Murgitroyd Reviews

Things have been going downhill at Murgitroyd for a while, but the pace of decline seems to be getting ever quicker and now seems to be terminal. Demands on staff are ever increasing - forced to record time to account for every second of your day, forced to put company expenses on your own account to be paid later, told to meet a continually changing suite of KPIs, told to deal with agents who haven’t been paid by Murgitroyd in months while simultaneously requesting funds on account for any work we are doing. The demands are ever changing, ever more desperate and produce no results beyond demoralising staff and annoying clients. Change is expected, and needs to happen in any business. However, changes at Murgitroyd are never part of a plan, just a reaction to the latest poor financial performance. There is no long term strategy evident, nor has there been for several years. Maybe that is to be expected when the management team seems to be a revolving door as people arrive and then leave in short order. All of this is now coming to a head, and several long term employees in senior positions are leaving. These are good people who have been the core of Murgitroyd for a decade or more in many cases, and they have had enough. When these kind of people leave, the decline is usually terminal.

This company has become an increasingly difficult place to work and sadly I can only see it becoming more toxic. As others have said, some of the leadership team don’t seem to know what they’re doing. That’s reflected in how defensive certain individuals can be if you question decisions or raise concerns. Salaries were low to begin with and have been stagnant for the last couple of years, which has only made things worse. There's a lot of negativity and many staff particularly at non director level feel undervalued. There's never money available when it comes to pay or properly resourcing teams, yet there’s no issue funding international travel for senior leadership. That’s frustrating, especially when most businesses cut those costs first in tougher times. There have already been redundancies and no doubt there will be more, which inevitably increases the pressure on those who remain. Several long serving employees have started to leave and morale has suffered further as a result. Attorneys previously only had billable time targets but are now expected to record all time to account for their full working day. This also applies to paralegals and patent and trademark support. This shift has nothing to do with productivity and only adds to the constant pressure attorneys are under. It also adds to the feeling that staff are not fully trusted to do their jobs. A few years ago there was a strong focus on wellbeing and mental health but that now feels like nothing more than lip service. The attitude towards those experiencing work related stress in particular has at times been dismissive and unsupportive. My advice to anyone considering joining would be to seriously consider all other options first. Personally I wouldn’t work for another private equity owned company again.