Great people, great work-life balance, path to success depends on your luck
Pros
- the people who work at SAGE are what makes it a good place to work. I was sold that at interview stage, and it really is true. The people at sage are bright, generally quite compassionate and friendly, and the majority are very talented at what they do. Sage has been great at maintaining a family-like feel although a lot of changes recently (lean business training, agile working, etc) in the business has threatened this quality somewhat. - Retention overall is relatively good. - The benefits package is pretty good for a publisher although salary is low. - New office is amazing and a real privilege for anyone who is into agile working/ more open minded than someone who prefers a fixed desk. - Service departments will go out of their way for employees, so if you're on the other side of that you probably will be spoiled. - Very good work- life balance - People are generally grateful for the work you do, directors included - Great charitable incentives and a lot of scope to particpate in this if this is something that you value - HR is very people focused and, if you have a good manager, the company will do a lot to support you through thick and thin
Cons
- Massive inconsistencies across the business in terms of how employees are treated, performance managed (or not, in some cases...) and led by their department managers (or not led at all, in some cases..). My time at Sage has been tainted by regular disappointments and frustrations at the lack of leadership, blurred lines of responsibility, setbacks in being developed directly by my manager and not feeling valued even though I have delivered excellent changes in the department and have had very good feedback from stakeholders in the business. Managers turn a blind eye or are, more worryingly, completely oblivious to bullying, favoritism, and are ignorant of their own lack of strategy and follow up in projects that they have been responsible for. Performance reviews and conversations about development are not taking place in some areas, and I'm not sure how much the heads of departments are aware of this. . For those who want to learn more and make their efforts worthwhile within a business such as SAGE, this is very demotivating and only ends with a letter of resignation and a lost opportunity for SAGE. - if you join sage, prepare yourself for a strong blame culture whereby a lot of people you work with will veto SAGE values for the sake of asserting their place in the organisation - If you work in a support role, depending on who your manager is, you most likely will feel disposable, undervalued, and will have to manage your work upwards - Unfortunately, if you are stuck with a manager who doesn't manage you will just have to take ownership of your own development and make sure that you don't get stuck with a negative mindset just because other people in the business are treated a lot better than you
