Simply Business reviews about "management"

Toxic culture created by management. Company states it has a focus on improving the culture but it can't be fixed until management sort / see themselves out as the new management & management style is the problem. Working on the assumption that management aren't going to put their hands up and address that they are the issue, the culture will never be what it used to be which was when managers actually cared about their teams. The management style is now more akin to bullying in the workplace and blame (under the guise of accountability) than it is trying to develop your team. People speak up (multiple against one manager in some instances) and are told it's just the managers "management style". This seems to be a growing, common phrase now. High staff turnover in certain pockets of the business where management is particularly bad, never questioned or addressed. Engagement surveys from employees expressing dissatisfaction in the workplace swept under the carpet every year with no action or consequence off the back of them, instead focusing on trivial side questions or any positive available. Average / below average pay Downsized office size just before doubling the quota for people having to come into the office, result is not enough parking so have to park off site if you don't get in early enough and thats if you can actually get a seat in the office when teams are having team days (frequent). Redundancies happening on the quiet after what appeared to be open transparency that no more would be coming, as if no one in the office talks and will learn about them or notice people disappearing around them.

Management at the top of Shared Services created a tense and intimidating culture, senior staff hired and then unceremoniously fired, demonstrating seriously poor judgement. They introduced agile development practices in the company with no experience or understanding of how to scale them, alongside poorly conceived metrics. This led to chaos, increasingly poor code quality and misdirected investments. What should have been a fantastic experience working in a tech-enabled scale up instead became a toxic experience - senior managers increasingly fearful to speak out. Persisted for years and hadn’t been addressed by the CEO/People Team by the time I left.

The salaries as have been mentioned on here are not great. This was fine when you only had to be in the office once a month, but now it is 8 times a month (which granted, in 2026 is still not bad), salaries have not improved and previous benefits have been taken away. The caring side of management seems to be slowly going away, with office attendance being tracked rather than trusting employees as adults to come in, checking in with managers if there are issues.

- Opaque promotion process that never gets mentioned by senior management and may or may not involve a very out-of-date career framework that doesn't match any role. It was all too easy to leave for better prospects. - Politics over productivity - Some unimpressive senior managers more focussed on looking good than understanding the systems and people they are managing. - The "Simply Business spirit" that is still sometimes invoked has long gone

Unskilled leadership across the board. The company is floundering internally with massive layoffs of tenured employees, leaving contractors to come and go like a revolving door. SB is not people first. SB does not promote within. SB does not advocate for their best employees. SB does not give structured performance increases. Moral was low before I left, and I know from others still on board that morale is even lower now following massive layoffs. From what I’ve heard from those still there, it’s a complete circus now. Don’t work here unless you love chaos, misguided strategy, not being valued for the work you do, and mistreatment and mistrust from upper management.

- Losing the culture that once made it a great place to work & has now become more corporate - Management changing priorities - Seems to be all about output now and velocity as have recently introduced performance based bonuses. - Several restructures lately but it's all done undercover and not communicated which has led to teams competing with each other as to who can deliver the most, as there is an underlying fear that their team will be restructured if targets are not met

Pandering to their employees means nothing gets done as noone held accountable for targets. Lazy underperforming people still attract discretionary bonuses and payrises due to favouritism Management don't know what they are doing, resting on their laurels and dont know how to grow the company and blame or bully others

Firstly I used to love working at Simply Business; I was one of its biggest supporters. The culture and employee wellbeing made it a wonderful place to work. That has disappeared over the last 2 years; operating in the vast majority of departments now as a corporate machine; where behind closed doors people are suffering terribly. Personal experience: I was an employee with a consistent record across many many years of excellent colleague and stakeholder feedback, instant reward recognition, and a real respect shown to me. Despite this, my manager relentlessly attempted to destroy my confidence and faith in my ability. Examples include regular gas-lighting, blame shifting towards me, denial of instructions, assigning tasks with vague/ subjective metrics to set me up for failure. The effect of being subjected to this was compounded by the fact I felt I had no one I could safely escalate to. Overall, I know I am not alone in my experience/s. As the company has grown, there has been a shift towards endorsing a culture of leading with fear and intimidation practice. Alongside this there is a growing cultivation towards a “dog eat dog” mentality/ behaviour - the active taking of others’ ideas (without any credit) and the stockpiling of high profile work for personal recognition. Ultimately this work environment has and will continue to cause the suffering of many employees resulting in them leaving.