Hurst Media Reviews

Edit in response to company reply to this post. The company has lost so many staff recently due to staff leaving rather than being fired, these staff have left individual reviews as they want to share their experience with others. Hurst Media have responded by alleging that these reviews were posted by one individual and have even implied use of legal action and asked the posters not to be "paranoid" in regards to this implied action. Clear demonstration of the tyranical, bully mindset that this company has with it's staff and customers both internal and external. Their long winded, often copied and pasted responses alone should be massive red flag for anyone reading these, not to mention they openly admit to having staff give 5 star reviews in their replies. Their apparent delusion goes so far as to convince him that the reviews from the miriad of ex employees who have left on their own accord in this financial quarter alone are in fact all from one individual. An individual who they claim has "too much time on their hands", so much so that they have created multiple accounts to post negative reviews. This is a clear demonstration of how they view their ex employees as beneath them, as if one would not have other job opportunities or miscellaneous responsibilities outside of their employment at Hurst, ultimately reducing them to a life of creating new accounts to slander and "spam" Hurst Media. What a ridiculous notion. In reality it's myself others who have left bad reviews and we are simply attempting to prevent the same issues which we faced at this employment from becoming the issues of others, hopefully inspire change or atleast forwarn the potential candidate of my experience. If the company faces issues in the recruitment process as a result, then they should change their internal policies and management attitudes accordingly, in line with the genuine reviews they recieve on their glassdoor. Be assured that all of the issues documented in these reviews have been flagged internally many times over the years, these issues have existed much before my time there and these opinoins are nothing new to the management. I doubt anything will ever change but we must all try our best to help our fellow human - hence why I have gone to the trouble of posting and editing this review. I hope to never work with another person like the MD of this company again. Original post below. 1st and foremost the product sounds good but fundamentally doesn't represent good ROI for any business when compared to what the media owners themselves offer. This means you have to leverage every call with a sense of urgency, scarcity and a massive discount, which is great.... Untill your asked to call the client back. Repeat business is minimal across the floor. If the customer complains, the management will simply say "well what did they expect" and proceed to tell you to relay the information to them in a professional and sugar coated way. Normally they give you a cut and paste response or just type the email for you. They have hosted 9am meetings to tell you how terrible the performance was from the day before and make no effort to positively encourage or motivate staff. MD will treat you like you are worthless even if you are a top booker, everyone is beneath him, only if you suck up to him do you get treated with some level of respect. MD will berade you infront of the office for anything from talking differently, wearing something he doesn't like, being shy, saying something which he considers foolish etc. Company is quite sharky but pretends not to be, people hide information from the database regularly, will do anything to sell into the last space, people will also help you but only if they have made their money too. Production issues are rife as a result of deadlines being missed on the sales floor, a situation which in itself is a result of the managment scheduling too many advertorials each week leaving sales floor having too much space to fill. Things are always left until the last minute and this results in sub par customer service and delivery of the products which are already sub par to begin with. You will spend an evening/weekend lead sourcing for a particular sector only to be told you are working on a completely different project to help out as it's undersold and then be shouted at for not performing well. If you don't get along with the boss you will not make it. In my experience there, the members of staff who came from minority backgrounds were treated differently by the MD, pay gaps range from 19,000 - 35,000 for the same role and is not dependent on performance, just if MD thinks your worth it/need it/deserve it. Your actively encouraged not to discuss salaries and if you do, you will be fired/subject to disciplinary. Expect to have a joke made of you if you happen to have an accent or speak slightly differently. If you are shy or lack confidence you are subject to be made fun of. If you wear something which the boss doesnt like, you will be subject to be made fun of, regardless of whether its work appropriate or not. There is no HR, you go into a meeting with the MD and or others and regardless of assurances they provide, MD uses everything you say against him later down the line. MD has been know to have sat members of staff down and told them that even though they were performing over target that they were not worth anything to him and they should be grateful to have a job. He has told top bookers in the past that he's "made millions of pounds already" and that no amount of sales anyone brings in "would change his lifestyle". Company books too much work in on the schedule and makes it nearly impossible to keep up with sales, most deals are closed for much less than you are trained to pitch them for... this creates a free for all culture of reps trying to get any deal possible encouraged by the MD regularly walking up and down the office shouting "get me offers!" The MD will put the phone down on you in the middle of a call if he deems necessary, for example, if he calls an emergancy meeting to get everyone onto a project, or you take a call before the 9am meeting, even if you were doing your job and you are about to close a deal, he will demand you get off the phone and even go so far as to hang up the phone while your talking to a prospect, client etc. All the best staff leave, from Sept 2021 until now, many really solid staff members have left (on their own accord)who used to be the top bookers at the time bringing in a lot of new business, this puts an immense amount of pressure on the new starters who often have 0 experience and are being paid way less than others. If you dont negotiate a good basic, you will struggle to get a worthwile pay rise and not only that, the MD will employ you on 19-22k p/y and tell you that you will make the rest up in commison... you then are expected to spend between 4-12 hours throughout the week lead sourcing. If the market is tough or you are off sick, you are losing out on a lot of money. The worst thing is, even if you are doing well, you will see people joining who are being paid more than you and your expected to help them. Company has been losing money for the last 6 months at least but probably much longer than that, it's looking like they are going to restructure the entire business and if you've read the above you know that nothing will keep you around other than if you get along with the MD. Forget about appreciation for hard work, you will book your monthly target in a day and be told that its "good luck" and be encouraged to go for more, rather than being praised and nurtured for your efforts, your left with a feeling of worthlessness.