Toxic culture and unrealistic expectations drive talent away - Recensione dipendente - Business Development Manager presso Delinian

I completely agree with others who have said that if protecting your mental health is important to you, this is not the place to work. Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) are used regularly as a tool to avoid redundancies. Targets often feel like a lottery, with little logic behind them, and are frequently unrealistic. I witnessed junior employees being bullied by a manager and told they needed to generate £2 million in new business within a week for a single event or risk failing their probation. The event itself didn't even achieve £2 million in revenue, yet HR supported this approach. If you raise concerns with HR, the response is often that you're "too sensitive." That is not a judgement they are qualified to make, nor is it HR's role to assess someone's mental wellbeing. Ultimately, HR exists to protect the interests of the business, not the employee. Commission is considerably lower than comparable roles elsewhere, and that alone drives good people away because they know they can earn more in similar positions. Travel is presented as a major perk of the job, but the reality is very different. Employees are often expected to travel in their own time, fly on the cheapest economy fares, and go straight from a flight into work. What isn't made clear is that you'll likely need a personal credit card, particularly if travelling to the US. Hotels commonly place substantial pre-authorisation holds on guests' cards, often amounting to hundreds of pounds. Rather than negotiating arrangements with venues to avoid this, the company leaves employees to absorb the financial burden. It isn't unusual to be asked to cover an £800 hold on a work trip. This unnecessarily blurs the line between personal finances and business expenses, especially when salaries are not high enough for employees to comfortably absorb these costs. Many reviews identify members of the leadership team as contributing to a toxic culture, and that reflects real experience. While there are undoubtedly some good leaders within the business, too many management practices create an environment where bullying, unrealistic expectations, and poor treatment of staff become normalised. Rather than challenging these behaviours, HR often appears to support or enable them, reinforcing a culture that drives capable people away instead of helping them succeed. At one stage, the company introduced drop-in sessions where employees were encouraged to raise concerns with the stated aim of improving the workplace culture. Based on the continued volume of similar reviews, it is difficult to see that these sessions led to any meaningful change. More concerning was that many employees did not feel comfortable speaking openly, despite assurances of confidentiality, because they feared potential repercussions. A culture where people are reluctant to raise genuine concerns is unlikely to improve unless employees trust that they will be heard without negative consequences.