Pros
Beautiful entrance lobby Good location Good transport links
Cons
Where to begin. When I l first interviewed for a role here, I met the sales manager in a well decorated lobby and proceeded to an equally nice meeting room. After passing the initial interview I was invited upstairs to the sales floor. As I was invited to speak to members of the team, a girl stealthily passed me a note which read "don't waste your time here". That should of been my first clue. The second clue came on my 1st day where I was immediately reprimanded for using the front lobby entrance. "No no. Staff use the rear door" I was told. Stinking of ciggerette smoke and plied high with boxes, this was hardly the entrance way I expected a postgraduate employee to take. I took this in my stride and proceeded to begin work. In my first week I was subjected to snide bullying management, a borderline mysoginistic team leader and a total lack of pastoral care or relevant training. I was informed that even though my contract stated I would work 9-530, my manager told me I should aim to arrive at 8am every day if I wanted to "pass my probation" and stay until at least 6pm. No overtime pay of course. The reason behind this was that we were told to source all our own leads AND make 80 calls a day AND secure at least 3 deals a day. Ludicrous. Despite this I attempted to do my best. We were given a weekly 'training' session from someone who 'used to' work for PDM. These training sessions consisted of nothing more than the trainer bigging up his own ego and telling us about how much he could sell. But no actual tips on training on how to do our job, well nothing I couldn't look up in about 10 seconds on Google. Waste of time. Management treat you like children. But ifyou fail to hit targets, instead of advice and training you are shouted at or threatened with dismissal (even first offences). You are not allowed to sit down. You must remain standing whilst on the phone, if you sit down you will be berated. If you are fortunate enough for anyone to speak to you (the company culture seems to favour I ignoring new members of staff), you will likely be moved to a new desk or team under some flimsy excuse like "spreading the talent". However this rule clearly didn't apply to the 'lads' in with the management. They could turn up 30mins late and leave early and constantly shout about their sexual exploits and who was 'fit' in the office and who was not, with no actions taken by sub-managers or managers alike. This type of mysoginistic behaviour was generally unchallenged and HR did nothing to try and remove it. Nepotistic dystopia at its worst. I could really go on and on but il lastly mention that there is no kitchen, fridge, microwave etc. You are expected to buy tea/coffee at extortionate prices from a vending machine or kiosk downstairs. And with 1 toilet every 2 floors you spend half your break time queuing! There is nothing 'progressive' about Progressive Digital Media.
