Pros
A sense of camaraderie amongst employees.
Cons
I worked at ADE for just shy of two years and was present in the transitional period working under both the old owners and the new. During this time, I worked in several critical administrative functions that were less production focussed, and more office/staff focussed. The old owners, and the company under its former name (Advanced Diesel Engineering), had gained a poor reputation. I see the merit in their work, as a medium sized family-owned business who quite successfully broke into a difficult market. I never agreed with their management methods, but when the old owners were there, ADE had some soul. When the takeover happened, things were looking up at first. There were significant improvements to the trust system, for example relaxed punishments for tardiness which were obscenely strict in prior years. The staff-focussed CCTV systems were taken down, and there was a push for employee accountability. It felt like a good start. However, the company’s third location in Essex was deemed a lost cause due to lack of profitability by the new owners, and unfortunately shut down. Most of the staff were laid off, as there was no possibility of commute to the other sites. This put a lot of unease into the staff force at the “secondary” site in Rotherham, and the lack of communication throughout the company left most on tenterhooks for the following year. This lack of communication continued, and the things which united the two sites formerly (such as the monthly newsletter) were scrapped in favour of higher-level overviews that did not apply to your average staff. My personal development came at a bad time in the company. A rogue choice of Managing Director caused a glut of hires in the middle management department. These managers, who were promised a business heading toward success on the international stage, did not last long. Many departments were stripped entirely, and from what I can recall, not one of the managers that were hired during this time lasted for more than a year. This also applied to internal promotions. ADE had a terrible history of internal promotions leading to failure. Personally, I was promoted under one of the managers who were hired during this transitional period into a role I had not previously had experience in. To combat this, I was offered an apprenticeship by this manager, where I began to learn the ropes of the role. Unfortunately, my manager was unfairly treated. She chose to leave the company after being offered a “lateral” position, which was a direct downgrade from her previous work. Her replacement was then also not a suitable candidate for the position, and was fired, leaving a very important department without a manager. In this time, whilst still trying to finish my apprenticeship, I did not have a formal manager for several months. I was told by the seniors on the day of the replacement manager’s impromptu firing that there would not be a new replacement and that I should report anything directly to the senior leadership team. I did not hear anything from them since. Eventually, I too was dismissed on the grounds of a lack of competency, despite having scored excellently in my annual review, and with talks of a pay rise on the cards. I had not had any meetings prior to this to improve my performance, no manager to steer me in the right direction, and was fully under the impression that all was well. I was dismissed by my direct colleague, who was not a manager at the time, but was acting as an earpiece for the senior team. I did not have a formal dismissal meeting, and the dismissal happened one and a half hours past my clock-out time, as I regularly put in overtime hours without pay to keep on top of workload in our already strained department. This happened "conveniently" one month before my two years of service had passed, leaving me jobless before Christmas and without any chance of recourse. I can now say that things are better on the other side. The benefits at ADE were non-existent, and I personally fought for a year and a half to get off minimum wage (which at the time, was below even the living wage due to my age). The pay for fabbies/welders and other operational staff is at market level, but in my time there I saw no benefits in the form of monetary bonuses, healthcare, memberships, gym or cycle schemes. The Rotherham branch did not provide free tea or coffee, there are no food amenities on site, and no staff canteen for office staff who were encouraged to stay seated at their desks or eat in their cars. The staff were lovely, but the use of alcohol and drugs was rife and often caused issues with staff attendance and threatened safety. The managers were hit and miss – I was lucky to work alongside a great manager in the operational function, but other managers during my time employed had faced several reports of bullying and harassment. I would be wary coming into this company in an administrative capacity, or as a designer, project manager, or other office-based role due to the instability we felt and due to poor pay and benefit offers in comparison to market rate. I feel truly sad to hear about the current state of the business, as despite its flaws, the people made the work worth it.
