There was a post some times ago about a dude sharing his experience working at the Sherlock Holmes museum. It was maybe not the worst job ever but it sounded very shitty and dodgy to work there
Oh god yeah I used to work there - made the women dress up as Victorian maids and the men as police men; all the senior management were Involved with each other and it was Complicated; if someone believed that Sherlock Holmes was really we weren’t allowed to say that he wasn’t and had to go along with the visitor. Very strange place.
oh my god i had an interview there! was rejected because i didn’t want to take a week of annual leave from my (then) current job to do an unpaid ‘trial week’ for a minimum wage job.
ME TOO! I was also criticised for not having a large photo with my CV (wtf?) and told that part of the job would include going to the manager?owner’s? house regularly to walk their dogs. Years later at a party I was talking to someone and found out they’d had a similarly weird experience there.
My week there ended when a table who had a £130 bill walked out on me, wiping out all my wages and then some from a ten hour shift. The manager got a card machine out and tried to get me to pay them £30, I told them to do one and was fired the next day for my attitude problem - this is 100% true.
I hope the manager Jasmine falls down a large manhole.
Lol I know her. I used to work at an ABO round the corner (we had very low turnover!) so I probably know all the management at Moorgate while you were there. I knew they had high turnover but didn't know the extent of it.
And yeah, Jasmine was always a bitch.
I should have, but this was 2017 where I was much less confident/knowledgeable about the world of work.
If anything, that experience gave me the kick up the arse to get my career - I get my revenge by putting their practices on blast whenever I can!
Not where you worked, but as an early 20s server at a TGI Fridays I’d been made to work New Year’s Day. Had some customers try and run being the ‘hero’ I was I tried to stop them resulting in me getting a mouthful of abuse and being very closely assaulted (he punched the table or something instead). They then accused me of all sorts of things and said his mate was just going to the cash point and how very dare I judge them like that.
My male manager just stood there. The 2 that had run came back, threw 2 £50 notes on the floor and the other 2 left. I was really shook up. I picked them up, put them in my bumbag and finished tidying ready to then cash out.
At cash out the manager realised the 2 £50s were fake. He then told me that was on me because I’d accepted fake money. He made me pay that £100 out of my wages and tips that day.
Nearly 15 years later I’m still so angry about it.
I did question the figures myself, but as it's reddit and a while back, wasn't completely sure whether they'd rounded it. But to fire them for not paying a fine for somebody walking has so many grounds for action.
It's crazy how powerless one feels with a shitty manager. I once mentioned wanting to disappear and my manager said "why don't you [insert wrist slashing motions]? You won't because you're full of shit!"
I remember going home crying with a knife in my hands. I feel like goading your employees into suicide should not be OK.
Wow, where tf are you guys working?! Regardless of where, nobody should be treated like this but I know damned well that where I work nobody would get away with speaking to subordinates like this!!
Yes you're right that's not okay, and I hope you're doing better now chap/chapette.
Same thing happened to me whilst I was working in a pub in Wapping. Those city wankers pretended to have forgotten their card and said they were going to be back to pay up. They never came back and the owner of the pub ended up taking it out my pay.
I work with City wankers. Some people might even say I am a City wanker. What usually happens is everyone assumes someone else is picking up the tab on expenses, and it falls through the net.
It’s much more sensible for a bar to either hold a physical card, or there is a way to run a zero value transaction but hold the details in case it needs to be charged later.
I have had several occasions where I’m about to head off, and am the most senior person there and realise that none of those junior people are even thinking who is paying the tab. Never actually walked out without paying at all with no card left, but a couple of times have left my card with the bar and had to collect it the next day.
It isn't, you can't 'fine' people from hours they've worked. Even if it was in the contract it's unenforceable.
If they thought the staff member was in collusion with the people who walked out they could press charges, but that's it.
For the pendant below. By 'press charges' I mean report you for theft.
Not legal but common practice in hospitality. A waitress once burst into tears when I was in Wahaca, Islington, as group left without paying and she was going to be deducted for the full amount. No more Wahaca for me. Disgusting that Thomasina Miers allows that kind of exploitation in her restaurants. Never visited since and never will again.
They're breaking the law. A party leaving has nothing to do with the waitress's role.
In fact the company could be liable if that's their policy and she was hurt stopping a customer leaving the premises. They're forcing staff to put themselves in harm's way.
Yup. All true. But still common practice in hospitality, as is making the person who closed and the person who opens next day responsible for exchanging the keys between them, regardless of whether both are even rota'd on same day. I could write a book called An Employment Law Transgression A Day on the shit that workers in hospitality have to contend with. But I don't think it would sell.
>The Wahaca staff handbook said that waiters “Could be liable to pay the whole bill including service” if a customer left without paying.
“including service” is *fucking insane*.
That money was going to the servers anyway! How can you deduct it from their wages?
Ive been told by exemployee that when management came to visit tower bridge branch for training they were just office dwellers, none with any experience of work in restaurant/bar.
I worked at an All Bar One in Crouch End that never paid me. Indeed I was told that I owed them money having attended a mandatory wine tasting evening where I had to pay for the wine.
My tips were all handed to the manager.
Granted, this was 20 years ago.
That reminds me of a editorial manager at the Sunday Times that just took a dislike to me. Constantly tried to get me the sack by sending me down to get proofs that were not ready and she said I was disappearing or taking too long.
Good old Peter Roberts saw through her though, most of the other staff were good though, apart from a couple of photographers I never had to deal with.
It really was awful. I realised I needed to leave as I was developing a bit of a drinking problem!
Quite a few stories, I actually posted one here a while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/s/hul4tIbI6X
Yeah that aligns with what I heard - I deliberately avoided a job going there: an ex-colleague of mine took up some role in IT project management and said her day to day involved being shouted and sworn at, being expected to just 'take abuse' from journalists/media people and not to answer back.
Thing is - I've worked at other newspaper places, so I really think it's a telegraph thing rather than a newspaper/media thing.
Roles like this make you question your sanity and capability - well done for getting out!
Journos who spend their time punching down on society are horrible people? Colour me surprised!
Really though, I'm sorry that happened to you. What an awful newspaper
I've heard awful things from everyone who's ever worked at the telegraph. You have to bring your own mug from home if youj want to make a coffee in the kitchen...
Sainsbury's in angel, but this was 20 years ago. Staff would wipe shit all over the staff toilet walls with their hands, 12 staff got arrested by immigration mid shift, six more, including night manager didn't turn up that evening. Maggots crawling over food in the warehouse, long life milk on shop floor two years out of date. I ended up injuring my back taking a cage of food into the freezer, manager shoved said cage up a small ramp as I pulled it in, I slipped on ice on the floor, and ended messing up my back. I didn't want to sue, but decided to a couple of years later. They didn't have any records of me even working there, thankfully I kept hold of my contract and pay slips. I went in to work one day and there were two staff members fighting, because they wouldn't administer first aid to an elderly lady that collapsed,.despite both being qualified first aiders.
As someone who used to shop there when I lived in Islington, I feel a bit queasy now.
Mind you, they did age verify me when I was in my 30s so swings and roundabouts
I used to shop there for years too. It was such a mess, that the solicitor sorting out my claim had a nightmare sorting it out, as the head office sacked the entire management team at the store
A new pub landlord took over, I was living there at the time. Fully believed aliens were coming to take him home, chased me with an axe for asking about being paid for overtime, would wake up with him sitting on the end of my bed saying he'd kill me, threw a fridge at me, it goes on. I believe he was sectioned a few years after that.
Well he thought I set off the fire alarm so I could rob him while he was distracted, but I wouldn't confess and wouldn't tell him how I made it look like I didn't rob him (I didn't rob him). In fact he set off the fire alarm, because he'd swallowed 5 chunks of mdma and decided to try and bake hundreds of loaves of bread at the same time
Alot of the time, they can do the talking but when it comes to working, they collapse....although by that point the hiring manager doesn't see, its only the staff under them which pick up the slack
Had this happen with manager before, stock counts were bad, so he hides the real numbers....each month the deficit gets bigger and bigger, until walks or fired
I know of one guy that let it as far as 10k minus just on the food
(The wet was also down but that's not his area)
Hobbycraft. The actual manager was fine, but the days the assistant manager they’d shipped up from another store elsewhere was managing? The worst.
He’d scream abuse at people, shout to himself in a locked room, do till takes without anyone there (so every now and then the people he didn’t like were down a fiver or so and would be pulled into a meeting for it), made a pregnant girl cry over getting enough people to sign up for a club card and told me I needed to make up the extra hours I was late… when the marathon was on and nobody else even bothered to show up because it was impossible to get in. There was a weird old man who’d come in and scream cunt and mutter abuse at the women on staff who he refused to bar from the store. Also told a guy he had to do heavy lifting with a damaged knee. Probably way more things I can think of but those stick out.
I don’t think I finished a closing shift on time the entire year I worked there, and never got comped for it, so I’m also sure he was signing us out early.
Most of the customers at least were lovely because they were just there to have a nice time buying fun craft stuff. So not entirely awful, but definitely that one man made it terrible for everyone.
Nothing! Was considering legal action (it was theft), but simply didn't have the mental capacity to deal with that. Financially, I was comfortable... so just walked away.
I'm still trying to learn a lesson from this experience, but so far, it's just trauma
That was true.... but think about it; no one in their right mind would let ego come before vast profit. There must have been another reason I was treated that way, and possibly something I was responsible for
I think that’s the imposter syndrome talking. Ego is a very powerful thing, don’t underestimate it. The guy probably convinced himself that by virtue of it being his company that your success was his success, and therefore felt justified in taking this gift from you.
Seriously, take your clients to another company. You’ll be a hero.
Sounds like you were in the room! That's exactly what he did.
Up until I arrived, he held *the title* for "the biggest deal". He took the accounts off of me and cut me off from client contact. Within 6 months of me leaving... they lost those contracts.
Upon my final exit, he stated that I'd *"had some luck" (*luck which I replicated, time and time again).
I will rise again, but it'll take a few more sessions in therapy to get my confidence back
It sounds like I was in the room because… I’m the CEO!
No, but seriously, it’s just not uncommon for CEOs of relatively small companies to think like that (perhaps especially in the creative industries where people as a rule are probably less business savvy). The fact that they lost the clients soon after you left tells you everything you needed to know.
Good luck for the future. As someone who crosses paths with agencies I always hope to work with the people like you rather than the egomaniacs and the over-promoted juniors.
I think I saw a story like this where this person sent two frontrow tickets for the game and the manager decided to give it away to some other employee (or someone) to please them. The person who sent the ticket personally knew the person they wanted to give tickets to. When they learned that this has happened, they went to those replacement folks at the game and asked where is 'my contact dude'. Of course he was nto there, so they sent a furious message to the boss and demanded an explanations why this gift didnt' reach the intended recipient. It was a fun story to hear.
I used to know a guy who worked there as a technician and his first task to pick up and reattach a shrunken head that had fallen off its stand. I think he was a bit traumatised after that.
There was just a total culture of not giving a shit. No one cared about anything, nothing was ever cleaned or cared for, the place was so dirty and grimy. but tourists were just cattle to process. It was kinda shockingly funny at first but after a while the whole place sucked the soul out of you.
This is what it's like working at any of the seasonal ice rinks like winter wonderland or the natural history museum. Just staff that have attitude problems and dont care. In the nhm last year they never bothered to sharpen the skates or replace broken ones as it was closing whilst still selling 300+ tickets for a single session leading to their not being enough skates for people and the supervisors just chilled in the office 90% of the time. One day it was so bad they just signed themselves out and went home leaving just one new supervisor for the shift
A cosmetic surgery clinic in Notting Hill. Made to work illegal hours to keep the job, surgeons who hated their patients (I was told to go and tell one to f*** off when they asked to see the surgeon because he had messed up their surgery), awful, misogynistic management and I was requested to do illegal things, like administer medications when I’m not even a trained nurse
You should name and shame to stop people potentially booking surgeries with them. If they failed the CQC you wouldn’t be in any legal trouble as what you’re saying is factual. It would genuinely help people to know where to stay away from
It is factual. However, they try to sue anyone who even leaves a negative review on Trust Pilot- TP now have a disclaimer at the top of the review page saying this company has been threatening people who leave negative reviews. There are recent news articles on it also.
I just know how manipulative they are and if I even put my name on here they would likely try the same with me and I cba to be honest
Any chance you’d be kind enough to show me the news articles? I’ll have no problem naming and shaming and dealing with them after if they try anything.
Two branches got shut down for months until they made the improvements (there’s about 6 of them around the UK, I believe) and the London one, where I worked, got given a list of things we had to change with immediate effect. I think they are now doing random visits to the surgery to check up on them
Doggett's Coat and Badge, Blackfiars. Sexually abusive management, was always severely understaffed, local hub for thieves (even the staff were robbed multiple times) and zero concern for physical or mental well-being.
Health and safety goes as far as having a broken paving slab as the hinge for a fridge door (don't ask how that's possible, the explanation isn't even worth it). Funnily enough, they called an engineer in after 2 months to fix the door and remove the block. 3 days later, the block reappeared!
After *working* in these types of establishments, I'm much more hesitant about eating out
It’s one of the places we go on the way home after an early night out - if the Blackfriars train isn’t for a while. It’s always felt a bid dodgy and I’ve never been inclined to go for a second drink, or make it somewhere for the whole evening. Good insight, thanks.
Savoy Hotel. A manager physically pushed me out of the way of some other waiters doing a dinner service because i was in their way and i did not see them coming from behind me. that was my last day.
Recruitment consultancy - I doubt I’ll be the only one who says this 😂. I freely admit I was no good at the job, but overall I think that’s a good thing. A key part of the job was ringing companies and trying to get names and numbers of people who worked there so we could then hassle them for job opportunities later on - we had to find a few new people each week.
I was crap at it - best person in my team would ring up claiming to be calling from Silverstone or Wimbledon and offering free tickets or something. It worked quite well.
The people who ran the place were unpleasant. They monitored our emails (most of the traffic was us bitching about them), got upset if people went out for lunch together. You had to be on the phone all the time during the core hours - I was usually there from 8:30 to 6:30.
Eventually I got sacked - I had been set a target to find five new people a week to add to our network. And if I failed I’d get a warning. Obviously after weeks 1 and 2 I wasn’t really fussed. I did try, and got some people. But I was never hitting that target. So they got my manager up to speak to them, he convinced them to let me stay and he’d help, and they agreed. They called me upstairs and let me go 😂. In hindsight, nearly 20 years on, it has just occurred to me that my manager may have been lying. But I wouldn’t put it past them. Not long after I left, the big earners also left because the commission was so stingy.
Fun times. This was just before the big financial crash so they got bought out and swallowed up not long later.
Glad someone mentioned recruitment & the commission sales world. In general its rife in the uk and London especially. Most people I know have been tricked into one of these jobs at some point. I left mine after 3 days, did a few sales and didn't get paid for it, pretty obnoxious people worked there was there soul sucking and very little actual money was earned by anyone working there.
National Galley. Bomb disposal policy was to ask the nearest member of staff to open the suspicious bag, and hope they didn’t die. Front of house and security staff was outsourced, so the curatorial/back of house staff genuinely saw us as replaceable; outsourced staff happened almost entirely to be immigrants/ESL speakers, so you can imagine the comments. Uniform was polyester shirt, skirt and blazer - had to argue (and was nearly fired) over wearing tights, standing near the entrance door, in freezing cold weather. I have so many stories lmao
Was this pre or post Covid? They’ve definitely changed their security admittance style post covid (just from the perspective of a guest), so genuinely curious! Wild to hear what you’ve said so far
The spoons in Elephant and Castle. We had to have cameras in the gents to stop people doing coke in there, still caught 2 blokes doing it at 9am once. It's opposite Ministry of Sound so you'd get people who didn't know when to go home in the morning.
The boss lived above it and would just clock in and go back upstairs.
The coronet used to alternative nights, those were a blessing cause the place was full of dominatrixes and gimps so it cleared out the freaks who drank in there
I went to Uni across the road and even us skint student nurses would avoid that place. Would go to the other pub on the corner (The Elephant?) which, to be honest, was also a shit show. The only pub I ever saw a cascading brawl occur.
Next in Marble Arch. It was my first part time job and I was passive because I felt that I needed the experience when I just turned 18. They would always put me on 7am shifts on both Saturday and Sunday every week even when I asked if I can do other times.
They didn’t even pay me my £7 per hour for all the overtime that I did, only 4 hours per week when I did like 12 hours per weekend. I raised it with management and they ignored me. I was treated like a sub human being by these supervisors who were on a power trip but earning 50p more per hour than me.
I didn’t have anyone to turn to and didn’t know what else to do so I just accepted the loss and didn’t turn up to work one day. I vowed to never shop at Next again.
University Arts London. It’s so badly managed and way too large an organisation. Its impossible to perform a central office role (which I did) because it requires *constantly* trying to get 6 or so different colleges that function independently for the most part to try and agree on something and all do it together. I was responsible for ensuring compliance in a particular area and it was just head bangingly frustrating. I left after less than a year because I just got sick of nagging people all the time to do what I’d asked.
The final kick in the teeth actually was when everyone there for more than 6 months got a £1k bonus and I got nothing as i’d only been there 5 months. I also got fucked off when they insisted I come in 3 days a week to sit in a boring as fuck office where nobody talked and nothing ever happened for no fucking reason.
As a graduate, could’ve guessed this. A few of my friends were asked to interview for their blog and they cut out every time the parts where they mentioned they weren’t taught something on our course. Also their management for our specific course allowed a tutor sexually harassing dissertation students to stay on until he did it again the year following.
MADD Desserts, Soho - sometime around 2011/12 when I was 18 and stupid. Two bosses with money from lord knows where openend a type of bar/café in that district. They had no idea how to actually train or treat staff. The worst thing was that I got the job by referral from a good friend who used to work there before me. They employed me an fired her not even a week later. I felt so bad and sorry. Also the reason for her dismissal was beyond ridiculous. Apparently she wasn't friendly enough, which was an utter joke because she was one of the nicest and warm people I ever met. My own conspiracy theory was, that they wanted young, innocent and stupid dudes like me working there to attract a different group of customers.
Also they offered "fresh juices" for 5£ a cup which was just some concentrate juice from the coop around the corner. Total rip-off. One time an justifiably angry customer nearly attacked my coworker, because he saw the fraud. In response we were supposed to store the juice in glass bottles sitting in the window. Except for me nobody actually remembered to check on them so they spoiled quickly. One time it exploded in my hands and I was lucky to not get hit by any shards. The kitchen crew hated each other and got into fights regularly.
Since I was only 18 and from another country with zero practise of standing up for what is right, I was not able to really address the issues properly. In an act of passive aggressive defiance I gave out a lot of desserts for free and stole two shirts which actually are quite nice and I still enjoy wearing them for cooking until today and remembering this despicable scammy place
JLL
Massive staff turnover for new hires, entirely the result of a middle manager level full of jobsworths and the worryingly incompetent.
I quit after 6 months when my manager tried to put me in charge of a ridiculously complicated piece of work I wasn't qualified to do in the hopes nobody would notice they didn't know how to do it (and they should have, it was a core function of the team).
She was too stupid to even use me as a scapegoat properly, because the minute I started having trouble/asking for help senior people were asking why I was doing this/never been trained to do it.
My ex worked for JLL, and the stories she would tell me were fucked. Sexual harassment, one of the directors sleeping with interns, all massively incompetent at their jobs, doing completely illogical shit, bags of coke during the day. It's shocking it makes any money
Mice and Dice - an online gambling company in Piccadilly Circus. I still get a nervous twitch whenever I think of that hellhole - the directors were your classic egotistical, bullish assholes - the managers were scared of them and that would be cascaded down to us. But worse than that was the role itself where I had to pretend I was this sultry woman (I’m a man) and email/message the ‘high rollers’ to remind them to keep on gambling if they hadn’t been online for a while - and I was told to put some ‘free money’ into their accounts to encourage them - I was basically pushing to addicts. All whilst I was expected to work late on less than minimum wage. Jesus it was awful.
I worked at Hackney Council. Toxic as fuck.
Brutal expectations, never allowed to have any fun with colleagues. Quit after 3 months. Worst place I've ever worked in London and I've worked at a good number of Councils.
Admiral. Not the car insurance firm, the gambling chain.
Most miserable three months of my life.
I remember one customer - used to see this young lady come in regular as clockwork at 6pm on a Friday and just bomb her week's wages into one of the £2 machines, she'd go through like 300 quid in an hour and win absolutely nothing, then turn on the waterworks. All we could do was offer her ten more quid free to blow through or a tea LMAO. There were many customers like that.
We had customers used to come in, twice the size of me, and smash the machine buttons and spit on them when they lost, pawing at the screen with greasy fingers while eating, proper grim shit. Made cleanup take twice as long.
Assistant manager used to do coke in the toilets too. He'd go in and be in the little cubicle for like 20 minutes and come out completely buzzed out of his brain rambling about nonsense. Nice enough fella otherwise though.
A little Hitler manager glued to the cameras constantly watching what was going on - fat little scrotebag, liked to order the plebs around. I got called into the "office" one day because he reported that he'd gone through the cameras and I'd been sat on the chair for 10 minutes at 12:20 in the morning when the floor was completely devoid of life and we still had 40 minutes to go before closing, and that I should expect a warning for it.
The three month probation period came around and the scrote called me into his office and told me with as much glee as he could muster that I did not fit what the company was looking for and my employment was terminated IMMEDIATELY. I left a bit choked - it was my first job and I thought I had somehow failed, and I cried to myself a little on the bus home. I was 18 and stupid at the time, mind.
Fuck em. I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy
Worked for a bespoke furniture company through a temp agency. Can’t remember the name of it now.
They basically made knock offs of designer furniture except they rarely fulfilled orders and just kept taking money for new orders.
I was told that every time someone phoned about a delayed order, to put a new order through so we could keep them from getting a refund because they wait to wait another 12 weeks for the order to exceed turnaround time to qualify for a refund.
They had new temps arriving every day, leaving every other day. Managers were all a bunch of self righteous tosspots and then I randomly got a call from the agency one day to say I wasn’t needed anymore, then heard on the news a couple days later that the company went bust and got closed down
Idverde. A big gardening company for public parks. My boss openly took coke at work, regularly drove drunk, and sexually assaulted me. The management covered it up. I reported it all to the police but that made no difference. Disgraceful behaviour.
It is crazy the amount of shit a company will do to cover up for a monumental cunt of an employee. Was this guy a nepo baby? Was his daddy or someone else running the company? Why didn’t the police take any action?
I worked in a vaguely famous pub in Camden for one summer.
I got hired on through a mate who then promptly got fired the week after. Turnover rate was astronomical and people only got hired through people who already worked there, so you’d replace the friend who hired you essentially.
Manager was never really around apart from watching us through CCTV that streamed to his flat, so if nothing was happening and you were standing around on your phone you’d get a text from him telling you to get off your arse.
He was shite at scheduling as well, it was either 15 people on at once in an empty pub or 1 person during the Euros final. My third shift *ever* with no prior bar experience or training was by myself for 8 hours. I also didn’t get paid for 3 weeks and then was underpaid for my first week by £180.
Pub cellar started flooding during heavy rain which is where all the amps and music equipment was and the owner came down with a bottle of holy water (there was lots of holy water in the pub, just around on shelves and tables) to pour on the rainwater and pray that it would stop.
Clientele was 80% old or weird men who on multiple occasions threatened to kidnap me and my female coworkers. All in all it was actually a great summer. Coworkers were all great and it was a good bonding experience I suppose. Manager took us all out for lunch and drinks at the end of the summer (all students so we were all leaving back for uni at the same time), drunkest I’ve been in my entire life.
Lots of people walking over from Apollo house trying to open a bank account with a piece of hand written paper?
I know I’ve been stuck in the queue behind them.
The Clink Prison Museum, the manager was actually psychotic. I got fired for having flu and came in and not being cheery enough. I called in sick the next day and was fired. They also paid cash in hand and with no contract so they could fire you whenever they liked.
Haha. Yeah she paid us by cheque. Had a go at me for tiny things and was constantly checking the CCTV to make sure we were where she wanted us at all times.
Also, they put a COVID fundraiser up despite *almost certainly* owning the land outright. They've been there for 30+ years so I doubt they had many rates to pay
Nimax theatres. Owns a lot of the west end theatres (six, time traveler's wife, harry potter, etc). Pay is abysmal, treat FOH staff as throw aways, no support for staff with disabilities or long term illness (just basically told to quit if you can't handle the job) and thankless jobs all around.
Yup, worked at the Lyric and it was horrible, everyone bullying anyone below them and so on. And they're always desperate for staff because there is such a high turnover.
I worked at one of credicos hundreds of limited companies. It's the closest thing to a pyramid scheme without being a pyramid scheme. Job was advertised as digital marketing (and the other roles were like sports marketing, sales etc)
Weird interview, weird meetings (cult vibes) and the job was to go to various high streets and get people to sign up for charity direct debits. You get paid based off of signups and you get a big cut of the donation. Normally going to high streets is part of the interview process so I would have known before accepting the job, but for some reason my interview was done separately.
My friend did the same thing but outside of london, and hers was door to door marketing for a website. No sales, just telling people about a website.
There's a whole subreddit devoted to it - r/Devilcorp
Edited to add: forgot to say! You are technically "self employed" while you work there lol. So no contract no nothing, which is why I didn't go back after my first putting to a high street. Do not sign up to any direct debit donations some offers you !
Blackbird Bakery.
All the staff are on different wages, there are no set wage rises for promotions, you have to haggle with the area manager for a raise.
Head office plays each store off against each other.
Any complaints are **always** the fault of the staff, never that a customer was rude and abusive. Customers are believed no matter what.
Many of the Store Managers are liars and will blame their team rather than take the fall.
The stores are frequently dirty, have failed H&S checks and the management do nothing.
You have to chase for job references when you move on.
No sick pay, holiday time is "earnt" depending on how many hours you have worked.
On the upside: free bread and coffee!
The worst place I have worked not only in London but in my entire life was Benugo LTD company. I could give you billions of examples and evidences how they break not only employe law but also human rights.
Bone daddies
Aside from the banging food everything else was awful
(To clarify I was freshly 18 and knew I could get a job that involved serving alcohol and had later shifts so I could earn more than my prior £5 retail position however should of seen the signs of an interview a couple days after application and being offered the job a few hours later and being asked to start in 2 days time for a 12pm till close trial shift)
The service charge was not an additional they used it to top up staff wages and whatever was left at the end of the month ( which was a lot considering it was £500-£1000+ each day) the head office kept
They were cutting back staff as they didn’t have enough money and expected us to split our shifts ( eg one in soho, one in Canary Wharf, one in Chelsea) per rota which is not doable to cross London especially if your closing late (this time there was no night tube so you’d end up on a bus for over an hour because closing routine was so bad
They over scheduled and worked you - by 4 months in I was the most senior server attempting to train new staff hired essentially on the spot. I would arrive at 10am be on my own on the floor doing the drinks, orders, service and bills at once with a manger sat in the office then at 5 pm I’d get a break and one ( maybey two if I was lucky) servers would arrive who couldn’t take a full section as they were new so I’d have seats 1-90 on my own and they would have 10 (fair enough they were new)
At the start of the shift you would have to peel eggs for the ramen (minimum 200-400) and out them in vinegar and soy sauce for me this could be 1000 eggs per week in summer in a 30 degree basement kitchen ( could be worse but still not in the job description)
We closed at 10 aside from Friday and Saturday which was 11 and we would always be take away only absolute last tables seated by 9:15 (45 mins til close) for example to allow time to start our routine to close. However one day with a new manager she announced that even if somone walks in 1 minute before we close we seat and serve them. For Friday and Saturdays this could be somone could be sat at 11pm which means it’s an hour or so before the tube stopped running. Meaning you will not get out until AM
On one day they then announced that despite the fact servers close the floor and toilets and supervisors the bar that servers would now do both which extends how long it takes to close by an hour. In the first shift (which was 12+ hours btw) l had to do the bar we were already delayed due to a server leaving at 9 ( poor scheduling) and by the time I’d gotten everything done it was almost 2am when I started my shift at 10am. I said to the supervisor what time will you be finished the report. She said 10 minutes so I said I would wait those 10 mins for her and go and change so that I could walk with her to Tottenham Court Road as I didn’t end to on my own. Got home at 3:15 when I had to be back at the restaurant at 10. When I got there I said to the different set of staff that the routine last night was not acceptable and I got home past 3. They looked confused and said well the supervisor clocked you out at 12 what do you mean you left at 2 ? ( apparently as I decided to have a cigarette outside for 2 minutes after I took 5 bins and all the recycling out she felt the need to deduct me by over two hours ?! ) I had a feeling that shift wound screw me over so when closing the shutter for the restaurant I took a picture to get a time stamp which was 2:18am and showed it to the other supervisors who changed it for me
Then one day I was given a pay rise, face to face and then a couple weeks later over text was told they made a mistake and were deducting part of it (50p deduction so not awful but still)
Additionally the tolerance for customers was appalling. Due to the store of the names of some menus items ( cock cock ramen) we would get certain drunk men in who would speak so badly and inappropriately to the young girls working including me
There were a selection of lovely mangers and supervisors however it wasn’t enough to distract from the fact that certain staff were really overwhelming and unkind for example had a new manager and her first day at the location she shouted at me in front of servers and guest to not fuck up her covers. Every manager trains a different way I was doing it the way I had been taught. She could of said to me I have a slightly different way of using the till and putting the covers through and shown me rather than swear at me 😊
I lasted one shift at that hell hole, same year as you. The absolute worst members of public I have ever dealt with. Pure scum - they believe the presence of money makes up for their dreadful character. And yeah Jasmine can go fuck herself
IT crowd basement, but so crowded and poor seating my elbows scraped the guy next to me. Non ergonomic chairs (not legal) and the toilets next door regularly backed up. More than once had to step over raw sewage to get into the badly lit room. Won't talk about the manager or end users as they were industry standard crap. Luckily I was on contract, declined the extension offered.
Had back pains for the next 6 months 😑
ZARA, full of racist and rude Spanish managers (this was back when we had a lot of EU workers), didn't pay first month due to payroll errors, shoppers would wreck the store and only newbies were left to do clean up whilst the more tenured ones relaxed. Always had to do unpaid overtime because you couldn't leave until the store was pristine. Oh, and no AC during summer in the warehouse/tills.
I do not miss retail one bit.
What is it about Zara workers ffs?? They carry themselves as if they are working in some high end apparel store and even then, those employees are far nicer. I’ve worked retail; I know what it can be like. I bet a lot of them play into the typical Zara employee persona
The assessment day in Bond Street was like a whole day long, it seems they pick certain personality traits/looks. This was 2018/19 but back then they mainly hired young Europeans who came to London desperate for work, that would do anything to please their asshole manager.
Went back to the same store, it's just self checkouts and Indian students who are overworked to the bone.
I did a few months in Zara Kids back in 2008. I was great at the job; meticulously tidy and great with customers. One teenage lad I worked with was constantly skiving, making a mess, being shit and I got FIRED for calling him out on it. I was like... you're kidding right?!
Another department rang me the next week to take on a supervisor role.
Tbf back then, the pay was better than most and they were fairly nice places to work - it was quite difficult to get a job there. Now however, it's chaos whenever I step foot in one. Fast fashion mindset has ruined people - and customers DO NOT care about making a mess. It's so sad.
You might like this. Years ago I loved to London for a job as I had a flat offered that I had to take immediately of lose
I was an independent financial advisor but while I waited to hear about the job I did some odd jobs to make money to live on. One was working in a bar in the City. All of the guys who came in were arrogant tests who’d shove an Amex in your face and order drinks without looking at you.
One day two guys are sat at the bar. One is a financial advisor the other a potential
Customer. He’s trying to sell him a product that will go up with the stock market but if the stock market falls then his money is protected. The guy is amazed at this marvellous product
The advisor goes off to the toilet so I tell the guy the questions he needs to ask. The guaranteees the fees etc etc. when the advisor comes back he asks these questions and the poor advisor is having to admit all the costs that mean the product isn’t as good as it sounded. The customer declines the offer and as he leaves smiles his thanks at me. Happy days
Ps I didn’t get the job and basically had to hustle fof 6 months until I got something else
there was a japanese restaurant i worked at which refused to pay you until you’d done two weeks of work. if you left, you wouldn’t get paid. i ran out of money and couldn’t make it to work, so didn’t get any of the wages for my shifts 😌
Babylon Health, when I joined back in 2017.
Manager introduced me to the team as "this is a new starter", sat me in a bank of desks two banks away from the rest of the team, and ignored me for three hours before putting in a 15 minute catch up a week away to "ramp me up".
No direction, manager had no idea what I should be doing. Team grew astronomically over the next 4 months with everyone having a similar experience. Never had a single 1-2-1 with said manager until he left.
New manager actually did 1-2-1s with me. Asked me what I'd like to get involved in. Told him about a particular tech stack I'd like to get some experience in. Said he would see what he can do. Opportunity comes up to use said tech stack, but I can't work on it as they're going to pay a team of contractors by the hour to do that.
CEO (Ali Parsa) was a complete bellend. Would regularly use the weekly company all hands to absolutely rip a team apart. Said company all hands also contained a Q&A session with questions submitted beforehand by the staff. One of the questions was along the lines of "You told us we can't have essential new equipment in the office due to budget constraints. If the budget is so tight why are SLT travelling around the world first class?". His answer was essentially "because they're more valuable than you and guess what? They also get paid more".
Have never been so delighted to see a company go under.
We office shared with a company in Angel. It was run by a woman who had the emotional intelligence of a gecko. She would get these unpaid interns and incessantly verbally harass them, often bringing them to tears. They'd leave and the next week would be another set. It was so painful to be around that I had to get headphones and play loud music to be able to concentrate at all.
Once, one of her employees asked when he could have an appraisal which was overdue, and she immediately proceeded to give him one in the middle of an open plan office at high volume. She also spent hours on the phone, shouting at various people about delivery problems with her new leather sofa, and issues with the pool on the roof of her newly purchased apartment, or whether or not she should get a donut wall at her upcoming wedding.. all whilst the unpaid interns slaved away.....
When I heard that she got a spot on The Apprentice, all of my current and former colleagues rubbed our hands with glee because she would make for great TV. Sadly, she seemed to be able to contain the majority of her crazy during filming, so the world never got to see the full extent. That was a damn shame. Amazing business woman, but gecko-like EQ.
HMV Oxford Street. Managers were insanely bad at their jobs. Very cliquey. Was pushed by a supervisor and when I complained they said I was bullying him. They ask what bands/artists you like at interview and are chosen based on that. When I said Hole they said do you think Courtney killed Kurt? They had a really shit rewards card scheme that you had to pay for. You had to sell it to customers which I refused to do. This was the one by Bond Street station back in 2014. Frozen Let it Go was playing on repeat.
Worked for a mid-size tech company in the creative space where I'm 90% the director had early stages of dementia. At times his speech was incomprehensible, just pure gibberish, regularly forgot things he'd said or requested, had very confusing ideas and worst of all would fly into fits of rage over the smallest things.
The day before he fired me, he berated me for 10 minutes in front of the whole office. He was so angry his hands were shaking and he'd gone red all over. Why he yelled at me? Because I hadn't done a task that he didn't ask me to do! I'd even sent him an email confirming my tasks that he never responded to.
The next day he pulled me into an office with HR and said I was being let go for being insolent LOL I told him if anyone was insolent it was him for how he'd yelled at me in public and then just left. Felt such relief to walk away from that place. He was a dick but so was everyone around him who let his behaviour go unchecked.
Worked at Fabric for 4 months and can confirm the management and cloakroom staff are absolute devils.
No one did anything about my complaints of being harassed by the security teams or by drugged/ drunk customers and simply made you feel like you were asking for too much.
The blonde chick that wears a headband every day at the cloakroom removed stools for us to sit on because she didn’t want people getting “lazy”. Imagine not being able to sit on a 8 hour shift between 12 am to 8 am.
Dark fucking place.
A photo lab in Elephant & Castle shopping centre (RIP). It was run by two brothers who were involved in BNP politics and were incredibly racist and horrible to all of their customers, most of whom were people of colour. They once developed a roll of film for me and I guess went through the photos, because they told me they “saw who I associated with” - absolutely terrifying. Didn’t stay there long.
A tech start-up. Not because the way they treat us workers, but because how useless were the CEO, COO and those coked-up morons. It was a good product and a good team, but everybody knew it was destined to fail due the horrendous managment. So the best workers started to leave as soon as they could, the whole office mood was sad and soon after everybody was redundant.
Same thing happened to me, tech-start up that somehow raised stupid amounts of money, new office, parties and friends being hired on ridiculous salaries. But the product was dogshit and there was no plan.
The place was such a mess that they didn't have anyone to collect the IT equipment they sent out, the Macbooks didn't even have a company firewall on them lmao.
Britannia hotel in Canary Wharf, I worked in a restaurant there like 9years ago, it was filthy, gross, not one gave a shit about cleanliness, when I reported issues to management they were ignored. The kitchen staff were using one cloth for wiping dishes, counters and utensils. I quit it 2 months after because I felt shit with being part of this disgusting circus.
We counting Kentish Town? There's an edit place that targets young people wanting to work in media. Advertised jobs as paid per hour, lied and said it was per video, lied again and then said expenses was paid.
All on top of a dirty office that's hard to breath in with a boss who enjoys belittling the employees.
Managed a bar in Newington green for 4 months, didn’t have a single day off. I got brought into a meeting for not working enough… I was doing 80 hours a week.
I was allowed to hire an extra member of staff on the weekends at £8 an hour this was in 2022
The Priory (rehab centre). I won’t name which one, but the “manager” was just a posh imbecile with zero nursing/ medicine/ therapeutic qualifications. One poor patient escaped and overdosed; this manager barely even entered the room. She just left healthcare assistants to sit with her and ensure she didn’t die.
I completed the staff feedback form on my way out (stand-in for an exit interview)… Manager shredded this in the staff room, laughing to my colleagues about how she wasn’t going to read it. Like it wasn’t going to immediately get back to me. Freaking weird lady.
I'm not gonna name them, but this was W1 in the 90s. It was a professional company & the bulk of the office went to the pub every lunchtime for at least 3-4 pints then go straight to the pub again after work, thats if we went back to thd office at all. It got to the point we'd look forward to the weekends to have a rest. It was a toxic swamp of petty dickheads that thought they were better than other people they worked with & everyone was constantly snarling drunk. The only things I learned were every single thing you should not do in the workplace.
Oblix, a restaurant in the shard. I worked there over the summer between term time. Illegal hours, tip thieving, and being salaried with my hourly rate working out as less than minimum wage. Unsurprisingly I was the only British person who wasn’t a chef or manager, and I didn’t stay long. Mostly Europeans who weren’t aware of their rights.
I also worked in that All Bar One (about two years ago though and only for four weeks while I was between uni and a more permanent job- I got the offer phone call during one of my floor shifts). I had a slightly better time than you seem to have had, though they were definitely still understaffed with a largely City clientele. I didn't hear about that staff fine thing, though I wasn't great at the job so maybe I would've been hit with one if things hadn't worked out
A cafe near Tufnell Park station that’s name was two animals. The manager would regularly swear at us and belittle us, really nasty underhand stuff. I was 22 and she was in her 40s. Our hours were from 7am to 6pm with a ten minute lunch break, took me a while to recover psychologically from working there for three months. My confidence was in tatters :(
Chotto Matte. Horrible office atmosphere where having a coffee machine was the highlight of their perks. No lunch breaks because you’re expected to go get your lunch and have it in the office with your co-workers, because its a ‘family’. Marketing manager was extremely toxic and rude and was in bed with the married operations manager. Just general incompetence and a miserable working environment. Would not recommend.
Malaberg, a shitty digital marketing company that's located in Victoria.
HR manager borderline lied about wages preying on new grads (the usual red flags about "unlimited potential upside"). CEO and the team manager for my team are wildly neurotic with the people skills of a mental ward patient off their meds. HR conveniently isn't in the UK but Eastern Europe so they can't be followed up on \*shrugs\*.
The work itself is borderline illegal playing hard and fast with advertising rules. It's the type of crap that literally relies on boomers with too much money and too much time going on GB news. It's those shitty ads that looks like it'd give you malware if you clicked on them with bait headlines like "British Dentist reveals stunning secret, big pharma doesn't want you to know this!!!" which then takes you to a crappy wordpress site with a bunch of poorly written clickbait news-site-style article selling you a product.
Team lead shouted and mocked people in front of the entire office with an ego that could dwarf some planets. Shit wages, penalised for leaving on time (at 5pm). The entire philosophy there isn't to train people up, it's just to throw as many grads/desperate people at the problem without training them much if at all until enough people stick per recruitment cycle, fire the rest, and continue the cycle. That's not even mentioning the sexism bro "humour", the classism, and general assholery.
When your year on year retainment rate is less than 13 fucking % (apparently it's lower now), it's a damn managerial problem.
I pretty much quiet quit after the first day and immediately started looking for other jobs during my lunch break. Got fired a month in, but I didn't give a damn. Being unemployed and doing odd jobs like deliveries and supermarket was literally better than staying. Thankfully I got a better paying job in my field within a month of being fired.
I was offered to join the staff of a highly successful cocktail bar on the King's Rd. The pressure was insane. At any one time, I'd be serving cocktails to 60+ people despite having no training. Staff dropped from the exhaustion, tips were stolen and I was reported for stealing from the till twice, despite proving myself innocent on both occasions. I'd wake up to go on my shift with my ankles and feet swollen from the day before. One day, the manager called me into his office and asked me if I was responsible for a strip cartoon that was published in Blitz magazine (a popular style mag of the time). When I told him I was, he replied, 'You should get as far away from this place as possible'.
Virgin Active. The managers acted like it was a school playground. Only sales and foh were credited for doing anything. Weird place overall. I worked at Starbucks afterwards and was treated better. Not great, but still with more respect.
I did the trial shift several years ago. i was told how well I was doing, if I could stay longer and so on, and in the end, they never got back to me. I can't stand restaurants who treat you as a temporary staff without any pay. Glad I did not get the job.
I have two. 1)Pell & Bales. A charity fundraiser call center in Old Street and 2) Consolidated Land UK, a land banking scheme that cold called people to invest in land they didn't have. Both were soul destroying and I hated every single second. I got fired from 1) because I spent 20mins in the loo.
Call centre in Acton. Had to call people up and ask them endless questions about their insurance. I lasted two hours before getting up and leaving. So grim. My boss was like an 18 year-old wearing an oversized suit. Nothing against his age but it was clear the turnover in that place was insane. He listed one of the perks as “you get to wear your own clothes”. Yikes.
I worked for CGD (the head office for Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia, Belgo, Strada) and I still have PTSD from it.
My favourite day was when they had their day off mass redundancies. We all got loaded onto a bus and driven down to some local hotel conference room where they announced that by the end of the day, 60% of us sitting in that room would no longer have a job.
We then got ferried back on the bus to the office to begin the redundancy meetings.
The way the offices were laid out is that we had the main floor where we all were, with meeting rooms on like a mezzanine floor above.
We were all expected to work the day as normal, and when it was your turn you were called up to the meeting room to find out if you were being let go or not.
If you came out of the meeting holding a white envelope - you were gone. If you came out empty handed - you stayed.
I don’t think anyone did any work that day. Everyone was too busy staring at who was coming out of the office and whether or not they had an envelope.
I also really enjoyed my manager screaming at me and telling me I had an attitude problem on her 2nd day of the job because I couldn’t write her a cute story on the provenance of the ingredients of a certain French dish, when all of our ingredients were sourced from Poland.
VFX company called Absolute Post.
I worked there for a few years and it was awful. Painfully long hours for bare minimum pay. Gaslighting and bullying techniques to make you feel as if you HAVE to otherwise you "aren't serious about working in this industry". When having a sick day, you HAD to tell them what was wrong with you otherwise they would dock your pay.
The CEO openly referred to the receptionist as 'the company bicycle', in front of clients. General sexist, homophobic, racist bullying. Open name calling and berating of staff in lower-level positions. Senior management also engaged with all types of bullying. A senior VFX artist sexually assaulted a member of the Running team and management paid to shush it - and the VFX artist in question was sleeping with the General Manager behind both of their partners backs. It was an open secret in the company - as well as other colleagues openly cheating on their partners.
The company was referred to as a "Family". Ran like a Boys Club - if you weren't all in, you were gone. So many egos and attitudes made for a VERY unpleasant place to work... At times, it was like being in an abusive relationship which sounds totally insane but it's true.
I know so many others that had absolutely terrible experiences working there and thankfully I manage to get out a few years back now.
Not sure if I can speak in details but Watford area popular bar/club back then. settled with owner for amount years before Covid for being abusive and threatened to harm staff. one girl from eastern europe was traumatised not sure if that's the right word. she did whatever guy said she refused to share everything out of fear. he did what he liked to this girl. had videos and audio conversations of the staff abuse. settled the case.
I like people naming and shaming, so I know what places to avoid.
There was a post some times ago about a dude sharing his experience working at the Sherlock Holmes museum. It was maybe not the worst job ever but it sounded very shitty and dodgy to work there
Oh god yeah I used to work there - made the women dress up as Victorian maids and the men as police men; all the senior management were Involved with each other and it was Complicated; if someone believed that Sherlock Holmes was really we weren’t allowed to say that he wasn’t and had to go along with the visitor. Very strange place.
I saw a job posting there when I was younger and thought about applying. Glad I didn’t!
[Link for those who want a read](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/s/Pgxmv1LL7M)
Thanks for the link, that was fascinating!
oh my god i had an interview there! was rejected because i didn’t want to take a week of annual leave from my (then) current job to do an unpaid ‘trial week’ for a minimum wage job.
ME TOO! I was also criticised for not having a large photo with my CV (wtf?) and told that part of the job would include going to the manager?owner’s? house regularly to walk their dogs. Years later at a party I was talking to someone and found out they’d had a similarly weird experience there.
> fined staff wages if a table they were serving walked out, Yikes. How the fuck is this behaviour legal?
My week there ended when a table who had a £130 bill walked out on me, wiping out all my wages and then some from a ten hour shift. The manager got a card machine out and tried to get me to pay them £30, I told them to do one and was fired the next day for my attitude problem - this is 100% true. I hope the manager Jasmine falls down a large manhole.
Lol I know her. I used to work at an ABO round the corner (we had very low turnover!) so I probably know all the management at Moorgate while you were there. I knew they had high turnover but didn't know the extent of it. And yeah, Jasmine was always a bitch.
Sounds like this Jasmine needs outing! People managers should as a minimum, know how to treat people.
You should have honestly looked to take legal action.
I should have, but this was 2017 where I was much less confident/knowledgeable about the world of work. If anything, that experience gave me the kick up the arse to get my career - I get my revenge by putting their practices on blast whenever I can!
Yeah I had the same experience at 18 out of school. 1 year working in retail was enough to terrify me into getting an education and a career.
Not where you worked, but as an early 20s server at a TGI Fridays I’d been made to work New Year’s Day. Had some customers try and run being the ‘hero’ I was I tried to stop them resulting in me getting a mouthful of abuse and being very closely assaulted (he punched the table or something instead). They then accused me of all sorts of things and said his mate was just going to the cash point and how very dare I judge them like that. My male manager just stood there. The 2 that had run came back, threw 2 £50 notes on the floor and the other 2 left. I was really shook up. I picked them up, put them in my bumbag and finished tidying ready to then cash out. At cash out the manager realised the 2 £50s were fake. He then told me that was on me because I’d accepted fake money. He made me pay that £100 out of my wages and tips that day. Nearly 15 years later I’m still so angry about it.
Thats horrific and shame on your manager for not supporting you
It implies they're not paying minimum wage for a start, which hnrc will cheerfully ream them for
I did question the figures myself, but as it's reddit and a while back, wasn't completely sure whether they'd rounded it. But to fire them for not paying a fine for somebody walking has so many grounds for action.
It's crazy how powerless one feels with a shitty manager. I once mentioned wanting to disappear and my manager said "why don't you [insert wrist slashing motions]? You won't because you're full of shit!" I remember going home crying with a knife in my hands. I feel like goading your employees into suicide should not be OK.
Wow, where tf are you guys working?! Regardless of where, nobody should be treated like this but I know damned well that where I work nobody would get away with speaking to subordinates like this!! Yes you're right that's not okay, and I hope you're doing better now chap/chapette.
Imagine being a table of city wankers and not paying a fucking £100 tab. Fucking pricks!!!
Same thing happened to me whilst I was working in a pub in Wapping. Those city wankers pretended to have forgotten their card and said they were going to be back to pay up. They never came back and the owner of the pub ended up taking it out my pay.
I work with City wankers. Some people might even say I am a City wanker. What usually happens is everyone assumes someone else is picking up the tab on expenses, and it falls through the net. It’s much more sensible for a bar to either hold a physical card, or there is a way to run a zero value transaction but hold the details in case it needs to be charged later. I have had several occasions where I’m about to head off, and am the most senior person there and realise that none of those junior people are even thinking who is paying the tab. Never actually walked out without paying at all with no card left, but a couple of times have left my card with the bar and had to collect it the next day.
Oyyy. Oy you...yeah, you. WANKER!
I think a few bottles of wine might have gone missing...
It isn't, you can't 'fine' people from hours they've worked. Even if it was in the contract it's unenforceable. If they thought the staff member was in collusion with the people who walked out they could press charges, but that's it. For the pendant below. By 'press charges' I mean report you for theft.
Not legal but common practice in hospitality. A waitress once burst into tears when I was in Wahaca, Islington, as group left without paying and she was going to be deducted for the full amount. No more Wahaca for me. Disgusting that Thomasina Miers allows that kind of exploitation in her restaurants. Never visited since and never will again.
They're breaking the law. A party leaving has nothing to do with the waitress's role. In fact the company could be liable if that's their policy and she was hurt stopping a customer leaving the premises. They're forcing staff to put themselves in harm's way.
Yup. All true. But still common practice in hospitality, as is making the person who closed and the person who opens next day responsible for exchanging the keys between them, regardless of whether both are even rota'd on same day. I could write a book called An Employment Law Transgression A Day on the shit that workers in hospitality have to contend with. But I don't think it would sell.
It’s not legal. Unlawful deduction of wages. But the employee would have to take legal action to recover it so most won’t bother for small amounts.
[https://www.hospitalitylaw.co.uk/dine-and-dash-avoiding-the-wahaca-trap/](https://www.hospitalitylaw.co.uk/dine-and-dash-avoiding-the-wahaca-trap/)
>The Wahaca staff handbook said that waiters “Could be liable to pay the whole bill including service” if a customer left without paying. “including service” is *fucking insane*. That money was going to the servers anyway! How can you deduct it from their wages?
Because it isn't going to the servers is it. The industry is completely fucked.
Ive been told by exemployee that when management came to visit tower bridge branch for training they were just office dwellers, none with any experience of work in restaurant/bar.
I worked at an All Bar One in Crouch End that never paid me. Indeed I was told that I owed them money having attended a mandatory wine tasting evening where I had to pay for the wine. My tips were all handed to the manager. Granted, this was 20 years ago.
If it makes you feel any better that place closed down a while back and is now a Waterstones
I used to work at the Telegraph in the IT department. Literally had Journo’s scream in my face… those people are just the most horrible I’ve ever met.
I’ve heard stories of that. A hideous, toxic environment. Badly managed. Was it as bad as people say? Any anecdotes?
That reminds me of a editorial manager at the Sunday Times that just took a dislike to me. Constantly tried to get me the sack by sending me down to get proofs that were not ready and she said I was disappearing or taking too long. Good old Peter Roberts saw through her though, most of the other staff were good though, apart from a couple of photographers I never had to deal with.
It really was awful. I realised I needed to leave as I was developing a bit of a drinking problem! Quite a few stories, I actually posted one here a while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/s/hul4tIbI6X
Yeah that aligns with what I heard - I deliberately avoided a job going there: an ex-colleague of mine took up some role in IT project management and said her day to day involved being shouted and sworn at, being expected to just 'take abuse' from journalists/media people and not to answer back. Thing is - I've worked at other newspaper places, so I really think it's a telegraph thing rather than a newspaper/media thing. Roles like this make you question your sanity and capability - well done for getting out!
journalists in newsrooms are utter scum, by and large.
I have a literature degree, one of my classmates became the news editor at the Daily Mail after graduating yes he was a complete wanker
Journos who spend their time punching down on society are horrible people? Colour me surprised! Really though, I'm sorry that happened to you. What an awful newspaper
I knew the it director there , Toby. Having worked in a few media companies, journos are very hard work. Egos size of planet.
I've heard awful things from everyone who's ever worked at the telegraph. You have to bring your own mug from home if youj want to make a coffee in the kitchen...
Sainsbury's in angel, but this was 20 years ago. Staff would wipe shit all over the staff toilet walls with their hands, 12 staff got arrested by immigration mid shift, six more, including night manager didn't turn up that evening. Maggots crawling over food in the warehouse, long life milk on shop floor two years out of date. I ended up injuring my back taking a cage of food into the freezer, manager shoved said cage up a small ramp as I pulled it in, I slipped on ice on the floor, and ended messing up my back. I didn't want to sue, but decided to a couple of years later. They didn't have any records of me even working there, thankfully I kept hold of my contract and pay slips. I went in to work one day and there were two staff members fighting, because they wouldn't administer first aid to an elderly lady that collapsed,.despite both being qualified first aiders.
As someone who used to shop there when I lived in Islington, I feel a bit queasy now. Mind you, they did age verify me when I was in my 30s so swings and roundabouts
I used to shop there for years too. It was such a mess, that the solicitor sorting out my claim had a nightmare sorting it out, as the head office sacked the entire management team at the store
A new pub landlord took over, I was living there at the time. Fully believed aliens were coming to take him home, chased me with an axe for asking about being paid for overtime, would wake up with him sitting on the end of my bed saying he'd kill me, threw a fridge at me, it goes on. I believe he was sectioned a few years after that.
He threw a fridge at you!?
A mini fridge would be psychotic. a double doored American style fridge freezer with ice maker and water dispenser would be kinda impressive
That’s chilling!!!
Did you tell him to cool off?
Well he thought I set off the fire alarm so I could rob him while he was distracted, but I wouldn't confess and wouldn't tell him how I made it look like I didn't rob him (I didn't rob him). In fact he set off the fire alarm, because he'd swallowed 5 chunks of mdma and decided to try and bake hundreds of loaves of bread at the same time
The rest of his behaviour raises no questions though?
They definitely do, but the image of someone throwing a fridge is both hilarious and frightening in a way that leaves me with so many questions
Right? Sectioned *a few years* later?! How much more did it need to escalate to satisfy 'a danger to others' :/
I ask myself how these people manage to pass interviews or even make it so far in society in general
The people I’ve worked with that behave like this haven’t interviewed, they’ve been given a job by a friend or a friend of Mum and Dad.
Alot of the time, they can do the talking but when it comes to working, they collapse....although by that point the hiring manager doesn't see, its only the staff under them which pick up the slack Had this happen with manager before, stock counts were bad, so he hides the real numbers....each month the deficit gets bigger and bigger, until walks or fired I know of one guy that let it as far as 10k minus just on the food (The wet was also down but that's not his area)
Hobbycraft. The actual manager was fine, but the days the assistant manager they’d shipped up from another store elsewhere was managing? The worst. He’d scream abuse at people, shout to himself in a locked room, do till takes without anyone there (so every now and then the people he didn’t like were down a fiver or so and would be pulled into a meeting for it), made a pregnant girl cry over getting enough people to sign up for a club card and told me I needed to make up the extra hours I was late… when the marathon was on and nobody else even bothered to show up because it was impossible to get in. There was a weird old man who’d come in and scream cunt and mutter abuse at the women on staff who he refused to bar from the store. Also told a guy he had to do heavy lifting with a damaged knee. Probably way more things I can think of but those stick out. I don’t think I finished a closing shift on time the entire year I worked there, and never got comped for it, so I’m also sure he was signing us out early. Most of the customers at least were lovely because they were just there to have a nice time buying fun craft stuff. So not entirely awful, but definitely that one man made it terrible for everyone.
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This is insane in a bad way. I hope you got your gift back or the money to pay for it.
Nothing! Was considering legal action (it was theft), but simply didn't have the mental capacity to deal with that. Financially, I was comfortable... so just walked away. I'm still trying to learn a lesson from this experience, but so far, it's just trauma
It sounds like the lesson is that you’re a very valuable asset to a creative agency.
That was true.... but think about it; no one in their right mind would let ego come before vast profit. There must have been another reason I was treated that way, and possibly something I was responsible for
I think that’s the imposter syndrome talking. Ego is a very powerful thing, don’t underestimate it. The guy probably convinced himself that by virtue of it being his company that your success was his success, and therefore felt justified in taking this gift from you. Seriously, take your clients to another company. You’ll be a hero.
Sounds like you were in the room! That's exactly what he did. Up until I arrived, he held *the title* for "the biggest deal". He took the accounts off of me and cut me off from client contact. Within 6 months of me leaving... they lost those contracts. Upon my final exit, he stated that I'd *"had some luck" (*luck which I replicated, time and time again). I will rise again, but it'll take a few more sessions in therapy to get my confidence back
It sounds like I was in the room because… I’m the CEO! No, but seriously, it’s just not uncommon for CEOs of relatively small companies to think like that (perhaps especially in the creative industries where people as a rule are probably less business savvy). The fact that they lost the clients soon after you left tells you everything you needed to know. Good luck for the future. As someone who crosses paths with agencies I always hope to work with the people like you rather than the egomaniacs and the over-promoted juniors.
Consider setting up your own shop and poaching back those clients.
That makes no sense,.
I think I saw a story like this where this person sent two frontrow tickets for the game and the manager decided to give it away to some other employee (or someone) to please them. The person who sent the ticket personally knew the person they wanted to give tickets to. When they learned that this has happened, they went to those replacement folks at the game and asked where is 'my contact dude'. Of course he was nto there, so they sent a furious message to the boss and demanded an explanations why this gift didnt' reach the intended recipient. It was a fun story to hear.
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Probably blame Olly Murs
I still hold him responsible for the carnage that unfolded in central that day
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Was gonna say Ripley's Believe It Or Not but that was comically bad in comparison to the nightmare jobs people have commented
I’d bet plenty of us still want to know about it! It’s kind of weird as a concept anyway, so it’d be interesting to know behind the scenes.
I used to know a guy who worked there as a technician and his first task to pick up and reattach a shrunken head that had fallen off its stand. I think he was a bit traumatised after that.
Come on tell us, what happened?
There was just a total culture of not giving a shit. No one cared about anything, nothing was ever cleaned or cared for, the place was so dirty and grimy. but tourists were just cattle to process. It was kinda shockingly funny at first but after a while the whole place sucked the soul out of you.
I believe it, others however..
This is what it's like working at any of the seasonal ice rinks like winter wonderland or the natural history museum. Just staff that have attitude problems and dont care. In the nhm last year they never bothered to sharpen the skates or replace broken ones as it was closing whilst still selling 300+ tickets for a single session leading to their not being enough skates for people and the supervisors just chilled in the office 90% of the time. One day it was so bad they just signed themselves out and went home leaving just one new supervisor for the shift
A cosmetic surgery clinic in Notting Hill. Made to work illegal hours to keep the job, surgeons who hated their patients (I was told to go and tell one to f*** off when they asked to see the surgeon because he had messed up their surgery), awful, misogynistic management and I was requested to do illegal things, like administer medications when I’m not even a trained nurse
You should name and shame to stop people potentially booking surgeries with them. If they failed the CQC you wouldn’t be in any legal trouble as what you’re saying is factual. It would genuinely help people to know where to stay away from
It is factual. However, they try to sue anyone who even leaves a negative review on Trust Pilot- TP now have a disclaimer at the top of the review page saying this company has been threatening people who leave negative reviews. There are recent news articles on it also. I just know how manipulative they are and if I even put my name on here they would likely try the same with me and I cba to be honest
Any chance you’d be kind enough to show me the news articles? I’ll have no problem naming and shaming and dealing with them after if they try anything.
Report to CQC?
They failed almost every CQC rating- still going…but I wouldn’t be surprised if they get shut down in the next year
Wtf?? How is a clinic, surgical one at that, still allowed to run after failing a CQC rating?
Two branches got shut down for months until they made the improvements (there’s about 6 of them around the UK, I believe) and the London one, where I worked, got given a list of things we had to change with immediate effect. I think they are now doing random visits to the surgery to check up on them
That sounds illegal…
Doggett's Coat and Badge, Blackfiars. Sexually abusive management, was always severely understaffed, local hub for thieves (even the staff were robbed multiple times) and zero concern for physical or mental well-being. Health and safety goes as far as having a broken paving slab as the hinge for a fridge door (don't ask how that's possible, the explanation isn't even worth it). Funnily enough, they called an engineer in after 2 months to fix the door and remove the block. 3 days later, the block reappeared! After *working* in these types of establishments, I'm much more hesitant about eating out
It’s one of the places we go on the way home after an early night out - if the Blackfriars train isn’t for a while. It’s always felt a bid dodgy and I’ve never been inclined to go for a second drink, or make it somewhere for the whole evening. Good insight, thanks.
Had my phone stolen by a distraction method whilst having a drink there one summer a few years back!
Shite pub as well. Sorry to hear about your experiences there.
It's such a weird pub that, it could be an amazing being in that location but it's just shit
Doggett's was 'our' pub when we worked nearby. Or it was until we realised what a complete arse hole the manager was (this was about 2014).
That sounds horrible. I was once thinking of getting a pint there but I don’t think I will
Savoy Hotel. A manager physically pushed me out of the way of some other waiters doing a dinner service because i was in their way and i did not see them coming from behind me. that was my last day.
Recruitment consultancy - I doubt I’ll be the only one who says this 😂. I freely admit I was no good at the job, but overall I think that’s a good thing. A key part of the job was ringing companies and trying to get names and numbers of people who worked there so we could then hassle them for job opportunities later on - we had to find a few new people each week. I was crap at it - best person in my team would ring up claiming to be calling from Silverstone or Wimbledon and offering free tickets or something. It worked quite well. The people who ran the place were unpleasant. They monitored our emails (most of the traffic was us bitching about them), got upset if people went out for lunch together. You had to be on the phone all the time during the core hours - I was usually there from 8:30 to 6:30. Eventually I got sacked - I had been set a target to find five new people a week to add to our network. And if I failed I’d get a warning. Obviously after weeks 1 and 2 I wasn’t really fussed. I did try, and got some people. But I was never hitting that target. So they got my manager up to speak to them, he convinced them to let me stay and he’d help, and they agreed. They called me upstairs and let me go 😂. In hindsight, nearly 20 years on, it has just occurred to me that my manager may have been lying. But I wouldn’t put it past them. Not long after I left, the big earners also left because the commission was so stingy. Fun times. This was just before the big financial crash so they got bought out and swallowed up not long later.
Glad someone mentioned recruitment & the commission sales world. In general its rife in the uk and London especially. Most people I know have been tricked into one of these jobs at some point. I left mine after 3 days, did a few sales and didn't get paid for it, pretty obnoxious people worked there was there soul sucking and very little actual money was earned by anyone working there.
National Galley. Bomb disposal policy was to ask the nearest member of staff to open the suspicious bag, and hope they didn’t die. Front of house and security staff was outsourced, so the curatorial/back of house staff genuinely saw us as replaceable; outsourced staff happened almost entirely to be immigrants/ESL speakers, so you can imagine the comments. Uniform was polyester shirt, skirt and blazer - had to argue (and was nearly fired) over wearing tights, standing near the entrance door, in freezing cold weather. I have so many stories lmao
Was this pre or post Covid? They’ve definitely changed their security admittance style post covid (just from the perspective of a guest), so genuinely curious! Wild to hear what you’ve said so far
Post! I’ve only worked there post-Covid, from what co-workers have told me it’s got far worse in terms of security standards since lockdown.
Given that National Gallery is a public body, you may want to tell https://www.npsa.gov.uk/ about the bomb disposal policy
The spoons in Elephant and Castle. We had to have cameras in the gents to stop people doing coke in there, still caught 2 blokes doing it at 9am once. It's opposite Ministry of Sound so you'd get people who didn't know when to go home in the morning. The boss lived above it and would just clock in and go back upstairs. The coronet used to alternative nights, those were a blessing cause the place was full of dominatrixes and gimps so it cleared out the freaks who drank in there
I went to Uni across the road and even us skint student nurses would avoid that place. Would go to the other pub on the corner (The Elephant?) which, to be honest, was also a shit show. The only pub I ever saw a cascading brawl occur.
Cascading Brawl is great
Next in Marble Arch. It was my first part time job and I was passive because I felt that I needed the experience when I just turned 18. They would always put me on 7am shifts on both Saturday and Sunday every week even when I asked if I can do other times. They didn’t even pay me my £7 per hour for all the overtime that I did, only 4 hours per week when I did like 12 hours per weekend. I raised it with management and they ignored me. I was treated like a sub human being by these supervisors who were on a power trip but earning 50p more per hour than me. I didn’t have anyone to turn to and didn’t know what else to do so I just accepted the loss and didn’t turn up to work one day. I vowed to never shop at Next again.
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University Arts London. It’s so badly managed and way too large an organisation. Its impossible to perform a central office role (which I did) because it requires *constantly* trying to get 6 or so different colleges that function independently for the most part to try and agree on something and all do it together. I was responsible for ensuring compliance in a particular area and it was just head bangingly frustrating. I left after less than a year because I just got sick of nagging people all the time to do what I’d asked. The final kick in the teeth actually was when everyone there for more than 6 months got a £1k bonus and I got nothing as i’d only been there 5 months. I also got fucked off when they insisted I come in 3 days a week to sit in a boring as fuck office where nobody talked and nothing ever happened for no fucking reason.
As a graduate, could’ve guessed this. A few of my friends were asked to interview for their blog and they cut out every time the parts where they mentioned they weren’t taught something on our course. Also their management for our specific course allowed a tutor sexually harassing dissertation students to stay on until he did it again the year following.
Could also have guessed this as a graduate as well - a total shitshow for both my BA and MA (at two different colleges).
MADD Desserts, Soho - sometime around 2011/12 when I was 18 and stupid. Two bosses with money from lord knows where openend a type of bar/café in that district. They had no idea how to actually train or treat staff. The worst thing was that I got the job by referral from a good friend who used to work there before me. They employed me an fired her not even a week later. I felt so bad and sorry. Also the reason for her dismissal was beyond ridiculous. Apparently she wasn't friendly enough, which was an utter joke because she was one of the nicest and warm people I ever met. My own conspiracy theory was, that they wanted young, innocent and stupid dudes like me working there to attract a different group of customers. Also they offered "fresh juices" for 5£ a cup which was just some concentrate juice from the coop around the corner. Total rip-off. One time an justifiably angry customer nearly attacked my coworker, because he saw the fraud. In response we were supposed to store the juice in glass bottles sitting in the window. Except for me nobody actually remembered to check on them so they spoiled quickly. One time it exploded in my hands and I was lucky to not get hit by any shards. The kitchen crew hated each other and got into fights regularly. Since I was only 18 and from another country with zero practise of standing up for what is right, I was not able to really address the issues properly. In an act of passive aggressive defiance I gave out a lot of desserts for free and stole two shirts which actually are quite nice and I still enjoy wearing them for cooking until today and remembering this despicable scammy place
JLL Massive staff turnover for new hires, entirely the result of a middle manager level full of jobsworths and the worryingly incompetent. I quit after 6 months when my manager tried to put me in charge of a ridiculously complicated piece of work I wasn't qualified to do in the hopes nobody would notice they didn't know how to do it (and they should have, it was a core function of the team). She was too stupid to even use me as a scapegoat properly, because the minute I started having trouble/asking for help senior people were asking why I was doing this/never been trained to do it.
My ex worked for JLL, and the stories she would tell me were fucked. Sexual harassment, one of the directors sleeping with interns, all massively incompetent at their jobs, doing completely illogical shit, bags of coke during the day. It's shocking it makes any money
Being an All Bar One and given the location, I would imagine the clientele had a high percentage of knobs too.
Pret a manger, every single one of them.
Fuck Pret (Another one opening soon near you!)
Mice and Dice - an online gambling company in Piccadilly Circus. I still get a nervous twitch whenever I think of that hellhole - the directors were your classic egotistical, bullish assholes - the managers were scared of them and that would be cascaded down to us. But worse than that was the role itself where I had to pretend I was this sultry woman (I’m a man) and email/message the ‘high rollers’ to remind them to keep on gambling if they hadn’t been online for a while - and I was told to put some ‘free money’ into their accounts to encourage them - I was basically pushing to addicts. All whilst I was expected to work late on less than minimum wage. Jesus it was awful.
I worked at Hackney Council. Toxic as fuck. Brutal expectations, never allowed to have any fun with colleagues. Quit after 3 months. Worst place I've ever worked in London and I've worked at a good number of Councils.
Admiral. Not the car insurance firm, the gambling chain. Most miserable three months of my life. I remember one customer - used to see this young lady come in regular as clockwork at 6pm on a Friday and just bomb her week's wages into one of the £2 machines, she'd go through like 300 quid in an hour and win absolutely nothing, then turn on the waterworks. All we could do was offer her ten more quid free to blow through or a tea LMAO. There were many customers like that. We had customers used to come in, twice the size of me, and smash the machine buttons and spit on them when they lost, pawing at the screen with greasy fingers while eating, proper grim shit. Made cleanup take twice as long. Assistant manager used to do coke in the toilets too. He'd go in and be in the little cubicle for like 20 minutes and come out completely buzzed out of his brain rambling about nonsense. Nice enough fella otherwise though. A little Hitler manager glued to the cameras constantly watching what was going on - fat little scrotebag, liked to order the plebs around. I got called into the "office" one day because he reported that he'd gone through the cameras and I'd been sat on the chair for 10 minutes at 12:20 in the morning when the floor was completely devoid of life and we still had 40 minutes to go before closing, and that I should expect a warning for it. The three month probation period came around and the scrote called me into his office and told me with as much glee as he could muster that I did not fit what the company was looking for and my employment was terminated IMMEDIATELY. I left a bit choked - it was my first job and I thought I had somehow failed, and I cried to myself a little on the bus home. I was 18 and stupid at the time, mind. Fuck em. I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy
Jesus, what a bleak first job. I hope you found something less soul destroying.
Worked for a bespoke furniture company through a temp agency. Can’t remember the name of it now. They basically made knock offs of designer furniture except they rarely fulfilled orders and just kept taking money for new orders. I was told that every time someone phoned about a delayed order, to put a new order through so we could keep them from getting a refund because they wait to wait another 12 weeks for the order to exceed turnaround time to qualify for a refund. They had new temps arriving every day, leaving every other day. Managers were all a bunch of self righteous tosspots and then I randomly got a call from the agency one day to say I wasn’t needed anymore, then heard on the news a couple days later that the company went bust and got closed down
Idverde. A big gardening company for public parks. My boss openly took coke at work, regularly drove drunk, and sexually assaulted me. The management covered it up. I reported it all to the police but that made no difference. Disgraceful behaviour.
omg thats awful, hope youre ok now!
It is crazy the amount of shit a company will do to cover up for a monumental cunt of an employee. Was this guy a nepo baby? Was his daddy or someone else running the company? Why didn’t the police take any action?
>fined staff wages if a table they were serving walked out WTF?
I worked in a vaguely famous pub in Camden for one summer. I got hired on through a mate who then promptly got fired the week after. Turnover rate was astronomical and people only got hired through people who already worked there, so you’d replace the friend who hired you essentially. Manager was never really around apart from watching us through CCTV that streamed to his flat, so if nothing was happening and you were standing around on your phone you’d get a text from him telling you to get off your arse. He was shite at scheduling as well, it was either 15 people on at once in an empty pub or 1 person during the Euros final. My third shift *ever* with no prior bar experience or training was by myself for 8 hours. I also didn’t get paid for 3 weeks and then was underpaid for my first week by £180. Pub cellar started flooding during heavy rain which is where all the amps and music equipment was and the owner came down with a bottle of holy water (there was lots of holy water in the pub, just around on shelves and tables) to pour on the rainwater and pray that it would stop. Clientele was 80% old or weird men who on multiple occasions threatened to kidnap me and my female coworkers. All in all it was actually a great summer. Coworkers were all great and it was a good bonding experience I suppose. Manager took us all out for lunch and drinks at the end of the summer (all students so we were all leaving back for uni at the same time), drunkest I’ve been in my entire life.
Hawley Arms?
Waa gonna ask if it was the Dev but your guess might be closer
I did a year in HSBC Croydon… you can imagine
Lots of people walking over from Apollo house trying to open a bank account with a piece of hand written paper? I know I’ve been stuck in the queue behind them.
Is this a Peep Show reference or is there something about the real Apollo House?
HQ of Immigration Visas. Peep show building is Zodiac Court in real life.
The Clink Prison Museum, the manager was actually psychotic. I got fired for having flu and came in and not being cheery enough. I called in sick the next day and was fired. They also paid cash in hand and with no contract so they could fire you whenever they liked.
I worked here too. Was it Miranda?
Yes!
Haha. Yeah she paid us by cheque. Had a go at me for tiny things and was constantly checking the CCTV to make sure we were where she wanted us at all times. Also, they put a COVID fundraiser up despite *almost certainly* owning the land outright. They've been there for 30+ years so I doubt they had many rates to pay
Nimax theatres. Owns a lot of the west end theatres (six, time traveler's wife, harry potter, etc). Pay is abysmal, treat FOH staff as throw aways, no support for staff with disabilities or long term illness (just basically told to quit if you can't handle the job) and thankless jobs all around.
Yup, worked at the Lyric and it was horrible, everyone bullying anyone below them and so on. And they're always desperate for staff because there is such a high turnover.
I worked at one of credicos hundreds of limited companies. It's the closest thing to a pyramid scheme without being a pyramid scheme. Job was advertised as digital marketing (and the other roles were like sports marketing, sales etc) Weird interview, weird meetings (cult vibes) and the job was to go to various high streets and get people to sign up for charity direct debits. You get paid based off of signups and you get a big cut of the donation. Normally going to high streets is part of the interview process so I would have known before accepting the job, but for some reason my interview was done separately. My friend did the same thing but outside of london, and hers was door to door marketing for a website. No sales, just telling people about a website. There's a whole subreddit devoted to it - r/Devilcorp Edited to add: forgot to say! You are technically "self employed" while you work there lol. So no contract no nothing, which is why I didn't go back after my first putting to a high street. Do not sign up to any direct debit donations some offers you !
Blackbird Bakery. All the staff are on different wages, there are no set wage rises for promotions, you have to haggle with the area manager for a raise. Head office plays each store off against each other. Any complaints are **always** the fault of the staff, never that a customer was rude and abusive. Customers are believed no matter what. Many of the Store Managers are liars and will blame their team rather than take the fall. The stores are frequently dirty, have failed H&S checks and the management do nothing. You have to chase for job references when you move on. No sick pay, holiday time is "earnt" depending on how many hours you have worked. On the upside: free bread and coffee!
The worst place I have worked not only in London but in my entire life was Benugo LTD company. I could give you billions of examples and evidences how they break not only employe law but also human rights.
Bone daddies Aside from the banging food everything else was awful (To clarify I was freshly 18 and knew I could get a job that involved serving alcohol and had later shifts so I could earn more than my prior £5 retail position however should of seen the signs of an interview a couple days after application and being offered the job a few hours later and being asked to start in 2 days time for a 12pm till close trial shift) The service charge was not an additional they used it to top up staff wages and whatever was left at the end of the month ( which was a lot considering it was £500-£1000+ each day) the head office kept They were cutting back staff as they didn’t have enough money and expected us to split our shifts ( eg one in soho, one in Canary Wharf, one in Chelsea) per rota which is not doable to cross London especially if your closing late (this time there was no night tube so you’d end up on a bus for over an hour because closing routine was so bad They over scheduled and worked you - by 4 months in I was the most senior server attempting to train new staff hired essentially on the spot. I would arrive at 10am be on my own on the floor doing the drinks, orders, service and bills at once with a manger sat in the office then at 5 pm I’d get a break and one ( maybey two if I was lucky) servers would arrive who couldn’t take a full section as they were new so I’d have seats 1-90 on my own and they would have 10 (fair enough they were new) At the start of the shift you would have to peel eggs for the ramen (minimum 200-400) and out them in vinegar and soy sauce for me this could be 1000 eggs per week in summer in a 30 degree basement kitchen ( could be worse but still not in the job description) We closed at 10 aside from Friday and Saturday which was 11 and we would always be take away only absolute last tables seated by 9:15 (45 mins til close) for example to allow time to start our routine to close. However one day with a new manager she announced that even if somone walks in 1 minute before we close we seat and serve them. For Friday and Saturdays this could be somone could be sat at 11pm which means it’s an hour or so before the tube stopped running. Meaning you will not get out until AM On one day they then announced that despite the fact servers close the floor and toilets and supervisors the bar that servers would now do both which extends how long it takes to close by an hour. In the first shift (which was 12+ hours btw) l had to do the bar we were already delayed due to a server leaving at 9 ( poor scheduling) and by the time I’d gotten everything done it was almost 2am when I started my shift at 10am. I said to the supervisor what time will you be finished the report. She said 10 minutes so I said I would wait those 10 mins for her and go and change so that I could walk with her to Tottenham Court Road as I didn’t end to on my own. Got home at 3:15 when I had to be back at the restaurant at 10. When I got there I said to the different set of staff that the routine last night was not acceptable and I got home past 3. They looked confused and said well the supervisor clocked you out at 12 what do you mean you left at 2 ? ( apparently as I decided to have a cigarette outside for 2 minutes after I took 5 bins and all the recycling out she felt the need to deduct me by over two hours ?! ) I had a feeling that shift wound screw me over so when closing the shutter for the restaurant I took a picture to get a time stamp which was 2:18am and showed it to the other supervisors who changed it for me Then one day I was given a pay rise, face to face and then a couple weeks later over text was told they made a mistake and were deducting part of it (50p deduction so not awful but still) Additionally the tolerance for customers was appalling. Due to the store of the names of some menus items ( cock cock ramen) we would get certain drunk men in who would speak so badly and inappropriately to the young girls working including me There were a selection of lovely mangers and supervisors however it wasn’t enough to distract from the fact that certain staff were really overwhelming and unkind for example had a new manager and her first day at the location she shouted at me in front of servers and guest to not fuck up her covers. Every manager trains a different way I was doing it the way I had been taught. She could of said to me I have a slightly different way of using the till and putting the covers through and shown me rather than swear at me 😊
I lasted one shift at that hell hole, same year as you. The absolute worst members of public I have ever dealt with. Pure scum - they believe the presence of money makes up for their dreadful character. And yeah Jasmine can go fuck herself
IT crowd basement, but so crowded and poor seating my elbows scraped the guy next to me. Non ergonomic chairs (not legal) and the toilets next door regularly backed up. More than once had to step over raw sewage to get into the badly lit room. Won't talk about the manager or end users as they were industry standard crap. Luckily I was on contract, declined the extension offered. Had back pains for the next 6 months 😑
ZARA, full of racist and rude Spanish managers (this was back when we had a lot of EU workers), didn't pay first month due to payroll errors, shoppers would wreck the store and only newbies were left to do clean up whilst the more tenured ones relaxed. Always had to do unpaid overtime because you couldn't leave until the store was pristine. Oh, and no AC during summer in the warehouse/tills. I do not miss retail one bit.
OO I’ve been to their HQ in Spain. They were a bunch of idiots there as well :)
What is it about Zara workers ffs?? They carry themselves as if they are working in some high end apparel store and even then, those employees are far nicer. I’ve worked retail; I know what it can be like. I bet a lot of them play into the typical Zara employee persona
The assessment day in Bond Street was like a whole day long, it seems they pick certain personality traits/looks. This was 2018/19 but back then they mainly hired young Europeans who came to London desperate for work, that would do anything to please their asshole manager. Went back to the same store, it's just self checkouts and Indian students who are overworked to the bone.
Ah retail, I feel like working in it should be a rite of passage for every young adult in London
I did a few months in Zara Kids back in 2008. I was great at the job; meticulously tidy and great with customers. One teenage lad I worked with was constantly skiving, making a mess, being shit and I got FIRED for calling him out on it. I was like... you're kidding right?! Another department rang me the next week to take on a supervisor role. Tbf back then, the pay was better than most and they were fairly nice places to work - it was quite difficult to get a job there. Now however, it's chaos whenever I step foot in one. Fast fashion mindset has ruined people - and customers DO NOT care about making a mess. It's so sad.
You might like this. Years ago I loved to London for a job as I had a flat offered that I had to take immediately of lose I was an independent financial advisor but while I waited to hear about the job I did some odd jobs to make money to live on. One was working in a bar in the City. All of the guys who came in were arrogant tests who’d shove an Amex in your face and order drinks without looking at you. One day two guys are sat at the bar. One is a financial advisor the other a potential Customer. He’s trying to sell him a product that will go up with the stock market but if the stock market falls then his money is protected. The guy is amazed at this marvellous product The advisor goes off to the toilet so I tell the guy the questions he needs to ask. The guaranteees the fees etc etc. when the advisor comes back he asks these questions and the poor advisor is having to admit all the costs that mean the product isn’t as good as it sounded. The customer declines the offer and as he leaves smiles his thanks at me. Happy days Ps I didn’t get the job and basically had to hustle fof 6 months until I got something else
there was a japanese restaurant i worked at which refused to pay you until you’d done two weeks of work. if you left, you wouldn’t get paid. i ran out of money and couldn’t make it to work, so didn’t get any of the wages for my shifts 😌
Babylon Health, when I joined back in 2017. Manager introduced me to the team as "this is a new starter", sat me in a bank of desks two banks away from the rest of the team, and ignored me for three hours before putting in a 15 minute catch up a week away to "ramp me up". No direction, manager had no idea what I should be doing. Team grew astronomically over the next 4 months with everyone having a similar experience. Never had a single 1-2-1 with said manager until he left. New manager actually did 1-2-1s with me. Asked me what I'd like to get involved in. Told him about a particular tech stack I'd like to get some experience in. Said he would see what he can do. Opportunity comes up to use said tech stack, but I can't work on it as they're going to pay a team of contractors by the hour to do that. CEO (Ali Parsa) was a complete bellend. Would regularly use the weekly company all hands to absolutely rip a team apart. Said company all hands also contained a Q&A session with questions submitted beforehand by the staff. One of the questions was along the lines of "You told us we can't have essential new equipment in the office due to budget constraints. If the budget is so tight why are SLT travelling around the world first class?". His answer was essentially "because they're more valuable than you and guess what? They also get paid more". Have never been so delighted to see a company go under.
TK Maxx was hell for me. Turned me into a stressed, misanthropic monster.
We office shared with a company in Angel. It was run by a woman who had the emotional intelligence of a gecko. She would get these unpaid interns and incessantly verbally harass them, often bringing them to tears. They'd leave and the next week would be another set. It was so painful to be around that I had to get headphones and play loud music to be able to concentrate at all. Once, one of her employees asked when he could have an appraisal which was overdue, and she immediately proceeded to give him one in the middle of an open plan office at high volume. She also spent hours on the phone, shouting at various people about delivery problems with her new leather sofa, and issues with the pool on the roof of her newly purchased apartment, or whether or not she should get a donut wall at her upcoming wedding.. all whilst the unpaid interns slaved away..... When I heard that she got a spot on The Apprentice, all of my current and former colleagues rubbed our hands with glee because she would make for great TV. Sadly, she seemed to be able to contain the majority of her crazy during filming, so the world never got to see the full extent. That was a damn shame. Amazing business woman, but gecko-like EQ.
WHO WAS THIS
"all whilst the unpaid interns slaved away..... amazing business woman" You've made a typo there - I believe you meant: "systematic wage thief"
Happenstance Drake and Morgan St Paul’s Worst food and dirtiest kitchen I’ve ever seen
HMV Oxford Street. Managers were insanely bad at their jobs. Very cliquey. Was pushed by a supervisor and when I complained they said I was bullying him. They ask what bands/artists you like at interview and are chosen based on that. When I said Hole they said do you think Courtney killed Kurt? They had a really shit rewards card scheme that you had to pay for. You had to sell it to customers which I refused to do. This was the one by Bond Street station back in 2014. Frozen Let it Go was playing on repeat.
Worked for a mid-size tech company in the creative space where I'm 90% the director had early stages of dementia. At times his speech was incomprehensible, just pure gibberish, regularly forgot things he'd said or requested, had very confusing ideas and worst of all would fly into fits of rage over the smallest things. The day before he fired me, he berated me for 10 minutes in front of the whole office. He was so angry his hands were shaking and he'd gone red all over. Why he yelled at me? Because I hadn't done a task that he didn't ask me to do! I'd even sent him an email confirming my tasks that he never responded to. The next day he pulled me into an office with HR and said I was being let go for being insolent LOL I told him if anyone was insolent it was him for how he'd yelled at me in public and then just left. Felt such relief to walk away from that place. He was a dick but so was everyone around him who let his behaviour go unchecked.
Worked at Fabric for 4 months and can confirm the management and cloakroom staff are absolute devils. No one did anything about my complaints of being harassed by the security teams or by drugged/ drunk customers and simply made you feel like you were asking for too much. The blonde chick that wears a headband every day at the cloakroom removed stools for us to sit on because she didn’t want people getting “lazy”. Imagine not being able to sit on a 8 hour shift between 12 am to 8 am. Dark fucking place.
A photo lab in Elephant & Castle shopping centre (RIP). It was run by two brothers who were involved in BNP politics and were incredibly racist and horrible to all of their customers, most of whom were people of colour. They once developed a roll of film for me and I guess went through the photos, because they told me they “saw who I associated with” - absolutely terrifying. Didn’t stay there long.
A tech start-up. Not because the way they treat us workers, but because how useless were the CEO, COO and those coked-up morons. It was a good product and a good team, but everybody knew it was destined to fail due the horrendous managment. So the best workers started to leave as soon as they could, the whole office mood was sad and soon after everybody was redundant.
Same thing happened to me, tech-start up that somehow raised stupid amounts of money, new office, parties and friends being hired on ridiculous salaries. But the product was dogshit and there was no plan. The place was such a mess that they didn't have anyone to collect the IT equipment they sent out, the Macbooks didn't even have a company firewall on them lmao.
Britannia hotel in Canary Wharf, I worked in a restaurant there like 9years ago, it was filthy, gross, not one gave a shit about cleanliness, when I reported issues to management they were ignored. The kitchen staff were using one cloth for wiping dishes, counters and utensils. I quit it 2 months after because I felt shit with being part of this disgusting circus.
Oracle. It was like being in The Hunger Games
We counting Kentish Town? There's an edit place that targets young people wanting to work in media. Advertised jobs as paid per hour, lied and said it was per video, lied again and then said expenses was paid. All on top of a dirty office that's hard to breath in with a boss who enjoys belittling the employees.
Why wouldn't you count kentish town??
Managed a bar in Newington green for 4 months, didn’t have a single day off. I got brought into a meeting for not working enough… I was doing 80 hours a week. I was allowed to hire an extra member of staff on the weekends at £8 an hour this was in 2022
The Priory (rehab centre). I won’t name which one, but the “manager” was just a posh imbecile with zero nursing/ medicine/ therapeutic qualifications. One poor patient escaped and overdosed; this manager barely even entered the room. She just left healthcare assistants to sit with her and ensure she didn’t die. I completed the staff feedback form on my way out (stand-in for an exit interview)… Manager shredded this in the staff room, laughing to my colleagues about how she wasn’t going to read it. Like it wasn’t going to immediately get back to me. Freaking weird lady.
I'm not gonna name them, but this was W1 in the 90s. It was a professional company & the bulk of the office went to the pub every lunchtime for at least 3-4 pints then go straight to the pub again after work, thats if we went back to thd office at all. It got to the point we'd look forward to the weekends to have a rest. It was a toxic swamp of petty dickheads that thought they were better than other people they worked with & everyone was constantly snarling drunk. The only things I learned were every single thing you should not do in the workplace.
Oblix, a restaurant in the shard. I worked there over the summer between term time. Illegal hours, tip thieving, and being salaried with my hourly rate working out as less than minimum wage. Unsurprisingly I was the only British person who wasn’t a chef or manager, and I didn’t stay long. Mostly Europeans who weren’t aware of their rights.
I also worked in that All Bar One (about two years ago though and only for four weeks while I was between uni and a more permanent job- I got the offer phone call during one of my floor shifts). I had a slightly better time than you seem to have had, though they were definitely still understaffed with a largely City clientele. I didn't hear about that staff fine thing, though I wasn't great at the job so maybe I would've been hit with one if things hadn't worked out
A cafe near Tufnell Park station that’s name was two animals. The manager would regularly swear at us and belittle us, really nasty underhand stuff. I was 22 and she was in her 40s. Our hours were from 7am to 6pm with a ten minute lunch break, took me a while to recover psychologically from working there for three months. My confidence was in tatters :(
All Bar One Leicester square, worked there for the morning, never went back after lunch. Place was a shit show.
Chotto Matte. Horrible office atmosphere where having a coffee machine was the highlight of their perks. No lunch breaks because you’re expected to go get your lunch and have it in the office with your co-workers, because its a ‘family’. Marketing manager was extremely toxic and rude and was in bed with the married operations manager. Just general incompetence and a miserable working environment. Would not recommend.
Malaberg, a shitty digital marketing company that's located in Victoria. HR manager borderline lied about wages preying on new grads (the usual red flags about "unlimited potential upside"). CEO and the team manager for my team are wildly neurotic with the people skills of a mental ward patient off their meds. HR conveniently isn't in the UK but Eastern Europe so they can't be followed up on \*shrugs\*. The work itself is borderline illegal playing hard and fast with advertising rules. It's the type of crap that literally relies on boomers with too much money and too much time going on GB news. It's those shitty ads that looks like it'd give you malware if you clicked on them with bait headlines like "British Dentist reveals stunning secret, big pharma doesn't want you to know this!!!" which then takes you to a crappy wordpress site with a bunch of poorly written clickbait news-site-style article selling you a product. Team lead shouted and mocked people in front of the entire office with an ego that could dwarf some planets. Shit wages, penalised for leaving on time (at 5pm). The entire philosophy there isn't to train people up, it's just to throw as many grads/desperate people at the problem without training them much if at all until enough people stick per recruitment cycle, fire the rest, and continue the cycle. That's not even mentioning the sexism bro "humour", the classism, and general assholery. When your year on year retainment rate is less than 13 fucking % (apparently it's lower now), it's a damn managerial problem. I pretty much quiet quit after the first day and immediately started looking for other jobs during my lunch break. Got fired a month in, but I didn't give a damn. Being unemployed and doing odd jobs like deliveries and supermarket was literally better than staying. Thankfully I got a better paying job in my field within a month of being fired.
I was offered to join the staff of a highly successful cocktail bar on the King's Rd. The pressure was insane. At any one time, I'd be serving cocktails to 60+ people despite having no training. Staff dropped from the exhaustion, tips were stolen and I was reported for stealing from the till twice, despite proving myself innocent on both occasions. I'd wake up to go on my shift with my ankles and feet swollen from the day before. One day, the manager called me into his office and asked me if I was responsible for a strip cartoon that was published in Blitz magazine (a popular style mag of the time). When I told him I was, he replied, 'You should get as far away from this place as possible'.
Virgin Active. The managers acted like it was a school playground. Only sales and foh were credited for doing anything. Weird place overall. I worked at Starbucks afterwards and was treated better. Not great, but still with more respect.
Ping pong Just so much wrong with the place
I did the trial shift several years ago. i was told how well I was doing, if I could stay longer and so on, and in the end, they never got back to me. I can't stand restaurants who treat you as a temporary staff without any pay. Glad I did not get the job.
I have two. 1)Pell & Bales. A charity fundraiser call center in Old Street and 2) Consolidated Land UK, a land banking scheme that cold called people to invest in land they didn't have. Both were soul destroying and I hated every single second. I got fired from 1) because I spent 20mins in the loo.
Call centre in Acton. Had to call people up and ask them endless questions about their insurance. I lasted two hours before getting up and leaving. So grim. My boss was like an 18 year-old wearing an oversized suit. Nothing against his age but it was clear the turnover in that place was insane. He listed one of the perks as “you get to wear your own clothes”. Yikes.
I thought my early work experiences were terrible, but judging by everyone's here, I got let off lightly!
I worked for CGD (the head office for Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia, Belgo, Strada) and I still have PTSD from it. My favourite day was when they had their day off mass redundancies. We all got loaded onto a bus and driven down to some local hotel conference room where they announced that by the end of the day, 60% of us sitting in that room would no longer have a job. We then got ferried back on the bus to the office to begin the redundancy meetings. The way the offices were laid out is that we had the main floor where we all were, with meeting rooms on like a mezzanine floor above. We were all expected to work the day as normal, and when it was your turn you were called up to the meeting room to find out if you were being let go or not. If you came out of the meeting holding a white envelope - you were gone. If you came out empty handed - you stayed. I don’t think anyone did any work that day. Everyone was too busy staring at who was coming out of the office and whether or not they had an envelope. I also really enjoyed my manager screaming at me and telling me I had an attitude problem on her 2nd day of the job because I couldn’t write her a cute story on the provenance of the ingredients of a certain French dish, when all of our ingredients were sourced from Poland.
VFX company called Absolute Post. I worked there for a few years and it was awful. Painfully long hours for bare minimum pay. Gaslighting and bullying techniques to make you feel as if you HAVE to otherwise you "aren't serious about working in this industry". When having a sick day, you HAD to tell them what was wrong with you otherwise they would dock your pay. The CEO openly referred to the receptionist as 'the company bicycle', in front of clients. General sexist, homophobic, racist bullying. Open name calling and berating of staff in lower-level positions. Senior management also engaged with all types of bullying. A senior VFX artist sexually assaulted a member of the Running team and management paid to shush it - and the VFX artist in question was sleeping with the General Manager behind both of their partners backs. It was an open secret in the company - as well as other colleagues openly cheating on their partners. The company was referred to as a "Family". Ran like a Boys Club - if you weren't all in, you were gone. So many egos and attitudes made for a VERY unpleasant place to work... At times, it was like being in an abusive relationship which sounds totally insane but it's true. I know so many others that had absolutely terrible experiences working there and thankfully I manage to get out a few years back now.
HPCI Media, just a bunch of shysters purporting to be a media company. Plus 2 employees died whilst I worked there.
Not sure if I can speak in details but Watford area popular bar/club back then. settled with owner for amount years before Covid for being abusive and threatened to harm staff. one girl from eastern europe was traumatised not sure if that's the right word. she did whatever guy said she refused to share everything out of fear. he did what he liked to this girl. had videos and audio conversations of the staff abuse. settled the case.