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WHEN LISTS OF the best places to work are pulled together, the same names often crop up.
Google and Facebook, with their free food, on-site gyms and other perks, are always near the top of the charts overseas, while multinationals make up many of Ireland’s top workplaces as well.
But how do some of the country’s key home-grown companies fare? TheJournal.ie sifted through employer-review site Glassdoor, which this week unveiled its dedicated site for the Republic, to find what people were saying – although it’s worth noting all the reviews are anonymous and people need only an email address to post.
Here’s how some major Irish employers fared, among those firms with at least 40 reviews:
IT consulting firm Version 1, which employs about 700 across offices in Ireland and the UK, scores a remarkable 4.3 out of 5 across reviews on the site, putting it in the same league as top international companies.
The company has already been declared among Ireland’s best large workplaces several times in recent years and this, from an app developer, was typical of the Glassdoor praise:
The core values say everything about how the company works, and everyone believes in them.”
But there were still those who didn’t completely buy into the corporate spiel, like a senior consultant for gave this feedback:
Core values are espoused by many companies and start sounding jaded and even a bit patronising when they are attached to just about everything without qualification.”
Cork-founded recruitment company Morgan McKinley, which has about 600 staff across offices in 10 countries, also scored well, with an average rating of 4.1.
Reviewers praised the firm’s “global feel but with a warm atmosphere”, although several took aim at a workplace built around never-ending targets.
Two of Ireland’s largest colleges also ranked well among reviewers, with UCD and Trinity College getting ratings of 4.0 and 3.7 respectively.
Much of the feedback for UCD praised the friendly work culture and the facilities at the campus, while Trinity’s location and reputation also won plaudits.
However a few marked the historic college down for red tape and bureaucracy, with one former researcher highlighting a “clan-like behaviour in administration”.
Over at the Bank of Ireland, reviewers also appeared a fairly contented bunch despite swingeing job cuts and pay freezes since the financial crisis and the bank’s bailout.
The lender had an overall 3.7 rating. One former “senior project manager” labelled it as a “great place to work … like a family until the downturn”.
Meanwhile, another recent reviewer provided this pragmatic insight into their work at the bank:
However the reviews weren’t quite so favourable for fellow pillar bank AIB, which scored only 2.6 on the site. A lowly 32% of those leaving feedback said they would recommend working at the bank to a friend.
One, who listed themselves as a former risk analyst, described it as being like the “public service without all the perks” – although that came with the pro of “staying (after) 6pm being very rare”.
Working for a major company with instant brand recognition wasn’t enough to lift the scores from reviewers at two of Ireland’s best-known firms.
Paddy Power scored 2.9 on the site, although nearly two-thirds of the workers still said they would recommend the company to a friend.
The opportunity to work on interesting projects and chance to learn rated repeat mentions, as did the long hours and absence of any work-life balance.
In a long list of complaints, one anonymous staff member in Dublin said there were “politics galore” at the company, which had an “easy trigger finger” when it came to firing employees.
At Dunnes Stores, where staff have gone on strike over work conditions, the average rating was a lowly 2.7.
One reviewer offered this constructive advice for the company’s management: ”Be more human – we are people not machines.”
At the bottom of the pile was Ryanair, which scored an average 2.4 from reviewers on the site.
While many said the budget carrier was a good training ground where people could clock up experience quickly, it appeared few were fans of the work culture coming out of Swords.
One reviewer, who listed their job as a former senior web developer at the company, had this blunt assessment: “The worst place I have ever been in the past 10 years.”
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I used to work for one of the companies with a very high score highlighted in the article and their HR department coordinates their presence on Glassdoor and the “Best places to work” competition. I would treat those ratings with a grain of salt
Couldn’t agree more. 73 of the 500 employees seemed to have left stellar reviews and the ‘faults’ are like reading interview hint sheet
AIB- gambling taxpayer moneyPaddy Power- facilates gambling of net taxpayers money after the government has stolen its share, Ryanair-abusive to workers, Dunnes-abusive to workers- Ireland best companies, Ireland is in a sorry state
Gambling is an addiction. A vice.
Profiteering from other people’s misery is bad karma.
Dirty money.
You can dress up in a suit and present a smooth corporate image but at the end of the day it’s in the same category as heroin and crack cocaine dealing.
I wouldn’t like to have that on my conscience every time I opened my wage packet.
Tell us where you work Tommy… children’s refuge?
Jesus Tommy, exaggerate much? Paddy Power is like a drug dealer basically. Absolute dope
It’s called making an ethical choice Lotto.
I’m sure if you delve down deep enough in your own psyche you might find something you would refuse to do on ethical grounds.
I hope so.
Tommy any tips for Cheltenham?
Sounds like someone close to you Tommy, had a gambling addiction ?
25% of gambing addicts have committed a crime to fund their gambling.
One in five problem gamblers have attempted suicide. Twice the rate of other addictions.
The gambling addict will end up in one of three places.
Prison.
The psychiatric institution.
The morgue.
@Suzie.
True.
He’s right Lotto blotto. So why you slagging him off?
I had a feeling Tommy judging by your comment .you’re right in what you’re saying about gambling .
It’s a bit harsh Tommy. Not everyone who gambled is addicted, everyone who takes heroine is.
Yes you can get addicted to gambling, same goes for drugs, drink, tobacco. But in moderation gambling is the least problem causing. It’s all about self control, problems arise when you bet with money you haven’t got.. But gambling on Major competitions, festivals etc is fun. Do what you want with your extra money
Too right tommy.
That’s untrue Jane, if your talking about heroin. Lots of people take it and don’t become addicts.
“Problem gamblers such as Jim are “as miserable as cancer patients,”
“Being a problem gambler tripled the probability of extreme unhappiness,”
Prof David Forrest of the University of Liverpool, who studies gambling and is the author of a study called The Unhappiness of Problem Gamblers. “
A recent survey of the UK industry by three academics, Mark Griffiths, Jim Orford and Heather Wardle, “found that 30-35 per cent of the industry’s revenue comes from full-blown problem gamblers.
Dr Colin O’Gara, a consultant psychiatrist at St John of God Hospital and a researcher at the school of medicine at University College Dublin, has seen a dramatic increase in the number of patients with smartphone- and other online-gambling problems.
“Gambling may be a hobby for people, but it’s inherently an addictive behaviour,” he says. “Just like alcohol or drugs. It’s not harmless.”
It’s an industry built on human misery.
Most heroin and crack dealers begin their operations by offering ‘freebies’ to users.
Online bookmakers like Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, BetFair (which is now a joint venture with Paddy Power) etc use social media to offer ‘new users’ free bets with the intention of parting them from their money on a regular basis further down the road.
Anyway.
I’ll get down off the soap box now.
It’s an ever increasing problem which needs to be watched closely.
Totally agree on gambling. it’s profiteering out of other peoples misery. Thank god, it’s one vice I don’t have. I was always too scared of it.
Big time, screw Paddy Power and the rest of them. It’s great if you can have the odd bet etc but the look of misery of some of the lads hanging around those places. I always pity the family at home.
Any of the big accounting firms are horrendous to work for. Mediocre pay for ridiculous hours and stress all in the name of climbing the ladder to partner where you earn the big bucks and never see your family. Too many companies in Ireland trying to replicate their American parents working culture without realising it’s one of the reasons the US is so fooked up
Why would you wanna work for Ryanair when you’re a senior web developer
The air miles?
Ryanair don’t give miles. Most airlines give free or reduced fares or standby travel to employees and family members. It’s cheap and cheerful for passengers and standby with restrictions for staff on Ryanair. The free or discount travel is lost when you leave.
If you worked for British Airways. Discount travel to employees and even after you left or retired the benefit was for life that included spouse and children. That’s when unions had teeth that secured benefits.
Are they the same type of unions that had Brendan Ogle threatening to cut off electricity to the country last year ?
Why would Ryanair give cheap.flights to employees who leave? That may be the silliest complaint I’ve ever seen about them! And by the way air miles and other benefits like that are limited by European Union restrictions, there is nothing airlines can do about it
I work for an airline and did recruitment for ages within them. Wouldn’t touch Ryanair staff with a barge pole. So saying its a stepping stone into the industry is far from the mark!
Many of the Ryanair staff who did manage to get through turned out to be the biggest waste of space with the most appalling work ethic and customer service offered.
Maybe all the good ones didn’t want to work at your airline so you ended up with the scraps..
Tony, I work in the industry too but not with Ryanair, they didn’t get to be the most successful airline in Europe by having staff that are a “waste of space”. Whatever airline you work for could probably learn a few lessons from them.
James… I’d say someone tried to get in to Ryanair and got rejected. ..;)
Yep.. The same unions that used to get decent wages for workers. For the demise of wages see the demise of unions
My airline is a pretty huge well known one, in fact pretty topical when you look at what just happened to Aer Lingus and Iberia! Shall we say it was once the “worlds favourite”!
And yes Ryanair staff where never known for customer service ethic until recently when O’Leary suddenly realised that just maybe being nice does matter!
Right, so they’re not a “waste of space ” anymore. I think you’d find its Ryanair who wouldn’t entertain the unionised, constantly strike threatening staff from BA and Aer Lingus.
I left my review last night. It was very cathartic to get it out there
Refer a friend? !!! I used to work in a place that I used to recommend to my colleagues that they get out if they can !
can we do the same for employees. name and shame. fair is fair
Values, what about the global company who introduced the ‘values’ to great fanfare and subsequently the MD would announce at every opportunity that the Values were a load of S***E.
Don’t believe the ‘Values’ are anything other than Spin and do some research.
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