Anyone worked at Tesco Welwyn Garden City?

[AnthonyQuinn]

Yeah, I did some work there about five years ago. Only a few weeks implementation. It could have changed a lot.

Have to say my impressions were on the negative side.

Pretty crappy cramped, open plan office with horrific toilets. Hard to get good decent local digs.

Seemed to be quite a few contractors. The permies had all obviously been on soft skills training classes as they kept talking about setting next agenda items and stuff. There was one PM bloke who was a complete dick. The permie bloke I worked with was a good lad and I heard he 'just left' a few months later 'without even having another job offer'.

I once did a bit of working late just to get some stuff done and my temp badge wouldn't open the door so had to phone someone and get security. They were shocked that someone would stay that late so that might be a good or bad sign of the work culture for you.

I've been in much, much better workplaces.

Things have changed a lot. very few contractors now. They got rid of everyone last year. Some new ones have started to creep in. It was a bad move to 'sack' the contractors. Now inferior ones are taking their place.

[Bunk]

I had a pimp call me about a gig there a few years back. I was interested until I saw where Welwyn Garden City was on the map. Fook me it's in the middle of nowhere, way up north

[swamp]

Pretty crappy cramped, open plan office with horrific toilets.

That sums up most of the places I've contracted.

[nomadd]

Yeah, I did some work there about five years ago. Only a few weeks implementation. It could have changed a lot.

Have to say my impressions were on the negative side.

Pretty crappy cramped, open plan office with horrific toilets. Hard to get good decent local digs.

Seemed to be quite a few contractors. The permies had all obviously been on soft skills training classes as they kept talking about setting next agenda items and stuff. There was one PM bloke who was a complete dick. The permie bloke I worked with was a good lad and I heard he 'just left' a few months later 'without even having another job offer'.

I once did a bit of working late just to get some stuff done and my temp badge wouldn't open the door so had to phone someone and get security. They were shocked that someone would stay that late so that might be a good or bad sign of the work culture for you.

I've been in much, much better workplaces.

Pretty much sums up my experiences. Worked there for 1 year, 3 months. Things were pretty bad, and just got worse. Like an idiot, I stayed until the "job was done". All the other contractors had long since walked as they couldn't stand the place.

I finished on very bad terms with Tesco, but that seemed to be pretty much the standard by then. Every contractor who had left before me had similar bust-ups with them. I left one week early before the end of my contract, as if I'd stayed one extra day I would have punched someone. Think about that: Things getting so bad you can't even bring yourself to do the last 5 days! Sounds crazy, I know, but true.

All-in-all, worst contract I've ever had in 20-odd years.

But don't let that put you off. I'm sure you'll be fine...

[mobi]

I worked there few years back. Contrary to what others said here, I had a good experience. Remember, Tesco is a very large organization and your experience will depend mostly on what team you work with.

Some people contracted in Tesco for 10 years and some were chucked out in 10 days. So, it is more like love it or hate it.

You might need to work with outsource partners though. Almost every IT vendors want to get a slice of Tesco.