Pros
Biggest positive by far was the people within the teams. I worked with many genuinely kind, hardworking, and supportive colleagues who cared about doing a good job. The relationships built with colleagues were a major reason I enjoyed parts of my time there and were often what made challenging periods easier.
The Product Development role gave exposure to many different areas including manufacturing, production processes, packaging, customer relationships, and project management.
4pm finish on a Friday and Christmas shutdown (however, you must reserve 4/5 days annual leave for this)
Cons
My overall experience at Professional Beauty Systems was challenging, mainly due to the workplace culture, management style, and lack of employee support.
The biggest issue I experienced was a culture of fear and blame rather than one focused on collaboration and problem-solving. In a manufacturing environment, issues and mistakes naturally happen, but I felt the focus was often on identifying who was responsible rather than working together to fix problems and improve processes.
I experienced and witnessed communication from senior management that felt extremely intimidating and aggressive. Many staff members were shouted at, publicly ridiculed and often reduced to tears due to the threatening nature of senior management. This created an environment where employees were often uncomfortable raising concerns or approaching certain members of leadership. That fear and pressure then filtered down through management and impacted the wider team.
The overall atmosphere felt highly controlling, with strict rules and inconsistent standards applied to everyday aspects of working life. This ranged from perceived double standards around dress code, to restrictions on when employees could take their lunch breaks. Staff were generally discouraged from taking lunch at the same time as colleagues, limiting opportunities to socialise and build positive working relationships. Even small things, such as how much blue roll was used in the kitchen, became matters that management would focus on.
Within the Product Development team that continued. I felt that support, responsibility, and recognition were not always consistent. There appeared to be differences in how people were treated depending on their relationship with management, which created a lot of unfairness.
Training was another area that could have been significantly improved. There was some training on software systems, but very little structured training around team processes, expectations, or how to succeed in the role. A lot of learning was through trial and error, which made settling into the role more difficult than necessary.
There were many processes in place, but in my experience the majority did not improve efficiency and felt more like additional checks due to a lack of trust rather than processes designed to genuinely support employees. More trust within teams would have been more effective as the majority of the time it was very controlling.
Communication could also be improved. There was often a reliance on informal conversations and “word of mouth” within teams rather than clear communication from management, which did not always create a positive or transparent culture.
Work-life balance was another challenge. The business was not particularly flexible, with no working from home option and limited flexibility around working patterns or working hours.
There was a strict old fashioned clocking-in system, and very small lateness issues could be treated seriously. However, additional hours worked to meet deadlines were not paid, even when overtime was required during busy periods.
Pay and progression was disappointing. Salaries felt low compared with the level of responsibility expected, and there was limited structured career development. There were no salary reviews or development conversations.
Benefits were limited, with the Christmas bonus being the main additional benefit, this was only a couple hundred pounds and did not apply to all employees.
I noticed a high staff turnover during my time there. The company is in a unique industry within Scotland, which can make opportunities elsewhere more limited, but I saw talented people leave due to dissatisfaction with aspects of the working environment.
I was also surprised by the company’s Investors in People recognition, as from my experience employees were not involved in any survey or feedback process that I was aware of. This created a feeling that external recognition did not fully reflect the day-to-day experience of many employees and management were very selective in who was involved to help achieve this award.
There were also awful instances where there was bullying, comments or attitudes around appearance, weight, and personal choices that were unacceptable and not aligned with the expectations of a modern workplace.