Kent County Council Reviews

I had an instant "allergic reaction" when working for Cantium - in fact, I found myself seeking another job less than a week after starting. *Location* Location is important when considering job opportunities. The choice for Cantium to suddenly change the office location from Maidstone (which was advertised during the recruitment process) to Kings Hill was frustrating after a few weeks of working for the company. The advertised office location (Maidstone County Hall) was interesting to me because of the motorway connections, train station options and general conveniences such as coffee shops or places to eat. These factors, amongst others, helped me to accept the job in the first place. Maidstone County Hall, despite the drab, dated and uninspiring office environment was OK. County Hall also had a cafe where you could buy sandwiches, meals and drinks. Shame about the drug addicts who gather outside the building - but this can't be helped by the company. Kings Hill is a different story. The office location is awful. No train stations, limited bus routes, limited parking spaces and no real conveniences except a supermarket with a 10 minute walk to and from the office. You could of course drive into the village but risk losing your parking spot when you return. I wouldn't have applied for the role if it was advertised in this location during the recruitment process... The Kings Hill office is more modern than County Hall - however employees are squeezed in so tightly it makes focusing on your job very difficult due to noise and general lack of space. *Culture* There is no culture at Cantium. The company trades as a private company under the wing of the Kent County Council - however the bureaucracy that exists within the Public Sector is still so prolific within the perceived private company. Nobody will do anything that is under or out of their job description... I've never heard the phrase "I don't get paid to do this" or "that's not my job" as many times as I did during my short time at the company. I've also never witnessed such pettiness amongst teams who should be working together to drive the company forward. This ranges from whispers down corridors to silly behaviour including posters informing us in the kitchen that "THIS MILK IS FOR US ONLY", "ONLY THIS TEAM CAN USE THESE TEA BAGS". Much more pressing issues include terrible team moral, pure idleness, infantile behaviour and even bullying other members of staff - the event(s) which ultimately led to my resignation. I could live with a dull job - but working alongside callous, spiteful and generally quite horrible individuals is something I refused to be a part of. Cantium isn't an exciting place to work. The office environment and ambience is enough to drain your energy the moment you enter - and lack of motivation amongst the team I was part of made the day drag. Constant policing of time spent during lunch breaks, cigarette breaks, away from your desk and filling in time sheets - all within my own team - was depressing and does nothing for moral. *The Job* During my interview I was told that I'd be a great part of transitioning the previous brand and "old way" into the new entity called Cantium Business Solutions. Somewhere between my interview, accepting the role, handing in my notice and starting the job - a tremendous amount of work which I was told I'd be producing as part of my role was outsourced and completed to a poor standard in my opinion. I spent my time at Cantium working on entry level tasks and jobs that an intern would be bored of. In an effort to use my skills honed over 8 years I offered to refine the User Interface and User Experience of the timesheet software that had been developed within the company. This was met with a frosty response as I had "stepped out of line" and didn't have the rank to be able to pass such criticism on a piece of software that was unintuitive and messy - a piece of software that the company was intending to use across the organisation and package to sell to clients. *Conclusion* Cantium, despite its best efforts, is still under the wing of the Public Sector. Moving from the Private Sector to the Public Sector was a tremendous culture shock for me and was almost career suicide. The lack of ambition and effort is something that I had never been met with before and are all attributes I distance myself from. If you're seeking a vibrant, fun, happy, focussed and enthused place to work I wouldn't recommend Cantium Business Solutions at all. If you're content with going day by day with no real targets or goals then Cantium would be a great fit for you. For me and my CV, I've taken a "career break" during my time spent at Cantium.

Where do I start... There is a culture of bullying at Kent County Council, and especially in the Libraries, Registration and Archive department. This goes from the shop floor, all the way to the corporate director and the many managers in-between. During my employment at Kent County Council, I very often left in tears at the end of the day and would go home extremely stressed. I was bullied by my former line manager on a regular basis, and they used threats and intimidation to manage. Complaints were never followed through, I had my data breached, my life threatened, my friend's insulted, and the discrimination was horrendous. Every time that I complained, managers did not take matters seriously and I would end up getting in trouble for "grassing" on colleagues.