another positive were the majority of the people working there, who were always happy to give advice or go for a drink if needed!
Cons
Unfortunately the negatives far outweigh the positives. The unbelievable pressure to do well or face being fired was always looming over everyone, even if you are doing everything you possibly can. If you aren’t getting results and you ask for help, expect them to tell you to just ‘do more’ (despite being the highest that week on outputs) as they can’t think of any actual feedback to give you. This on repeat day after day felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall and majorly impacted on my mental health (which is a taboo subject at Oscar). You will then be criticised for not staying late in the office even when doing extra work at home and over the weekend. The directors of the business are robots and have no clue how to relate to people from working class backgrounds (especially women), and will avoid conversation if they possibly can. If you make any kind of suggestion for things that could add value to the business, expect to be ignored or dismissed immediately. Managers are never at their desks, and can regularly be seen gossiping with each other at the other side of the office which means you’re basically on your own from day one (now that L&D are gone). The benefits are now non-existent, with no working from home allowed, holidays cancelled (even if people have worked their socks off hitting the target), and achiever’s meals cancelled. These benefits are essential for a recruitment company, as the job is a tough grind as it is. However, if Oscar aren’t offering these things, every other recruitment company out there will be, which is one of the reasons why they have lost so many staff recently. You can tell that the recent positive reviews are from employees that have been influenced into writing them to negate all of the honest feedback Oscar have been getting on Glassdoor. Maybe if management spent less time being keyboard warriors and more time on improving the business by listening to feedback, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.