Mooboo's extremely toxic workplace culture and management are hidden behind the smoke screen of growth and large presence within the industry. However, as you have probably heard before: size is not everything.
The company has over a hundred or so shops, most of which are franchised. The Head Office is composed of less than 30 people, with each person having to perform the functions of multiple people and departments. This makes extremely challenging to perform your actual role's key functions. Despite this, employees are often blamed and penalised for the inability to cope with the unrealistic expectations of the management.
The team at Head Office, all those below top management level, are incredible. Their work ethic are solid, with attitudes that make them such a pleasure to work with. However, it becomes very obvious that the management does not see their employees as human beings.
Management is always keen to capitalise on the "Asian work environment", something which they proudly practice, which heavily involves the expectation that you will be coming in with you are sick, for which they advise you to simply "take a pill", be monitored via a CCTV both in the office and in their shops. Work life balance is frowned upon here.
The saddest of all, you are given no credit for all the work that you do and will be slandered the moment you hand in your resignation if you decide you've had enough of the abusive culture.
Gaslighting is a norm here, along with misogyny, racism, and manipulation. There is no transparency, except for when one of the heads begins screaming at someone in front of everyone. The secretive scheming and screaming are only second to the threat that you will lose your job if you do not follow exact instructions, no matter how senseless or incorrect they are. Do not be fooled though, because even if you do follow instructions, you are still at risk of being laid off because the management simply does not value their workforce.
Employees are given no credit for excellent work, but are blamed for everything wrong even if it is the mismanagement and stubbornness of the higher ups that is the issue. At the same time, management is always willing to take credit for big ideas of employees while claiming that employees are inefficient.
The laughable attempt at team bondings every month are nothing compared to the supposed benefits they offer: free bubble tea. The perk is quite standard, but that is the only proper benefit of the company apart from no uniforms.
You will not receive proper training, and are expected to not just hit the ground running like most jobs, but to become an expert as soon as you arrive. There is little room for error and management is very unforgiving with mistakes brought by lack of training. This is mostly because there is no HR that has knowledge about training, onboarding, even UK laws and policies that should legally be in place.
There is no sick pay except for statutory. There is no bereavement leave and should you take a leave in the event of sickness or death in the family, it will either count as unpaid or will be docked from the annual leave you worked for. There is no pay if you get COVID-19 or any prolonged sickness.
The company offers no work from home options or hybrid options. Mooboo is also heavily opposed to this kind of set up. The Head Office is severely understaffed, and are often overloaded with work due to the attempts of management of appearing like a larger team to both franchisees and customers. This works against the team as they are bombarded with requests from all ends without any help.
The high turnover of employees are very telling of the culture. During interviews, ex-employees are slandered and blamed for issues in order to diffuse suspicions regarding the high turnover of people. New employees are often fed misleading information to hide red flags.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg.
If you value yourself, your skills, and your time, run. Do not work here. Take the extra time to find a better offer in a different company. The rushed hiring process should be your first indication to the rabbit hole of red flags you need to run away from.
