All that glitters isn't gold
Pros
In the early days, I gained a ton of experience building the customer service department out alongside a colleague. Also standing desks.
Cons
In my time at Goodfood, I watched the company go from a hardworking startup to a workplace that valued 'culture' over actual, concrete advances in hiring, technology, and systems. 'Team work makes the dream work' turned into a sick mantra in which the Member Happiness team (customer service) would work insane hours (overtime topping 8+ hours a day for some agents, who would work to 'bank' the time for eventual days off) dealing with volumes of communications due to a host of issues, from delivery problems stemming from their very production facility, to marketing initiatives that toed the line of breaking anti-spam legislation, to having to manually suspend/cancel hundreds of accounts on a daily basis. The intense lack of support from upper management resulted in thinly veiled threats to not allow tickets to backlog ever again, and also contributed to my decision to leave the company. Alongside this, there is a constant 'always on' mentality that is unspoken, but is a clear tenant of who is 'working hard'. The company utilizes Slack (a messaging app) and it was an unspoken rule, even from the very early days, that this was to be installed on your phone, and you should be always up to date as to the goings on in not only your department, but others as well. It became a compulsion: if I wasn't working, I would check Slack at least once an hour in the evening, and when I woke up in the morning it would be the very first thing I looked at on my phone. It allows the lines between home and work to blur significantly, despite the company insisting that they value work-life balance. Promotions are virtually non-existant, and pay scale is not compliant with industry standards (specific for customer service); the MH positions are so much more than just customer service, and should be paid accordingly. The position is also mostly thankless; in almost 3 years, I can point out a handful of occasions where I was told I was doing a good job, or thanked for my extra efforts. My decision to leave was difficult, because of the 'culture' the company creates; you are so ingrained with the expectations that anything else seems foreign. The company I fell in love with, and devoted my loyalty to, no longer existed at my departure; growth in a company is important, but not when you begin to sacrifice your core values. I cannot strongly recommend enough to avoid Goodfood; your overall well being is not worth the strain.
