Does anybody work for MoneyPenny ?

[wxm2016]

The fact that they have so many people working for them (they are now one of the biggest employers in Wrexham) kind of shows that they don’t have a problem recruiting people. They can afford to be picky with the amount of people who apply. I also don’t think the best way to get a job is to slate them on a forum….

With 100’s on employees I hardly think that 4 people classes as everyone in Moneypenny.

As I said on an earlier post everyone I know who works there really enjoy it. None of them seem to be struggling for money and they don’t seem to be working constantly. They always seem to manage to get days off to go places without having to book them off weeks in advance like most places. I’ve also met new friends from socialising with people who work there as they aren’t just work colleagues. They do seem to become friends. A friend that works there has just gone off on maternity and you should of seen the presents she got. Cot, nappies, bottles, toys, clothes, a pamper pack for her self…. I’ve never worked anywhere that treats their staff as well as Moneypenny seem to.

If you are looking to apply though you hopefully have some work experience and are over the age of 16… as such you should know that you don’t always get a job first time. The job market is terrible at the moment. I am a manager of a restaurant and I get up to 40 applications for each job we advertise. If I can be picky for waiters/waitresses they can be picky for a PA.

[Anon628]

Hi. I recently left Moneypenny and therefore feel like I can be completely honest.

They do have a happy culture, until you do something they don’t like. Then expect to be called in for meetings, have your every move watched and the superiors suddenly stop being so nicey-nice with you all of a sudden.

As they have grown so much recently the call volumes are very high. You are expected to be “logged in” for the majority of the day to take these calls, but because they are one after the other, notepads of calls that you need to send off start to build up. So you log out to send them, but have no idea what that call from half an hour ago is regarding. Then your team leader will be on your case for the fact you’re logged out. Client emails come in and you’re expected to respond and action them within 15 minutes. It’s near impossible to do this between calls, but don’t think you might be allowed to log out to do it. I tried responding to client emails while in the few seconds I had callers on hold, but then I was told my call times were too long. Combined with the fact they will be onto you like a shot if any of your stats drop, this can make for quite a stressful environment. But they’re “not stats driven” of course. As a result of this pressure to be logged in at all times, the quality of calls and messages inevitably drops. Then you’ll be picked up for your mistakes :P. I’ve seen quite a few clients commenting on how the quality of Moneypenny has dropped recently in connection with their huge growth, and I think their focus on stats rather than quality is why.

Also, as long as clients are paying their bills, they don’t really care how you get spoken to which makes me question their loyalty to their staff as much as they say claim. I’d have clients on for months at a time who would divert all their calls to us, and we’d have their callers screaming at us down the phone where they had just effectively done a bunk. But as long as they paid the bills, nobody higher up cared. You still weren’t allowed to tell callers that you are an answering service.

There’s also a definite inner circle. My team leader would be on personal internal calls to the team manager all the time, while the rest of us were inundated with calls which was super irritating.

With regards to promotion, you’re only eligible after a year of working at the bottom. Then you can apply for promotion to team leader. Supposing you get it, there’s only one more rung on the ladder available to you, team manager. So it’s not like you can establish a career. Also, beyond your initial stint on the training team there’s no continued development opportunities, you’re basically a call answering bot.

I don’t think I recognised all of this until I moved on, as when you’re surrounded by the Moneypenny Culture they repeatedly tell you how lucky you are to work for such an amazing company so you don’t always realise these things. They do have a nice culture, but I do think a lot of that is just surface value. All things to consider before applying.

[HMP]

I used to. Don’t expect to progress too far unless you kiss ass. Don’t expect to get any decent time off for any occasion. The managers and team leaders are so far up eachother you’ll never win if you complain about anything they will just tell you to do one! The money’s good! The training is terrible and expect to be seated and under amazing stress for at least 80% if your day. And when you get called in for a meeting always take someone with you to witness the seething gnarling managers! My advice stay well clear!

[fernweh1989]

I have a girlfriend and one-day wife who works there and so feel that I too can put my 30000000 droning self-opinionated words onto this forum just like several other posters who actually appear to be lacking in a chromosome or two. This only urges me to give an insightful and just view of the points raised and the company profile from a reasonably unbiased view.

The person who left and posted a rather large essay Named ANON628 (probably should have written that much on her GCSE English coursework and she wouldn’t have had to take a job at Moneypenny in the first place but alas here we are), lets identify her comments and see if she was being honest and not a “woman with certain issues”

“You are expected to be “logged in” for the majority of the day to take these calls, but because they are one after the other, notepads of calls that you need to send off start to build up. So you log out to send them, but have no idea what that call from half an hour ago is regarding. Then your team leader will be on your case for the fact you’re logged out.”

Your job is to take a large proportion of calls – it is your job and what your paid to do?? The suggestion that management are “on your case” isn’t true. Unless the reminder emails about improving login times that are sent to everyone in the office hurt your feeling??s – or maybe you feel there are a reflection on your own work?? Either way I would suggest you toughen up or improve your performance if you feel its directed at you. Probably best you left before you were sacked.

“Also, as long as clients are paying their bills, they don’t really care how you get spoken to which makes me question their loyalty to their staff as much as they say claim”. – have you never heard of the phrase the customer is always right – and the true meaning and implementation behind it?? I suggest you look it up – its common place in all successful businesses, again maybe you should toughen up.

“There’s also a definite inner circle. My team leader would be on personal internal calls to the team manager all the time, while the rest of us were inundated with calls which was super irritating.” This is known as office politics and a hierarchy chain of command, in simple terms their conversation is above your pay grade so wind your neck in!!

Finally, regarding your comments on promotion within Moneypenny when you stated “you’re only eligible after a year of working at the bottom. Then you can apply for promotion to team leader. Supposing you get it, there’s only one more rung on the ladder available to you, team manager. So it’s not like you can establish a career. Also, beyond your initial stint on the training team there’s no continued development opportunities, you’re basically a call answering bot.” – Just out of interest, how many of your jobs have you been promoted in within 12 months? Judging by your opinionated busybody nature, as a recruitment consultant I suspect you to be a job hopper and serial complainer with more job roles on their CV than awards given to Moneypenny for their employability and economic progression (which by the way if your slow is quite a lot)

In essence, and conclusion, the job and company are not the issue, they do exactly what they say on the metaphorical tin and you knew that when you signed up. I can only find one job role that I don’t think you’d find fault or struggle to succeed in and that’s a self-employed tissue folder.

Give me a call if you’re interested in the role. No CV needed I’d rather save my eyes
Best wishes

Tomo

[wxm2016]

Well done Fernweh1989 for taking the words right out of every educated persons mouth.

[wxm2016]

Hi. I recently left Moneypenny and therefore feel like I can be completely honest. – Did you leave or get fired?!

They do have a happy culture, until you do something they don’t like. Then expect to be called in for meetings, have your every move watched and the superiors suddenly stop being so nicey-nice with you all of a sudden. – Just as most employers do when you don’t do the job that is expected of you and that you get paid for.

As they have grown so much recently the call volumes are very high. You are expected to be “logged in” for the majority of the day to take these calls – I didn’t realise there was anywhere that you got paid to not be doing your job?

Then your team leader will be on your case for the fact you’re logged out.- again that’s their job… to make sure you do your job.

I was told my call times were too long.- Say you work in mcDonalds… Staff in mcDonalds have a target of 1 minute 30 seconds to serve each customer… I used to work in Mcdonalds… If you get over 3 minutes your timer goes red… EVERYWHERE has targets.

Combined with the fact they will be onto you like a shot if any of your stats drop, – Stats are there to help improve you. To make sure YOU do things right and YOU are constantly improving In order to qualify for a promotion that you keep talking about.

Then you’ll be picked up for your mistakes :P. – Same as with any employer. At least they aren’t firing you for mistakes.

You still weren’t allowed to tell callers that you are an answering service. – That’s why you get paid… To pretend you work in the office of the company… I don’t understand why this is so difficult for you to understand.

My team leader would be on personal internal calls to the team manager all the time – Oh so two members of management were talking…. That’s what management do. How do you think things get done without management communication?

With regards to promotion, you’re only eligible after a year of working at the bottom. – I know places that take a lot longer than 1 year.

Then you can apply for promotion to team leader. Supposing you get it, there’s only one more rung on the ladder available to you, team manager. So it’s not like you can establish a career – What do you class as a career… most people would class a management role as a career… Also not true… One of my friends started as a PA and is now working in IT, has gained many skills from this and now has a huge amount of career possibilities.

Maybe as advised earlier you should establish yourself as a self employed toilet folder…. Which would have even less career possibilities.

Good luck with your future… I think you’re going to need it.

[wxm2016]

You also say that there is no development after the initial training. This contradicts the fact that you are being pulled up on your mistakes… what do you think that is? Its training and development. Maybe you should of tried grasping the basics before moaning that you weren’t promoted in less than 12 months. If you cant grasp the basics yourself how do you expect to manage others?

[Dollybird01]

I don’t understand why those that don’t work at Moneypenny think those that have come on here to add something positive are lying?

I know I have worked for some right idiot companies who have treated me like rubbish time and time again, despite the amount of hard work and unpaid time I gave to them.

There is certainly no way I would do them any favours by writing anything complimentary if it wasn’t actually true.

As it turns out I consider myself very lucky to work for Moneypenny also.

I am in my 40’s, probably known as a typical stiff upper lip Brit-type who has become very cynical over the years and certainly is not one to show emotions or be “happy-clappy” as one person puts it.

I was sceptical of whether the way the company portrayed itself is correct and whether the minute you got through the door everything changed………but believe me every word is true………….and I now “get” their ethos.

For the first time in my working life, I feel happy, comfortable and valued in my job and certainly have no intention of looking anywhere else. What they put into me I feel inspired to give back tenfold because they really do care.

All they ever want is for you to give your best, as long as they can see you doing that, they will do all they can to help you attain the levels they expect. I don’t see anything wrong with what they do, as a matter of fact I appreciate the support and the reviews, it helps me improve. There again I have always taken pride in my work so there are no issues for me

If you cant be bothered, then that is when they are on your back…………!

[KidA]

Although I agree with the majority of Fernweh’s post, I do feel we have become a society of complainers and I do not agree that the customer is always right, especially if they are abusive or aggressive, which is all too easy to be over the phone.

I would be surprised, however, if Moneypenny didn’t cover this aspect of customer service on their training, and I am sure they have mechanisms for dealing with unreasonable customers.

Being a generic advisor, though, the staff would not have the advantage of being expert in the subject matter which leaves them with little wriggle room when things get complicated and frustrates customers even further but this is the way of the world today where experts are being replaced with generic teams.

In terms of the actual question about working for Moneypenny, I say give it a go. Go into it with open eyes and an open, positive mind. This is essentially a call centre though, and the role will come with associated difficulties which will not suit everyone. An excellent local success story – it can’t be all bad!

[Anon628]

Thank you all for your kind responses.
I have offered my opinions on some issues with the job, (which are not unique to me, having worked there I’m fairly qualified to comment on this as I have spoken to a number of people who have also voiced similar thoughts), as I know through friends that Moneypenny asked their staff to post positive things on here. Unfortunately, this offers a slightly biased and one-sided account, which doesn’t seem entirely fair on what should be a neutral public forum. It’s ever so slightly strange that the one bad review left on here has received such angry attacks in response from people claiming to be independent.
It also slightly discredits your rebuttal that you have stooped to personal insults – citing my “missing chromosome”, inferred lack of GCSE’s and the fact I’m a “woman with certain issues”, whatever is meant by that. Let’s stick to the topic.
And lastly before I respond to your points, I’d just like to say that no I wasn’t fired, I left, as I stated. There’s not really any need to imply that I am a liar purely because you dislike the opinions I have offered on what it is like to work at Moneypenny. It’s not really a professional way to conduct yourself.
There is a lot of focus on what I said about log in times or call times without noting that this is part of a broader point I was making. Given you have implied that I lack intelligence, I don’t understand how you think you can accurately respond to my point if you don’t take it in its entirety, as otherwise you miss the point entirely and your response is just not relevant, which sadly is what has happened. The point I was making is that nearly an impossible balancing act is required of log in times, call length, client response times and time taken to send off a notepad. Again, it was not just myself that voiced problems with this before further snobby implication is made that I’m just uneducated. We also received mixed messages from management about which of these factors we were to focus on. For example, departmentally we were advised that due to client complaints we should focus on call quality and message quality rather than log in times going forwards. A couple of months later we were told as a team that log in times were too low. I know that other teams were told the same thing. This is a confused and conflicting message from management as per what they want. This is the true point I was making, so please don’t take a single point out of context to make it appear as though I have some issue with doing my job when this is simply not the case.
As per the internal calls between my team leader and team manager, you have missed a key word which defines why I had a problem with this, and that is that these were personal calls, i.e. relating to their manicure appointment, what they were having for tea or their night out last weekend. Obviously I would not have a problem if they were talking about related work matters. However, these personal calls could be ongoing for up to about 20 minutes which meant that should we require my team leaders support for any reason she was not available. It isn’t right that the same people engaging in this behaviour would call us in for a disciplinary meeting for doing the same thing purely because they weren’t answerable for it.
Being pulled up for mistakes without being offered support is not continued development and training.
I was a good employee for Moneypenny. I worked hard and this was reflected in the fact that all of my clients, of which I had about 21, stayed on with me, none left the service and everyone that came on for the trial stayed for the paid service. I feel the need to say this as I have come under from people assuming I must have disliked it because I was rubbish at it. I don’t feel it’s a good idea to base your argument on an assumption but that aside, when you say the customer is always right, do you not think I must have put up with a lot of undermining treatment from them in order to achieve this record? I was repeatedly spoken to badly by customers for things beyond my control, and again when the client wouldn’t do their part of the deal and respond to the messages we took for them. In my opinion, it should be a working relationship you should have with clients, you shouldn’t be their slave just because they pay you. I think Moneypenny should take care of their staff as there has been times when a client is obviously going into liquidation and is purely using Moneypenny as a shield from their angry callers.
As for the progression in the company, if you think 2 promotions before reaching the ceiling is good then perhaps you lack ambition. I hope for a slightly higher ceiling than that. I worked there for a year and during that year, two internal opportunities opened up to move department over to client support or sales. Given this is a company that now employs hundreds and hundreds of people, I’m sure that even with the most basic grasp of statistics you can appreciate this doesn’t give the best opportunity or odds at a shot for internal movement.
Finally, thank you for your well wishes for my future, however they are unfortunately wasted as I am now in a successful, well-paying job which I enjoy. I feel privileged to have been able to share my thoughts with such an open minded group of people who are able to take criticism and understand that others opinions, may differ from their own as clearly, I am just an uneducated chromosomally defunct individual for not enjoying working at Moneypenny.

[Author]

Posts