Pros
I made some good friends both colleagues and clients. I enjoyed the facilities, this was an expense i didn't have on my poor wage. However, I was under no illusion that my wage would rise, I knew people in the company who hadn't seen a pay rise since they started many years before me.
Cons
where to start.... Not all my time at Bannatyne's was bad... I started out as a part time therapist, and enjoyed my time with the company, the hours were flexible and the although the wage was minimum wage it was fine due to studying at the same time. I would do extra hours in holidays, and over all at the stage of my time with the company (1st 3 years) I was very happy. The 0 hour contract suited me perfectly. After my studying, I decided to take on more work and go full time... I can honestly say I experienced the worst few years of my life. Bullying, manipulating, scare tactics, amongst much more. I experienced people being, and i quote "pushed out" of the company. I experienced people being "managed out". I experienced a level of poor leadership, management and support, now looking back even I find hard to believe. Unfortunately, the people at the top of the company like to have escape goats, they like to have people to blame when things go belly up, they are never preventative and always chasing their tails. This leaves lower level staff in a very difficult and sometimes impossible positions. The one time I asked for help and support with something, I was made to feel like the worst person in the world. I was told that i HAD to do it, it was my job and if i couldn't do it then I was breaking my contract... it was made even worse when i was called on my personal phone, on my day off, and had a load of abuse hurled at me (on loud speaker in front of my mom) from one of the higher level managers... I was stunned, my mom was stunned, after this person had put the phone down on me, I burst into tears and handed my notice in. The job destroyed me as a person, I had no social life, I became withdrawn and anxious all the time. It was horrific. The level of stress, anxiety, depressive moods and anger I had was not worth the pitiful wage i was receiving from the company, who weren't prepared to put my wage up as i hadn't met my massively IMPOSSIBLE targets even though I had asked on many occassions for help which fell on deaf ears..... And honestly, this is just scratching the surface... I could write a book on my experiences and it would captivate you for months! So still considering a career with this company?? hmmm, I wish you every bit of luck in the world! YOU WILL NEED IT!!
