QA reviews

Where to start...I thought about leaving this review on the Circus Street Glassdoor, but now that CS has pretty much ceased to exist and become part of QA, I doubt much attention is paid to that page anymore. When a merger happens, you expect a few bumps in the road, teething problems etc as you navigate new processes and different people coming together. What you don't expect is the entire company to be stripped for parts and the culture to be completed gutted. We were told QA wanted Circus Street for the culture, but it's the first thing they sacrificed in these latest budget cuts, as well as hard working staff that have been made redundant. There is nothing pleasant left about working here. Hours are long, completely unrealistic work loads which you are just expected to achieve, no payrise, you need to account for every minute of your working day on a timesheet, and senior staff are either oblivious to the atmosphere in the office, or are straight up choosing to ignore it. No communication across the business at all, sometimes we aren't even told someone has left until a week after the fact!

Culture of blame, bullying and gaslighting at the highest levels of the local management team. Surveillance and make-work used to discipline employees. Good talented professionals who stand up for themselves forced out. Lecturers made to run through a ‘hunger games’ of reapplying for jobs on consecutive short-term or zero-hours contracts, but former employees phoned up on the quiet and asked to replace those who don't survive. Heavy workload on lecturers who are treated as dispensable and replaceable. Quotes from colleagues on the workload: “ridiculous, horrendous, overwhelming, relentless”. Unclear if this is the QA ethos or the local management team’s business model. No matter if you are a good manager, the business model demands overwork be pushed on people and affect their health. No transparency for grades or salaries. Significant pay gaps between employees doing the same tasks with similar qualifications and experience. Continuous teaching load throughout the year, one term rolls into another with no break between teaching, assessment, teaching again. No holidays for teachers allowed between Easter and September. Too much administration. Favourites get promoted. Atmosphere so paranoid that some employees now reporting private conversations between their colleagues to management who then discipline these colleagues. You don’t know who you can trust. Lack of cover due to last-minute staff recruitment. High staff turnover. Visitors to the office describe “an atmosphere”. Many staff formulating their own exit strategies for fear of their own health and wellbeing. Does not bode well for business sustainability.