Competitive Salary - Photographer END. Employee Review

I’ll start this by saying its a shame the company doesn’t value these reviews the way is values it’s Trustpilot reviews. I often thought how different of an environment it might have been if they had to display these reviews in the canteen the way they brag of the Trustpilot reviews. Last year END made a huge amount of redundancies that was handled beyond poorly particularly in regards to communication. The executive team promised the rest of the company that this was so we wouldn’t have to go through these cuts again only to shamelessly create further redundancies 6 months later, right after Christmas. END advertises ‘competitive salary’ on what I believe to be all of their roles. For my role in particular a degree qualification is either requested or at the very least preferred. This is extremely important context for the following. I had been with END for 3 years. In that time I had progressed through 2 promotions into a midweight position. In April when minimum wage increased, the new minimum wage surpassed my current ‘competitive’ salary. That should tell you a lot about the company in itself. The executive team made the decision to reevaluate our salary’s, raising them to match industry standards. Obviously, I’m joking. They put us all on minimum wage. To clarify, this meant that there was no pay difference between any role that was a midweight or below. This removed the majority of incentive to progress into higher roles whilst simultaneously removed all incentive to take on extra responsibility compared to the roles below you. The studio has so many qualified, experienced and talented people that are deserving of recognition and reward. What is almost more disheartening is the potential the studio has always had to be a great place to work. Despite this, in my 3 years with the company it has never been able to achieve such potential due to the sheer lack of value the company has relentlessly had for its employees. This was far from the only sour incident to occur during my time at END however as it wasn’t just personal and effected everyone I worked with, I believe it was the most important to elaborate on. The job itself is mundane with little room for creative exploration. This is combined with there being no windows in the studio and a half an hour lunch break for an 8 hour day. I often felt gaslit into believing my skills, qualifications and experience were of little value and that I wouldn’t be able to achieve a more supportive career elsewhere. I appreciate the fashion industry is competitive and can often be a hard place to ‘get your foot in the door’. I would however highly advise not selecting this company to be where you start/continue your career as well as even be a business to support.