Pros
I think the pros of going into Revealing Reality are apparent to most before starting- they take people with no experience in an industry that demands years of it, and give them the opportunity to work on a huge range of projects and often progress quickly. In this sense, the job is ideal for those beginning a career in social research or adjacent fields, whether that be as a graduate or a career change.
Cons
It’s truly hard to know where to start with the cons of working for Revealing Reality. My biggest objection to working there was about the impact of the research. Social research as an industry relies on using public and charitable money for often little impact, but the use of public money on the work RR is doing is alarming. I'm hesitant to go into details of what was said because much of it was so shockingly offensive that it seems fabricated. To fully expose the details of conversations with the MD and other senior staff members would make me nervous about catching a defamation case. What I will say is that there is prejudice of just about every kind in that office, crammed in whenever the MD sees an opportunity to be controversial. He had truly disturbing opinions, particularly relating to each of the company's supposed specialities. Amongst other controversial figures, the MD was a fan of Andrew Tate, and researchers were encouraged to consider the side of Andrew Tate that the media didn't show us. It's hard to imagine that any good side would make up for being a convicted rapist and sex trafficker, let alone the examples the MD went on to give. The levels of bigotry were matched only by the stupidity needed not only formulate these thoughts but to share them. Other examples include an absolute insistence that asylum seekers could not be telling the truth when interviewed by researchers about their stories and asylum claims. Where researchers refused to imply that claims were false, they were chastised for being naive and therefore not a good researcher. A considerable number of projects on accessibility sometimes seemed like little more than an excuse for the MD to rant on the entitlement of disabled people expecting facilities to be accessible to them. Another memorable mismatch in client facing rhetoric and internal discussion was transphobia. Outraged by accusations of transphobia by a leading mental health charity, he some time later sent an article to the office group chat, by esteemed publisher ‘Unherd’, ‘debunking’ the so called myth that trans women were women. The prejudice extended to treatment of employees. Quite besides almost exclusively hiring young women fitting a suspiciously similar profile, discrimination was, in my opinion, shockingly transparent at points. At one point, a new employee was fired with immediate effect after just few weeks, after the MD had strongly implied he had ASD. Another shocking incident came when the MD was relaying a story about two female researchers being warned not to go into a space due to risk of serious sexual harassment, when he said that he obviously thought they were talking one, not the other. There is so much I could say about Revealing Reality, this barely scratches the surface. All the other criticisms made on this page still stand true- the mind games, the stress, the poor research standards, the bizarre culture. The senior staff’s behaviour is nothing short of insane. This must stem from being the sort of person that would stay in this environment for any length of time, as well as any length of time there resulting in a skewed perception of what constitutes acceptable behaviour or research outputs. Largely, they have no other experience in a normal office, so think their watchfulness, unpleasantries and delusions of grandeur are normal. My advice to any potential employees would be to find something else if at all possible. I too had read these Glassdoor reviews before accepting the job and decided the experience and having a job at all was worth the damage. I’m grateful for where the experience has taken me now in my career- whether it was worth the sheer amount of anxiety and huge loss in self-confidence I experienced as a result of working there, I’m unsure. It impacted my life negatively in just about every area. I would urge anyone to look elsewhere for an agency with acceptable ethical standards in both management and research.
