What is working from home like at Oscar Recruit?

There’s still a few nice people around. It’s Ok if you’re young and have 0 commitments outside of work and can commit ALL of your time to it and don’t mind being micromanaged all day, by the MD. It’s Ok if you’re desperate for a job, but learn what you can and then get out.

All the most experienced recruiters have left, leaving almost no mentors. Extremely regimented_everyone has the same fixed start, finish, break and lunch times. It’s like being at school, in all the worst ways. No opportunity to work from home and very little flexibility. Their idea of culture, is ordering pizza. Upper management is basically a “boys club” Former CEO was sacked for being inappropriate towards young girls. This apparently happened numerous times over the years and was reported but somehow, nobody had any idea 🤡 To make this worse, they pretty much only hire people who are in their early 20s, particularly young girls (Very creepy) and the CEO / MD has to “approve” them all first 🤮 A select few manage to make a lot of money but generally that isn’t the case for most recruiters and you won’t be in the management good books unless you’re exceeding your target every month. The minute your figures drop, you’re gone. Complete lack of trust in staff to do their job, hence why they no longer allow WFH, the pretty much treat staff like children. Any “perks” they used to offer are now gone or impossible to use.

My time at Oscar was definitely an eye-opening one. Beginning with the positives, the training at Oscar was very good, although I’m not sure that is the case anymore with the whole of the L&D department being made redundant. In addition to this, the Commission scheme was good which meant you can make some decent moneys. Another positive were the majority of the people working there, who were always happy to give advice or go for a drink if needed!

Unfortunately the negatives far outweigh the positives. The unbelievable pressure to do well or face being fired was always looming over everyone, even if you are doing everything you possibly can. If you aren’t getting results and you ask for help, expect them to tell you to just ‘do more’ (despite being the highest that week on outputs) as they can’t think of any actual feedback to give you. This on repeat day after day felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall and majorly impacted on my mental health (which is a taboo subject at Oscar). You will then be criticised for not staying late in the office even when doing extra work at home and over the weekend. The directors of the business are robots and have no clue how to relate to people from working class backgrounds (especially women), and will avoid conversation if they possibly can. If you make any kind of suggestion for things that could add value to the business, expect to be ignored or dismissed immediately. Managers are never at their desks, and can regularly be seen gossiping with each other at the other side of the office which means you’re basically on your own from day one (now that L&D are gone). The benefits are now non-existent, with no working from home allowed, holidays cancelled (even if people have worked their socks off hitting the target), and achiever’s meals cancelled. These benefits are essential for a recruitment company, as the job is a tough grind as it is. However, if Oscar aren’t offering these things, every other recruitment company out there will be, which is one of the reasons why they have lost so many staff recently. You can tell that the recent positive reviews are from employees that have been influenced into writing them to negate all of the honest feedback Oscar have been getting on Glassdoor. Maybe if management spent less time being keyboard warriors and more time on improving the business by listening to feedback, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

off at 1 pm on fridays

-Don't be tricked by fake 5 star reviews made by current employees, they hire recruitment consultants to help get them leads then fire them without reason -NO COMMISSIONS until your first promotion after ~6 months -Forced to work extended hours -Don't expect management to let you use your PTO -No WFH option until 1-2 years in I promise it is not worth working here. Reading other reviews issues seem to be company wide

You can make good commission Friday Noon Finishes Nice office

- They love to act like the culture is great by faking reviews on here (pressured by Head of People Ops). If heavy drinking & more is your thing, then go for it - Worst work/life balance you can ask for. Want to take time off? Expect to explain every detail of your vacation. WFH? Expect to give out your daily plans & "play the oscar game". If you leave right at the end of the day, "you clearly don't want it enough". - Office politics is insane, get on the Austin leaders good side and you can get slaps on the wrists - If you enjoy having someone over your shoulder 24/7, then the two leaders in Austin will be sure to be that for you. They continue to lose top billers due to poor work conditions and unnecessary pressure. You can have a good month, one bad and you're on the chopping block. Little to no flexibility when negotiating with clients, "our way or the highway mentality" - Non-existent HR department, red flags everywhere especially in top management. (People Ops) - Head of Austin office is controlling and loses every top biller, even the brits! Should begin to look in the mirror, the turnover is not a "them problem" - Training is terrible, it's a fight for your life or "you don't want it enough". Managers get 1-2 accounts that they mainly bill from, they preach dial dial dial but couldn't last a cold call if they tried - I spent nearly 2 years here due to making good commission checks, but they managed to hire some cool people - they all leave one by one once they've hit a breaking point with management. Look at reviews from 2024 to truly understand what this place is like, that's when they went downhill