Where do I start!
MY EXPERIENCE AS A BLACK EMPLOYEE
Firstly, hats off to the marketing team, they do a great job of making it seem like diversity and inclusion is a big part of their business. However, all is not as it seems. As a black member of staff this was the most uncomfortable environment I've ever worked in. Several ignorant comments were made about me in reference to my race and my physical appearance from very senior members of staff and members of management. Inappropriate comments and behaviour were displaced that made me feel fetishised based on my race. When I raised concerns about how it felt being a black member of staff in the business and asked for an open forum with senior members of staff to address how myself and other black members of staff felt I was told that it wasn't a good idea because of how it would make non-black people feel. Ohh and lets not forget that 'glass ceiling' if your dream is to become a VP or even a senior member of staff, you'll either need to fall in line and be the 'token black person' or move to another company because the chances of it happening here are slim and honestly the fight isn't even worth it. Honestly being black in this business felt like I was purely there so they could appear diverse from the outside looking in.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH PROMOTIONS
In short, if you work hard you'll go up a grade but your salary increase is based on favouritism in my opinion. If your head of department likes you, you'll have a higher pay increase. My advice to you, if your manager asks you to go to work drinks and take tequila shots with your team, you better go or face being cautioned by your manager the next day. (Yes this really did happen!)
NO CONFIDENTIALLY
When I flagged my issues to HR believing it was confidential, my manager told me he was made aware of what I said and then proceeded to tell me how the HR manager made a complaint about me for how I spoke to them. However, this complaint was never mentioned to me and I felt uncomfortable speaking to HR after this point as it was clear to me that my conversations were not confidential.
EMPLOYEE RELATION(ships)
I'm not against employees having relations, we're all adults. But, I do find it wildly inappropriate to have relations with a member of staff (whether it's a one time thing or not) when you're directly responsible for their pay review. Remember what I said about favouritism and promotions going hand-in-hand....Ohh the stories if only HR knew what was really going on a lot of people would be in trouble let me tell you! Who knows maybe they do know and they're looking the other way!
There are so many more things I could say but I'll leave you to digest my lengthy review. It's shocking I know!
