Pluspunten
Some genuinely good people worked in Version 1, getting to work with them for over 3 years has been fantastic. Now I think most of them are gone due to huge redundancies made in a very short space of time as well as a highly toxic workplace environment.
Minpunten
After several years at Version 1, I can confidently say that many of the negative reviews online are not exaggerations. What I experienced was a pattern of poor management practices, unequal treatment, and an environment where concerns were repeatedly brushed aside. * Gender pay gap: There is a noticeable disparity between men and women in similar roles. My fantastic manager who I have known for years and left Version 1, attempted to raise this issue and was met with vague explanations, he had to truly fight to get me the same pay as my male colleagues. This took roughly 6 months. After being promoted to Team Lead, I raised concerns about no salary increase and was gaslight into thinking everyone else was on the same as me. Boy was I wrong. New team leads coming into the organisation who had 0 experience of being a team lead were on a considerably higher salary than me and I was still ignored. * Sexist behaviour during quarterly reviews: usually during a quarterly review, a self assessment is needed in order to get your bonus/ quarterly profit share. Other new male colleagues didn’t do a self assessment and I was told by them that HR filled out his review for him, whereas I received a low rating out of nowhere by 1 toxic senior manager after doing my review and bringing up multiple issues with my workload. Again this was brushed off and nothing was done, both by HR and the senior manager. * Toxic management culture: Leadership often behaved in ways that fostered fear, not support. In a lot of cases there was workplace bullying, people either brought it up and it was brushed off or too scared to bring it up. Decisions were made without staff in mind, feedback was inconsistent, and criticism was sometimes delivered inappropriately. Many other colleagues who I’ve talked to believe the same although they are scared to speak up due to the toxic management. * Lack of support: Employees are frequently left to fend for themselves with little guidance, unclear expectations, and virtually no structured support. Senior management noticed I was quiet on meetings, this was due to workload issues and stress, I was told to put my concerns in an email and they would be addressed- they never were. They were simply pushed about between senior management. * Insensitive or inappropriate remarks: I witnessed situations where colleagues—including those with disabilities—were spoken about in ways that felt deeply unprofessional and unacceptable. Comments about myself and other team members were shared with others in ways that contributed to a toxic atmosphere and calling people “communication monkeys” is not acceptable. * Concerns repeatedly ignored: I raised several issues with management over time, yet none were properly investigated or meaningfully addressed. * Favouritism: Certain staff members in my department were clearly prioritised, given better treatment, and offered opportunities that others were not, regardless of merit. * No work/life balance: To create a redundancy process in the middle of summer 2025, give people 1 week to apply for other internal jobs and tell them it’s either 12 hour shifts or leave is senseless. You have no work life balance in Version 1. If I could give 0 stars for this review I would have, I wouldn’t recommend Version 1 to a friend and I honestly don’t think the place will improve. I’ve seen the place get worse in the last 3 months and I can’t see it getting better anytime soon.