The best companies to work for and the worst?

Xcellor

Just putting it out there. Based on your personal experience and career path, what was the best company you have worked for in terms of flexibility/renumeration/perks etc and what was the worst company you worked for. You don't need to put role specific details of course.

X

helimachoptor

Xcellor wrote: »

Just putting it out there. Based on your personal experience and career path, what was the best company you have worked for in terms of flexibility/renumeration/perks etc and what was the worst company you worked for. You don't need to put role specific details of course.

X

Ipko, Kosovo... They brought me skiing and I got to see 50 cent in Pristina!

Serge

The best job of mine was once wit travel company as travel rep in Tunisia. Loads of fun, nice people around, great experience. But worst job i keep at present time catering company for one of the state companies

MIN2511

Are we naming and shaming companies?

Best company; aib(great craic, good package, working ethics e.t.c)
worst company; BT(**** management, rules and reg)

Xcellor

Ive just started working for Ericssons and wow what a difference. It's a totally flexible working environment, come in when you want leave when you want. You get your job done and thats the main thing. Money good, benefits great, facilities are very comfortable and a really flexible IT policy too that allows me to post this

My last company would have been in at 9:00 not a minute after and leave at 6:00 not a minute before but would be expected to stay on 10-15 mins each night unpaid overtime. Yep sucky.

Eoin

My last job was very flexible. As it was IT development, it meant the occasional very late night deployments etc, but that was balanced out with flexible start and finish times at less busy times. We were able to work from home when we needed to, if expecting deliveries or something, which really helped save annual leave we would otherwise need.

I was on-call 24/7 every other week, which could be a pain sometimes, but the extra cash definitely made up for it. Really anal IT policies though, which were a nuisance when trying to check out blogs and message-boards for technical queries.

It can all depend on your manager - mine was really sound, so someone sitting 10 feet away could well have a really different experience. I'm still second-guessing my decision to leave, given the excellent pension plan, annual bonus and so on.

My worst ever was Bank of Ireland. As a temp, I worked for two complete bitches who had been there since the last 100 years or so. They made my life a misery.

cronos

Xcellor wrote: »

Ive just started working for Ericssons and wow what a difference. It's a totally flexible working environment, come in when you want leave when you want. You get your job done and thats the main thing. Money good, benefits great, facilities are very comfortable and a really flexible IT policy too that allows me to post this

My last company would have been in at 9:00 not a minute after and leave at 6:00 not a minute before but would be expected to stay on 10-15 mins each night unpaid overtime. Yep sucky.

Where did you work before?

BargainHunter

Worst company to work for - O2.
Managment are trained in bullying, coercion and deception (they call it negotiation training).
Senior management are exceptionally greedy people.

hunnymonster

Best: (not strictly a company but) E.U. Great pay, great holidays & great working conditions. Constantly meeting interesting people with new ideas too.

worst: UCC: too many egos meaning nothing ever got done.

cronos

hunnymonster wrote: »

Best: (not strictly a company but) E.U. Great pay, great holidays & great working conditions. Constantly meeting interesting people with new ideas too.

worst: UCC: too many egos meaning nothing ever got done.

EU sounds cool, what do you do there? Is it in ireland? Or do you have to go where the head place...

pow wow

Best: Cadbury (for obvious reasons!)
Worst: Toss up between PTSB and TK Maxx. Both because of management with their heads up their own ar$eholes.

hunnymonster

cronos wrote: »

EU sounds cool, what do you do there? Is it in ireland? Or do you have to go where the head place...

I was in Germany as a research scientist but there are EU employees all over the place.

RedXIV

Best: Activision (so far) this place is so laid back i have to keep reminding myself i'm in work. i play games, get bored, go get food or something from nice canteen. constant boards access. and when i finish work, 4 doors down is my fave pub in Dublin.

Worst: Tesco. While the pay was good and alot of the staff were very nice to work with, the managers were very hard to deal with and they seem to have a serious grudge against my bro (who still works there, poor b*****d) and that used to get me in serious trouble

IronMan

Worst job was Tech Support monkey for HP. Poor pay, terrible work atmosphere, massive staff turnover.

Best was contracting for the ESB, good pay, relaxed but efficient atmosphere good perks, terrible canteen food!

pwd

Funny I've worked for 3 of the worst companies named above.
Not for any of the best ones though.
I found all three of them grand though in each case I was only there temporarily which has the very pleasant side effect of making you fairly irrelevant to politics.
I did my student placement in bank of ireland life. Liked it. Remember being able to pile as much food as you want on your plate in the canteen. Colleagues were nice generally, nice location, work was fine (programming).
I did very short bits of contract work in Tesco and O2 also. Both were pleasant enough (programming/testing).

Worst work I did would have been a couple of customer service positions. Not that they were unusally bad or anything - just a certain amount of taking abuse from assholes seems to go with the territory - especially if you're young.

Firetrap

I worked for a while with a farming organization that shall remain nameless. That was a rotten job. Of course, what do you expect, working with farmers? :rolleyes:

lazernuts

..worked in Siemens tech support years back. Timed toilet breaks, no overtime on weekend evenings, changed terms of contract without our knowledge etc. ..the whip-crackin' motherforkers.

Zhane

Byrnes World of Wonder....****... ****...****. Dont even think about it.

skyle

Worst- Citi(group) hands down...would not wish it on my worst enemy

cronos

skyle wrote: »

Worst- Citi(group) hands down...would not wish it on my worst enemy

Which location?

Raskolnikov

Best: Pfizer, great people to work with, decent free lunches, good atmosphere and interesting work. The pay wasn't outstanding, but there were so many perks that made the job worthwhile.

Worst: Intel, absolutely rubbish job. Far too many pretenious clowns who had their heads up their own arses. Crap pay, crap canteen food, crap managers and far too much corporate bullshit.

Suzywuzy

Best : Central Bank

Worst : Dunnes Stores !!! :mad:

AARRRGH

BargainHunter wrote: »

Worst company to work for - O2.
Managment are trained in bullying, coercion and deception (they call it negotiation training).

I've heard this from a number of people.

ellscurr wrote: »

PTSB

I can second this one.

Here's an example of their mentality: if you're off sick, they dock your weekly pay divided by 5. So if you earn €500 per week, you're docked €100. However if you're due an extra days pay, they divide your weekly pay by 7, so you only get €70. Not very nice at all.

Another one for the list: Oracle. They turned a blind eye to bullying. Unacceptable...

Nice companies: Microsoft, AOL, Sage, Eircom. (Yes, Eircom!)

Eoin

dublindude wrote: »

Sage, Eircom. (Yes, Eircom!)

eircom was the good one I was talking about earlier actually!

helimachoptor

dublindude wrote: »

I've heard this from a number of people.



I can second this one.

Wouldnt be 02's biggest fan myself after hearing some horror stories!

mikemac

Best: Procter & Gamble
Great money seeing considering it’s working on a factory floor. Loadsa staff nights out, bonuses, hampers at Christmas, clubs and societies.
Travel around Europe to different sites too if you’re lucky

It’s true many graduate jobs have these but I was working here straight after my Leaving Cert so pretty good for a LC job

Ginger

Best: ErgoGroup (my current place) Flexi time, mobile phone, internet paid for (25Mb connection), Laptop, discounts with lots of places, home office, gym subsidies, canteen subs, training, exams paid for, overseas to conferences, parties .. list goes on!

Worst: Software dev house in Limerick that drove me crazy, gave out when I left on time, expected so much for so little pay or respect. Also misled me with their ad on technologies being used. Spent a year there exactly and left.

Xcellor

Ginger wrote: »

Best: ErgoGroup (my current place) Flexi time, mobile phone, internet paid for (25Mb connection), Laptop, discounts with lots of places, home office, gym subsidies, canteen subs, training, exams paid for, overseas to conferences, parties .. list goes on!

Worst: Software dev house in Limerick that drove me crazy, gave out when I left on time, expected so much for so little pay or respect. Also misled me with their ad on technologies being used. Spent a year there exactly and left.

That's a scandanavian company? I work for one of them. They have all the stuff you mention apart from internet but then that would be impossible where I live I used to work for an American multinational and it was almost like you needed to ask permission to take a p*ss. Now I can fairly much come and go as I please, as long as work is done my day is done. Fantastic.

Black Swan

Johnson & Johnson is one of the better corporations to work for. Professionals I know that have worked for them claim good pay, benefits, and opportunities for advancement. Plus they are focused on health care and not one of the industries that make war or pollute the environment. For example, in the latter case, they are the company that invented the clean sterilizer for labs and hospitals. Instead of poisonous ETO, radiation, or steam that melts plastic, they originated a process that injects hydrogen peroxide into a vacuum, which kills all the bugs, with H2O the byproduct of the process. It's a grand stock position if you have a little money to invest over time, especially if you put it into their DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) and forget about it for a couple decades.

Ginger83

LADBROKES-by far the worst. They give you inexperienced, dont give a damn type part time staff, try to pin cash differences on mangers and then de-mote your position for this.

Unsocial hours-flat pay. No lunchbreaks and you're still meant to smile to the abuse of gamblers when they have a problem and ask them to read the companys terms and conditions.

What a ****hole

Sephiroth_dude

vision modular structures,no time and a half,**** pay (some workers on as low as 7.65 an hr,and its ran like a concentration camp.oh and they expect you work every god giving hour,as if we dont have lives of our own to live :rolleyes:

Ginger83

+1
Exactly my thoughts to herself while she worked there.
Thank **** she moved on, bunch of arses

Creamy Goodness

best: ericsson for the reasons stated above.

london7

***** personal credit. The regional manager **** R******* is acting as if the world is his. If he does not like you, you have to leave. Doesn’t matter how you are performing and how good you are. At meetings he almost lies down on the chair with hands in his pocket, shouting at people and makes them fill miserable. But he’s the bosses’ brother and nobody pays attention what he is doing. Bulling and harassment, this is what it is every day. But people prefer to leave, than complain.
Provident don’t treat people with respect. That’s why they have big staff turnover.

Tom Dunne

london7 wrote: »

********* personal credit. The regional manager **** R******* is acting as if the world is his. If he does not like you, you have to leave. Doesn’t matter how you are performing and how good you are. At meetings he almost lies down on the chair with hands in his pocket, shouting at people and makes them fill miserable. But he’s the bosses’ brother and nobody pays attention what he is doing. Bulling and harassment, this is what it is every day. But people prefer to leave, than complain.
Provident don’t treat people with respect. That’s why they have big staff turnover.

You shouldn't (a) drag up threads that are almost a year old (b) name people when they don't have the ability to defend themselves.

london7

Tom Dunne wrote: »

You shouldn't (a) drag up threads that are almost a year old (b) name people when they don't have the ability to defend themselves.

OOo he has a ability to defend himself.

AZTEC818

O2 is 6th on this list ?

http://www.greatplacetowork.ie/best-workplaces/best-workplaces-in-ireland

road_high

Best; Teagasc, Eurofins

Worst; Glanbia, by a country mile!

mikemac1

Best: Procter & Gamble. Worked there after my leaving cert, I worked on the factory floor and I loved every minute of it. Left to start college

Worst: Citi. Look around and you'll see 20 VPs/AVPs/MDs and everyone else with a rank. Christ it's like being in the army with the ranks and bureaucracy and bull****

skyle wrote: »

Worst- Citi(group) hands down...would not wish it on my worst enemy

+1

***** to work for

edit, hah, I posted on the thread in 2008 under an old account

Rafa1977

Worst- Intel, Terrible pay and to many crap and lazy managers that had not got a clue.

Gamstop-Not a great comany to work for but a decent enough company to work for.

ebayissues

Rafa1977 wrote: »

Worst- Intel, Terrible pay and to many crap and lazy managers that had not got a clue.

Gamstop-Not a great comany to work for but a decent enough company to work for.

ugh intel, was thinking of applying there as a finance analyst.

Dyr

hunnymonster wrote: »

I was in Germany as a research scientist but there are EU employees all over the place.

Not suprising, they have to do something with all our money :P

Phat Cat

Best: Tourism Ireland. Lovely atmosphere and very sportive management and colleagues. Pay and benefits are good and of course loads of free holidays around the country. Great place to work.

Worst: Page7Media (Car Buyers Guide, Menupages, InDublin). Terrible pay with long hours complemented by possibly the most poisonous atmosphere and psychologically manipulating management imaginable. Horrendous place to work.

cabincrewifly

Best: DAA - Easy going atmosphere, brilliant pay and plenty of hours.

Worst: Next - Looks great from the outside. Crap pay, minimum hours, zero training, management are brutal.

LadyBetty

mfitzy wrote: »

Best; Teagasc, Eurofins

Worst; Glanbia, by a country mile!

Hi mfitzy,
Can I ask what area of work you did with Glanbia, or why they were so bad? I had an interview with them recently & my gut feeling said run a mile, couldn’t quite put my finger on why though. I haven’t heard back yet re. 2nd interview & am half relieved…

mtjm

I've 2 worse places

1 Dunnes, people up their own backsides

2 Usit, managment will use you and not give you thanks and most of the women are full of themself there

user.name

Any retail sales assistant job I've had was awful :P getting below minimum wage and slave labour seems to go hand in hand these days :P

JBJBJB88

Best: Intel - really great place to work. Good pay, interesting work (making microchips!!) and treated very well by managers.
Worst: A certain 5* hotel in Dublin that shall remain nameless - staff getting squeezed.

Wackydo2

Worst company to work for in Ireland goes to Chesapeake Westport. Full of tired old machinery, expected to run flat out and produce accurate work and high output. Bullying management turning up speed on machines that you are operating and walking off leaving the machine to jam up every two mins plus leaving you sweating and stressed out. Poor working conditions, no ventilation or air con. Very very hot in summer very cold in winter. No training, expected to guess where the stop and start controls are and how to run a machine. Nasty, arrogant, ignorant managers who only care about figures at the end of the week. Awful place to work, steer well clear.

samurironan

Worst: Parkrite and Eircom
Best: AIB

zcorpian88

Haven't had a job good enough to dignify calling it the best company to work for...so I'm just going to throw the worst in there

so....(Drum Roll).....It's Dunnes Stores

Horrible place to work for most of the managers were bellends, and giving out over the smallest of things, and following you around to show you the fine art of shelf stacking! Or giving out for not smiling enough, like c'mon if I had to smile all day I'd get a pain in my face, I got the worst hours as a flexi timer so there was nothing to smile about. I was on the hygiene team down there which was meant to consist of about 6 people, as far as I was concerned I was the only one doing all the hygiene work along with the usual duties like checkouts, goods inwards, bringing in pallets and storing them, stacking shelves, rotating stock, handling returns, doing a HACCP checklist, getting trolleys, then having to do all the other hygiene stuff that other people should be doing. Where were the other staff of this hygiene team? Nowhere to be found, one guy in particular who didn't do half the stuff I'd have done on a typical day, he [MOD SNIPPED] always stank of drink, you'd smell him a mile away yet the manager says nothing to him over it, he'd be paged on the intercom over and over again about something hygiene related and I'd be waiting for my name to be called while I'm busy at the other side of the shop or all the way upstairs, then I get called and I'd be effing and blinding going downstairs because I'd have a manager on my back all day about some other task that needs doing.

When people left because of the chronic turnover, I kept asking for them to bump me up to full time because I was sick of being on Job Seekers Benefit and they wouldn't bump me up.

They only ring you when they want you at the last minute, I'd have plans for the day and my phone hopping in my pocket all day with them trying to take advantage. Sometimes I went in, other times I was like "F**k them, they won't give me full time so they can stay on their skeleton staff now!" They also use and abuse Christmas staff giving them the hope of staying on after Christmas which at least when I was there was NEVER done.

One particular HR manager down there said to me the morning my Grandad died when I called in saying I won't be in, she says "So you're not coming in then?" The mind boiling urge to tell her to shove her job her arse was there but I kept it together and just fired some snarky logic at her that obviously family comes first, not even an apology I got when I came back to work. I quit a few weeks later and did a course, can't work for a company that disrespects staff like that. I'd rather go hungry than work for them again.

In interviews I get the urge to tell them what it was really like working for them, I think that should be an admirable quality, being honest, even if it is badmouthing a company but you're always forced into believing you have to always put a positive spin on it, in order to look like this Saint of an employee to get the job you're after and I pretty much sort of mix between lying through my teeth about managers down there and giving the few positives about working for them like having the banter with customers or whatever.