Pros
There are many lovely, talented people across the business.
Cons
Where to start? Whilst the word “toxic” gets thrown around a lot these days, I can’t imagine there’s many better examples of a toxic culture than that of Boden House. Rather than the joyful, inclusive brand it tries to portray itself as to the outside world, the sad reality is that for many of us unfortunate enough to work there, Boden is in fact built on a culture of misogyny, nepotism and ultimately, elitism. Looking back on my time at Boden, I can’t quite believe I actually heard some of the things that were spoken aloud in meetings. But the truth is you become weirdly desensitised to it all. It’s not unusual to see someone reduced to tears in the office, or to see someone shown the famous Boden trap door overnight. It’s just the norm. People are underappreciated, overworked and seen as disposable. Objects that can just be thrown out and replaced without any questions asked. Day-in-day-out you’re gaslit, lied to, belittled. Confident, experienced professionals reduced to questioning themselves and made to feel like they might be the problem after all. All the while, friends/family/acquaintances of the senior leadership team are parachuted into senior management positions despite clearly lacking the necessary technical or people skills required for such roles. But the truth is, if your face fits and sales are good you are pretty much free to do as you please. In the case of our Director, you don’t even have to say hello to anybody you haven’t hired yourself (or even acknowledge they exist). And whilst I know many teams across the business won’t have had an experience as negative as this, my need to keep this anonymous means that this review doesn’t even come close to explaining just how bad things were for us in my department. Glad to be free.
