How the company responds to critique is telling - Anonymous Employee Wood Mackenzie Employee Review

2.0
Jan 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hybrid working, generally good colleagues across the globe, interesting work.

Cons

I'm writing this after reading WM's response to a recent review. The pattern is both familiar and worth highlighting. When the reviewer raised specific issues like workload, compensation, leadership clarity, the response followed a script all us employees are now intimately familiar with: acknowledge vaguely, reframe legitimate problems as "perception" or communication failures, then punt the person through a bureaucratic maze. The WM responder to this particular review opened with self-congratulation about how "unlike many companies, we do respond to each one," and how they've "invested in quarterly surveys" and provide monthly overviews of Glassdoor feedback to leadership. They note WM's quarterly surveys and Glassdoor reviews provide "more regular pulse checks - even if sometimes it spotlights more work to do." Translation: WM collects more feedback than other companies, and even though that reveals more problems for us to deal with, we soldier on. Seriously???These aren't achievements. They're the minimum functions of a competent HR operation. Responding and collecting more data isn't the accomplishment. What you do with what you hear is what matters. Then came the condescension, something else we are very familiar with from our UK leadership. The reviewer called out that company responses sound AI-generated. The reply? "Try not to be too cynical..." Treating the problem as the reviewer's attitude rather than addressing the substance of what they raised. Read through the other WM responses and decide for yourself if any of it sounds genuine. The offered solution at the end: the ever present, go talk to your line manager, your HRBP and now the Head of ESG?? Someone raised concerns publicly, presumably because normal channels failed, and the answer is to add a third person to the escalation chain. How does that help? Finally, they recast workload and compensation concerns as "perception of increased expectations and workload." Not actual problems to solve, but messaging failures on their part... How a company responds to public critique says plenty...

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Wood Mackenzie Response
4mo
Thank you for laying this out clearly. Given you’ve highlighted areas where our external responses aren’t landing as they should, I’ll respond directly. You’re right that responding to reviews or running surveys isn’t the same as acting on what people are telling us. If some responses have sounded formulaic, that’s something we can improve. I’ll do my part to make our replies more straightforward, and I will make sure other colleagues who respond here will do the same. We’ll also focus on being clearer about what’s happening internally. One example: since moving to quarterly surveys, each function and segment has been working to communicate more directly with their teams because clarity was a repeated theme in feedback. We can’t commit to delivering every change people request, but we can commit to listening, feeding it into our decision‑making, and being clearer about what we are and aren’t able to do. On Glassdoor specifically: the purpose of these replies is to acknowledge concerns publicly, point people toward the parts of the business that maybe able to help, and allow us to ingather feedback to share. We do share monthly overviews with leadership so trends and issues aren’t missed and with the intention that the feedback helps drive change. On workload and remuneration: these topics always involve a mix of reality and perception (an example: someone may think that they are not paid at market level when analysis would say they are. To be clear: I'm absolutely not saying that is the case with any reviewer here just using an example where someone has a perception that differs from the reality in terms of pay). As you note, these aren't just comms issues but concerns that team-mates feel very genuinely. We continue to raise them internally when they’re raised here. A recent concrete step on workload: the latest line manager briefing included guidance on managing for wellness which gave a managers a range of options to help their teams and team-mates. It’s a starting point, not a full solution, but it’s one immediate action taken because of recurring workload concerns. On escalation routes: your point is fair — sometimes people will have already raised issues and haven’t seen progress at the pace they expect. That said, people sometimes come to Glassdoor first. Given that we cannot know if someone has raised concerns already, and while I understand and take on board the criticism, I do think it’s right to point to the internal routes in case they haven’t been used. On surveys and feedback channels: agreed — they’re tools, not achievements. Their value depends on visible outcomes. Where that connection isn’t clear, we can do more to communicate decisions and progress in a more direct way. Thank you again for the candid review.

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5.0
May 31, 2026
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Pros

Good work life balance and interesting work

Cons

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3.0
Feb 2, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good people with good intentions. Work-life balance is above average.

Cons

The reality of being owned by a PE backed firm: Large scale cost reductions including mass layoffs. Woefully lean teams requiring higher workloads including much time spent on tasks outside of primary role. New leadership- since the hiring of Jason Liu, it’s hard to discern if we can trust the GLT. Observations causing concern include blame shifting, lack of accountability, and statements inferring that radical candor is actually not welcome (despite devoting an entire training module on the topic). Directors and managers do not have any power, and yet they are our conduit to executive leadership. The work has no joy anymore. We spend our days putting out fires on internal data issues, chasing lofty goals with next to nothing budgets, and trying to keep up with the ever-changing policies and procedures that impact our day to day. I rarely get a chance these days to do the job I was hired for.

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Wood Mackenzie Response
4mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective. Wood Mackenzie is undergoing a bold transformation as we sharpen our focus on delivering the most connected, trusted intelligence for the energy and natural resources industries. This has brought change across many parts of the organisation as we evolve how we work, how we operate, and how we support our customers. We recognise that periods of transformation can feel challenging and, at times, uncomfortable. At the same time, this work is central to our long-term ambition to transform the way we power our planet and to build a Wood Mackenzie for the future. We remain committed to creating an environment where people can do meaningful work, contribute to a bold mission, and feel proud of the role they play in what we are building together. If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend speaking about the issues you've raised through our internal feedback channels such as our your line manager or speak to your HRBP. All feedback on Glassdoor is summarised and shared with leadership monthly so I can guarantee the themes in your review will be aired. We appreciate your honesty and your dedication to Wood Mackenzie over the past decade. Even when the feedback is challenging, it helps us build a stronger company and a better experience for our people. Thank you again for sharing your perspective. Eilish Henson, EVP, HR
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