A toxic culture for employees - Digital Lonely Planet Employee Review

Lonely Planet has been in a company-wide free fall for a few years now. Struggling to compete in the industry, a new interim CEO came on board to right the ship, left within a month or two before the current CEO finally joined. A blue-sky thinker with seemingly no experience in the travel industry, drastic employee cuts were made across the business with reckless abandon while VPs and directors were appointed without the proper experience required to lead. Communication from upper management became nonexistent, as whole teams were put on the chopping block for redundancies with no clear plan for the way forward. With the excuse that the business is ‘in a fluid state’ and needs to ‘be agile’ to pivot to industry needs, restructures have occurred no less than 3 times in one year alone, letting go so many tenured employees it’s gotten impossible to keep track. Though an understandable need from a business perspective, the way in which Lonely Planet conducts itself professionally has proven to be tactless, seedy and questionable at best. It appears that those employees who raise concerns over upper management decisions are swiftly removed from the business, stoking the flames of an incredibly uncomfortable and toxic environment. Colleagues work in fear of not appearing ‘on board’ with upper management, worried that if they too speak out, they’ll be next on the redundancy queue. Lonely Planet was built on core values, putting the traveller first. Internally, though, it is a culture of rampant bullying, behind-the-back dealings and a level of unprofessionalism I’ve been lucky enough to never experience... until working here. With a new goal to build up the business in the catty Franklin, TN office, it is only a matter of time before the London office shuts for good - with constant rumours flying that ‘this team will be next’. I do not write this as a scorned employee. I write this to cause potential future employees to take pause before proceeding to work here. Be sure to ask detailed questions about the culture at LP during your interview. Ask about recent restructures and how the company handled it. Ask about how they can guarantee your job security. Ask what they look for in terms of employee character, and if they say ‘a team player’ or something similar, I urge you to ask what this means to them. Ask to understand the company strategy, and if it doesn't seem clear, ask for clarity. Cite this review - ask why a current employee would raise these comments. Perhaps it’s because there is almost no HR department to speak of, and complaints to these individuals fall on deaf ears entirely. If you choose to work here, get everything in writing. Mental health is such an important thing, and I wouldn’t want anyone to join a company that doesn’t stand for or seem to support its employees. Still unsure? Hop on LinkedIn and find an employee who left in 2018-2019. Reach out and ask why they left and what the state of the culture was like within the company at that time. Know what you’re getting into beforehand, and you’ll save yourself a lot of future grief.