A JacTravel Review: Inmates running the hospital - Anonymous employee JacTravel Employee Review

1.0
4 Apr 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are a few nice people, but little else. Unfortunately, many things need to change company wide to make it an attractive work place.

Cons

There is a lot of things I am finding negative about JacTravel: ~ Upper Management lack a clear grasp of where the company is headed. For the most part, the Upper Management seems only concerned with pleasing their direct superiors (CEO, etc.) and not creating a positive environment for the employees. ~ Middle Management is as poor as it gets. Very little experience, infighting, and placing all blame on subordinates rather than accepting it themselves. ~ This is because there is very little care put in hiring qualified people. Most of the middle managers are simply promoted from a level below, with no management experience. It seems if you are "friends" with the managers, then you have a good chance of promotion. However, those getting promoted are severely under-qualified, having never been in a management position in the past. This is a female dominated company and that is not a problem as I am a woman, but at JacTravel they lack the maturity and professionalism to operate effectively. Sadly, there are many cliques within the company and getting in with the right "group" enhances your chance of promotion. ~ There is virtually no training. There is certainIy no 'official' training program in place. I was given a couple hours with each department, and that's it. Just an hour or so with each department and they seem put out because they're busy and don't have the time. The computer system is very hard to learn, there is a poorly put together manual by one of the people here that barely covers the basics. You're left on your own to 'figure it out', because 'everyone else has'. ~ There is a lot of turnover here. In just a few months, there have been a lot of people leaving (managers and others), and they're either not being replaced or being replaced with new, inexperienced people. I've already been given extra responsibilities due to someone leaving, and of course, there is no increase in salary. I'm just doing extra work that I wasn't prepared for, nor asked about. ~ The office is nice enough, but I've heard we've been promised to move for several years to a newer, modern office, but that is a running joke with my fellow employees as everyone knows it will never happen. FYI - I was told in my interview that it would be this year. The canteen, however, is disgusting, tiny, and over used. I eat out everyday. ~ There is no social aspect. Most of the people are either in their own little cliques, and dislike the others, so there is no harmony. There are a lot of Italians working here and they all speak to each other in Italian. There was an email put out asking everyone to speak English. That lasted for a week, and now all the Italians converse with each other in Italian again. ~ Due to the fact that people aren't being replaced, the work load is overwhelming. I could easily work 18 hours/day and not get my things done. It's then considered my fault when what is needed is more people. I am doing double the work from when I first started with no added benefit.

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JacTravel Response
9y
Thank you for taking the time to submit your review. We do appreciate all the feedback that we receive, (even if it makes for challenging reading) because we understand the importance of knowing what it is that our team members like or dislike about working here at JacTravel. We would like to respond here to some of the points that you have raised but also would very much like to have the opportunity to discuss the concerns that you have outlined in your review in more detail, so please do let us know if you would be interested to speak to a member of the HR or Senior Management Team about this.  On the job training: We do have a comprehensive training programme. There is information about this on our HR tool and posters can normally be seen around the offices advertising upcoming courses and workshops.  Management programmes: We do provide these to help support and train our staff to become efficient managers. We aim to nurture and develop our team members and we pride ourselves on the number of success stories where staff have progressed or been promoted. At the same time, we always try and attract the best talent into the business.  Workload: We are sorry to hear your thoughts here. JacTravel is a fast growing company and we try our best to manage the requirements of today with those of the future, which sometimes results in our not replacing roles immediately so we can assess the best structure. On occasion, this could lead a temporary increase in pressure on the rest of the team but we would always encourage our team members to let us know if they feel that the workload is too much.  Social aspect: We have a Social Committee made up of staff members across both our London offices. There are a number of upcoming events so keep a look out for more information about these. Once again, thank you for your feedback.

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Pros

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Cons

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4.0
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CEO approval
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Pros

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Cons

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JacTravel Response
8y
Thanks for taking the time to complete your review. We know it can be a bit of a challenging time as we are going through quite a lot of exciting yet significant changes as we look to grow the business. We are focusing all our efforts on improving our tech solutions, infrastructure and internal communications so we’re confident that you will see some real improvements on those fronts in the near future. With regards to promoting from within, we always try to encourage this and we feel we have a good record of developing people’s careers within the business. Please feel free to speak to our Internal Recruiter to provide any feedback and of course to see what opportunities we currently have within the business. Thanks again.
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