Terrible company to work for! Beware before letting yourself swindled into going to work for Ocado Technology! This review is for the company headquarters in Hatfield, Herefordshire.
Firstly they fish at the very bottom end of the pay range, for technology. They pay enough to make it within the bracket but no more! One of the possible reasons is that this company is bicephalic: one half is a traditional sort of grocery delivery service which is really struggling and attempting to squeeze every ounce of profit from a mostly immigrant workforce, and the second is their so-called "technology" half which is yet to pull a profit.
Ocado will try and wow you every chance they get with what they've recently attracted in terms of some cash from large grocery chains in the US but the truth is they do not know yet how they will deliver on their future engagements if at all. They have no solid plan, no clear cost schedule not even a team in the US yet and no clear plans of how they'll put one together! Yet, they base all their bragging on their future US expansion.
Ocado management is a really terrible group of people! Firstly, they will pile on top of new hires a whole huge chain of management from day 1! Basically, everybody that is a manager in your team, will end up being YOUR manager even though in reality you will be managed by a team leader which may or may not know what they're doing. Whenever they have no idea what's going on (which is very often!) you will be expected to manage on your own! Note: they don't even have an official organizational chart! Heck, they don't even have a company seating chart! They have no idea who sits where or which ip belongs to which machine on their own network, yet you are expected to somehow "perform".
Secondly, the "golden" rule for management is : it is always YOUR fault! Seriously, their managers NEVER admit to any fault of their own. If they get ensnared in anything, they will cover up the problem in so much red tape and nebulous policy that it will end up being YOUR fault anyway.
There is no one to complain to if any issues should arise. There's no point in complaining to your immediate chain of command as they will interpret that as you not being a "good fit for the company". HR is utterly absent and whenever you get ahold of anyone, they prove useless; redirect you to dead ends or simply admit they have no idea how to help.
The office itself is terrible as well. You either get a too hot or too cold desk and you are not allowed to bring a heater! If you log a complaint, forget it! They will never actually fix the problem. There are too few toilets and floors and desks are NEVER actually being cleaned! Every Monday you have to dust off your monitor yourself, for example.
Everyone seems arrogant and self-interested and there is no collaboration to speak of.
There is hardly ANY work/Life balance. Ocado has been fighting fiercely against any type of remote working opportunities but they will try and lie to you that they allow it, just to get you through the door.
"Culture" at Ocado is basically once every two months they give you some free pizza, made locally in their kitchen to save money and you'd be very lucky to get TWO slices!
They hardly pay for anything like learning, conferences or certifications, instead they organise some worthless "academy" classes conducted with questionable inside staff.
They are really terrible misers. Avoid this company!
