- Unengaging and tedious work, often frustrating, sometimes futile due to broken systems.
- Often highly stressful.
- Systems and processes completely unfit for purpose: archaic, labyrinthine, illogical, counter-productive, petty, mutually contradictory, piecemeal and patchy.
- Toxic senior management culture, deep and abiding institutional hypocrisy, occasional line-managerial bullying with no recourse.
- Processes which inevitably fail almost every customer in some way, resulting in fielding very stressful calls and correspondence but being able to do little or nothing to resolve serious problems.
- Contrast of impossible workloads and deadlines at peak times with management dithering sometimes creating very quiet periods.
- Little or no potential for promotion, no meaningful career development or training activity at all, complete career dead end. This is even true for those with an interest and advanced qualifications in the environment; don't expect to get into a better role within Natural England from Technical Services, it's very rare that it happens.
- Absolute ethical vacuum.
- Required to enforce rules which penalise customers heavily (hundreds or even thousands of pounds) for the mistakes of associated agencies within DEFRA.
- Staff are not empowered to provide constructive feedback; there is no listening culture.
- Seems to be in a state of 'managed decline' due to ongoing funding cuts.
