From an ecology standpoint, the company was not equipped to support early career ecologists due to a lack of senior and competent staff in the department, minimal guidance and training and unrealistic expectations from those higher up, especially given the grade and pay offered. Junior staff were blamed for being inefficient and for any problems, which created a high stress environment.
During my time there I watched a shift in leadership priorities towards prioritising short-term financial goals over employee development. It felt like Ecology was a constraint rather than being a core part of good quality service delivery. This resulted in the loss of good employees either by choice or by being pushed out and an increased reliance on external expertise (which seems more generally to be the direction the wider business is going in).
Having given myself time to reflect, I can say that the environment knocked my confidence greatly which I have since had to rebuild. It has become clear that the challenges that I experienced, which I know I am not alone in, were caused by the environment and not individual's ability to do their job.
