BEWARE and eyes wide open for red flags! - Project Manager Appetite Creative Employee Review

My experience started with a contract that was not fully legal. I had an employment lawyer review it and point out all the red flags as well as what was not legally binding. I did manage to successfully negotiate some changes on it but some of the terms were left untouched. The next big red flag is the business extremely low staff retention. At my time in the business, I saw many people come in and out including directors and contractors. Apart from a handful of people, the majority of people had left, fired, contract ended from when I started to when I finished. This makes for an unstable working environment especially in terms of project completion and project management. It also creates an environment where staff don’t know who to trust. It is imperative that staff themselves have clear boundaries in terms of work/life balance in order to succeed. Unfortunately, management have a skewed view on work life balances and staff are expected to work long hours without flexi time available. Be prepared for the group chats on WhatsApp as well as emails to be going through from upper management at all times of the evening and morning. Therefore, staff need to create their own discipline to not reply after hours and to operate only within the working hours. I had a problem with working hours when it came to travelling for work, I was expected to use all the travelling time as work time even if my contract only stipulated ‘normal business hours’. As an example, I would find myself in situations where I was being pushed to work at the airport, before the flight, after the flight, even though I had already worked my full day before hand. During travel I found myself with another annoyance, all expenses were not covered. Once I handed my receipts, I was told which expenses were covered and which were not. I’ve travelled for work many times in my career and this has never happened before, especially not after you’ve spent it. The biggest annoyance was fuel to and from the airport. With fuel prices as they are, not having that reimbursed was incredibly frustrating and the reasoning was it needed t be the last month’s expense not 2 months’ before, but it was them who took 2 months to approve paying for fuel used to go for training. I handed the receipts upon my return, therefore, the problems not on me. The BIGGEST and most troubling WARNING for everyone is to ensure not to ask for a reference from the main boss once you’ve left, or been fired. I was gaslighted and unfortunately it meant that I lost a job I had lined up. I had no idea that a bad reference would be given. Any sensible person would not provide the details of their former employer if they thought a bad or not great reference would be given. There was no argument or ill feelings when I left, yet the reference the main boss from Appetite Creative gave me was troubling and without any evidence. Because of confidentiality laws, I will never know what it said exactly but I do know it cost me a job as I was told that by the employer. Therefore, I cannot use them for any future references even though I felt my time at the business was fruitful.