Pros
Nice business park, 3 days on, 4 days off, shift swaps for longer holidays, many genuine colleagues
Cons
This company tends to keep a low profile. Bear in mind this is a fully privately owned company managed by a small circle of people including the owners, who dont give a cookie about what the employees think. Pretty much our way or the highway. After being almost 30 years in the business and after they have noticed that they have over 50% turn over per year...they recently started a 4 years plan to work out how to be able to manage working with people, i.e listen to them, implement their opinions, do regular company meetings etc...what normal companies just normally do(I think they are doing it for the show)! The fields in which the company operates, what one reads online, and then the recruitment process give a pretty good impression until you're invited to the assessement day....thinking you made it! Prioritsing test, writing test, typing test...and interview with the manager. The interview is somehow intimidating and very pushy, the chair you'd be sitting on is broken and keeps on swiveling, you might loose your balance, I spent the interview leaning to the front to keep balance and thought if I'd get the position, how would I deal with such an intimidating manager... Once you get the position, HR will ask you to print the contract yourself and bring a copy with you, I thought, was just me but found later on that all the new hires had to do that because....HR's printer was broken...really! They will want to know what illnesses you had/ have, how many days sick you were in the previous year aaaand they will run a background check on you, if you fail the background check the contract will be void and that background check is verry tyring and takes ages and most of the search you have to do it on your own and give it to the company. If passed the check that company keeps on checking on you for the entire employment time frame!!! Don't count on HR for anything and especially if you're hired from abroad...just sort yourself out with accommodation, bank account etc (good luck with that in London), they are very passive and cold... Also dont even ask for parking...you'll get a super condascending look of: 'you not important for parking' Then starts the 3 months training period, there you have to think of school times, where you'd be asked to keep quiet, be intimidated with questions, patronized and although with a university degree you'll be made feel of less value than the medical staff...still trying to figure out a plausible reason, your role and theirs is complementary and equal in importance! And after a while in the job you'll be in a position to identify yourself what would be medically necessary to be done in many cases....anyway moving on! Four assessments need to be passed to pass training...there's also an untold blessing from the guys on the floor by them providing continuous feedback on you...that counts as well. Keep in mind you can be fired anytime within the 3 months probation...I saw it happening! You'll then have the chance to go to the live floor and see and sit with the people...the first thing that stroke me was the general grumpiness and somewhat arrogance of some elements with a higher title...you'll have to be at work for 13 hours per day, 12 out of them on shift and at least 6 out of them extremely busy...to an extent you start wishing you had 2 more brains and 6 more limbs to manage what is being thrown at you during that time...keeping cool could often become a challenge. In that time you have to answer calls, at the same time type what's being said, at the same time a supervisor could be speaking with you, at the same time you receive an email to finish a notification, at the same time the medical team will confer with you, at the same time boards start beeping...this is not a joke, this is a true story....when you take that job they think they hired an octopus! In your working day you have to put up with a french or a czech superior screaming at you, you have to keep positive about any provided feedback, you have to accept quality failing you, you have to do your reviews, do any tests, any courses, put up with screaming psychos on the phone, all that on a lame outdated system that keeps on hanging and reacts with a delay that haunts you even when you're working on your home computer....you'll be even assigned additional work..never dream you'd be left with a quiet moment, work is just as a waterfall, one finished thing genrates the next by design till the case is closed....and if it happens at all that it gets quiet and you think you finished for once your workload...an email will stroll through advising to start working on next days' tasks....they are short of thank yous and deeply expect you to be early and do extra time and never ask for that time back (they won't pay for it anyway nor give it back to you, so just don't invest more time than your shift)....on the other hand, dare to come one day late or spend few minutes longer in break, that time will be immediately requested back from you...do it few times and HR will be made quick to intervene.... The golden rule HR is really just the authority that makes sure the company's owners liked rules are being enforced....I asked my self a lot if HR never asked itself someone could take legal actions against the company...you might see few things really on the edge of legal. I still wonder if the company is EU/ UK legal..I really wondered a lot if the owners still have the colonialist mentality....strange company really. The company's motto is human touch but not for the employees, a colleague had a terrible headache and wanted to go home, was given pills and asked to carry on working. My clock showed lunch time, I stood up to go but was told by the manager there was still a minute left on the clock and was asked to sit down for that minute. A colleague wanted to go to the toilet, was asked to sit down because it's busy...it happens very often that people try not to drink much water so they dont' have to stand up and go to the toilet. Again real stories that could go on and on and on... I'm talking about grown up adults being trated this way (many over 30), one can see guys being intimitaded by superiors and blushing red not knowing how to hanlde the situation, soon after they leave the company....weird place really. Intimidation is normal, the atmosphere is very close to bullying... The average time new hires spend in employment is around 18 months, definitely between the 6th and 9th month most people start looking for another job. I started from the 4th month! A complete new hire class left in the 3rd month.... After around a year you have to do night shifts for 5% more money, the promised salary increase is rather fiction, they keep on failing people and slowing the progress down. Quality run by frustrated personalities is notorious for failing people, for mistakes done by the medical team! Again true story, dont even try to fight it. Then if you finally get that long awaited salary increase it is entirely up to the management to evaluate how much they're gonna give you...and they would push it as low as they can. For instance seniors used to get 32500 per year, once that level is reached, now IF you will be senior, IF, possibly you'll get 28000 after god knows how long then...that although their contract got bigger and more secure. Although being failed and get no salary increase your responsibilities keep on increasing and end up doing seniors jobs for muuuuch less money...smart business idea that could be seen as modern slavery as well. If you are lucky enough to get a warning for anything, your progress will be blocked for a year, and therefore your salary increase. Nice trick...I saw that happening as well. Also being a senior doesn't make you more respected, NO, you are expected to do more and accept more...don't try to fight anything. One senior goes regularly to the toilet to cry and come back, so wasn't able to cope but can't give up the job, another one with stress related issues.... They have two TV sets that start annoyingly and continuously beeping one after the other when calls are waiting...and you'll be sitting literally bewteen them...Nervous breakdown guaranteed! Everyone who left, left a grievance with HR against the management...the same people they complained about are the same people there for years....no changes are made...a colleague who left told me he was told in secret, that if the department is rolling fine, changes won't be made...so those grievances have certainly landed in the BIN! And if you dare to complain while still working, hoping things will get better...just expect regular retaliation till you wether give up and resign or you'll be fired because they made you fail continuously....so no more up to the job...and I have seen that happening. In less than a year I have seen 12 operational people leaving, including at least 4 seniors, also 2 key managers, a major director and the HR director. Regularly one reads people's fairwells. So departments are chronically understaffed. People working unpaid time, also paid overtime (only when the company don't have another choice) and four new hire classes per year(back to back evry 3 months), is what keeps the department going. Also be wary of the 3 days on, 4 days off, that might sound nice and relaxing, but with all the stress in the 3 days, you end up shaking at the end of your 3rd day, additionally it is not always the case...sometimes you have to work 4 days, or have just one day off inbetween...it varies In general when walking around the office expect the person walking in front of you to let the door bang in your face, people you see everyday don't say hi or good morning if you don't say it, even people you work with just pass next to you like you were a ghost....at some stage you give up being friendly by nature...the weirdest of work environments I've come across! You'll have doctors walking around while talking loud on their mobile phone or have them ring loud in the office while you're trying to focus on work or have a conversation with a patient...again this company thinks they are better than you. So all in all, if you're desperate for a job, young and ambitious and ready to take anything, or any other social situation that makes you go for this job, go for it...before the year ends you probably will be looking for something else....Or may be you'll be one of the few the management may open doors for...but then you need to keep on feeding them things about your colleagues! This review is specific to tricare remote operations in London, but it's very similar in any other department. The people in operations are the fuel of the tricare contract but they are the most disrespected. Just like fuel replaceable! If you have any ethical issues working for an army, make sure you ask if what you applied for is for the military, since that is normally not advertised nor told. In my case I was told in my 2nd day of training...I wasn't thrilled about that! The job and company are too much trouble for a yet another call centre job, your management have the illusion it is a great job!