Lily Reviews

From my experience (having worked on Tech Desk and as an Engineer), Lily Comms used to be a great place to work a few years ago. However, new management took over IT / Telco services a couple of years ago and the department took a turn for the worst. The overall culture at Lily Comms became difficult and unsupportive. There was a recurring pattern of victim‑blaming, especially when it came to engineers raising concerns or expressing personal limits. Declining overtime—often due to valid personal reasons—frequently led to guilt‑tripping or being made to feel like you weren’t committed enough. The company appeared to be severely understaffed, which resulted in constant pressure to work beyond contracted hours. Instead of addressing the root cause, engineers were regularly pushed to take on more, even when workloads were already unreasonable. In 2025, there was a significant reduction in engineering staff, and many people felt either directly made redundant or pushed to the point where leaving seemed like the only option. This had a noticeable impact on morale. Management seemed far more focused on numbers, metrics, and output than on employee wellbeing. Concerns raised by engineers often felt ignored or dismissed. There was also a noticeable culture of favouritism, where being friends with certain managers appeared to influence how fairly you were treated and what opportunities you had. Another ongoing issue was a tendency to speak negatively about anyone who didn’t fully align with management’s way of thinking. Even ex‑employees were frequently blamed when things went wrong. The environment sometimes made you feel that unless you were constantly going above and beyond—often at the expense of your own wellbeing—you weren’t valued.

Despite having a personal development plan for everyone, development opportunities are limited or slow to come by. If your face fits the role, or it is more sales orientated, then you are more likely to progress in the company. Non sales roles struggle to get the appreciation or understanding from some sales individuals, who would either twist or suggest solutions to customers that could not be completed to their expectations. This would then fall back on technicians, engineers, projects members and customer service to try to resolve, usually at a cost. Management varied, with a mixture of managers who came all the way to the beginning of the company, some newer ones. This meant communcation to teams was not always on one page, despite a management training programme put in place, and access to training materials to support them on the companies journey and vision. This led to holes in teams and different levels of buy in to a combined vision that the SLT have worked on. On occasion, promises were made to individuals and then taken back without much valid reason. This caused distrust between employees and management. Employees all struggled to receive raises, even yearly inflation ones. The company doesnt manage to meet industry wage standards, especially for non-sales role, with many either on or slighty above minimum living wage.