Where reputation no longer matters - Engineering Checkatrade Employee Review

I am dismayed to have observed ineffective, toxic, inexperienced, and power-hungry senior management and leadership undermine the brand reputation and working culture of this formerly reputable company, unfairly impacting the livelihoods of dedicated employees. When I started at Checkatrade, it was a welcoming workplace, albeit not without flaws. The people made it great. However, a rapid and detrimental culture shift occurred due to misguided promotions within the Engineering team. Bullying, unfair performance practices, inconsistent bonuses, unrealistic delivery commitments, indecisive priorities, non-technical leaders in engineering, top-down workload management, an authoritarian approach to development, and overcommitted, misaligned roadmaps created a perfect storm. Initially, there was hope as new engineering leadership emerged with CTO Mal Minhas, who initially made a positive impression on most of the engineering team. However, this optimism was short-lived. Mal Minhas has demonstrated poor leadership by surrounding himself with unqualified and culturally incompatible direct reports, many of whom have faced multiple formal complaints to HR that have had no repercussions. Mal Minhas adopts a non-collaborative approach to developing technical strategies, lacks essential people skills (often choosing to work in the kitchen rather than with the engineers), and seems to support half-baked ideas by referencing blogs as his source of knowledge. His average tenure of less than 2 years in any job over the last 10 years raises questions about his suitability as a leader and his commitment to the company and its people. Expecting support from HR? You might have better luck seeking sympathy from Elon Musk. The history of no repercussions for managers with logged complaints, often resulting in promotions, reflects a flaky approach. Despite raising a complaint, I experienced HR's sensitivity, but the promised actions regarding another senior manager were never followed up, which led to additional discrimination. In the additional complaint of discrimination, I was informed that it had been 'noted' and wouldn't be investigated since I was leaving. CPO John Frith, often credited as employee number two, needs to consider change. Dismissing bad Glassdoor reviews as the result of 'disgruntled ex-employees' shows a complete disregard for understanding why these individuals left and felt compelled to warn others. Maybe it's not them, John; it's Checkatrade! Lastly, if you value working for a company that takes data protection seriously, seek alternatives. Critical failures of data handling, storage, and access the company has not fixed issues raised to them this year. Should HR choose to try and spin this review to your cookie cutter “we do our best, sorry you feel this way, please contact us” response, save it. It’s best you leave it for the ICO to determine if you are actually doing your best. Checkatrade’s engineering department is in a worse state than it’s ever been and I don’t think with a single ounce of optimism that I have, that it will get better. Those now in charge are more toxic than the last lot that were cleared out.