THE WORST EMPLOYER EVER. VERY TOXIC ENVIRONMENT ❌ AVOID, AVOID, AVOID
Advice to Job Seekers 👉 If you receive a job offer from any company where the owner is Neil Degg, run. The money is not worth the toxic environment and your happiness.
The company name changes every few years, which is a huge red flag. The current name is The Vocational Training Hub or TTH Group. The Big Initiative is one of the old names; another old name was The Training Hub. I imagine they'll change it again soon.
Leadership:
The owner/CEO is a bully. He bullies his business partner and staff during meetings, in front of everyone. He has threatened staff in front of the whole office that they will not pass probation, or shared personal information such as salary.
Every business decision is made based on the owner's feelings, with no business plan behind anything. They hire 5–6 people at the same time with no plan, then after a month or so either fire them without reason or change their job role, and the same thing keeps happening over and over every couple of months, for the past 5–6 years.
Probation:
Almost nobody passes probation. Everyone's probation period gets extended by 1–4 months without exception and without reason.
Working Hours & Flexibility:
No flexibility whatsoever. Everyone has to take a 10-minute break at the same time in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon, and a 40-minute lunch break, like it's an army
Staff are expected to arrive 30 minutes before the official start time just because the CEO wants it, despite working hours being 9–17:30 in the contract.
Contracts stated hybrid working, but management suddenly enforced full-time office attendance for everyone, except one favoured individual who works 4 days from home and 1 day in the office (likely a family connection or similar)
Management Style:
Micromanagement to an extreme level. Zero trust in team members, every single thing you do is monitored and controlled.
HR has login access to everybody's inboxes and checks work emails, Zoom chats, and Monday boards on a daily basis which is so wrong.
Everyone sits in one small office together including the CEO and business partner, however nobody is allowed to talk to each other, ask questions or ask for support. Instead, you are expected to send your question via email , Zoom message or a Monday ticket. CEO is so arrogant that he messages his staff for anything while he is just sitting next to them.
Culture & Colleagues:
Colleagues are nice, but you can't even build friendships with them. As soon as management notices you're getting close with someone, they'll fire you both with no reasonable explanation.
Feedback — Going Nowhere:
They sent an anonymous feedback form to all employees. Around 90% of responses raised similar concerns. Nothing came from it, instead, more people were fired within a week.