Toxic, top-down work environment.
Pros
Good banter helps make the best of a bad situation, and there are good people both Korean and western that you can have a laugh with. The product itself is mostly good which makes doing the job a bit easier. The location is nice. Private healthcare
Cons
LG has a lot of issues, but the number one issue from which most other issues originate, is senior-management. Poor, poor, poor. Most of the top management positions are filled by Korean expats. Who are in position for a limited period of time then move on to positions elsewhere within the global business, and are incentivised to maintain the status quo. The western senior managers are a mixed bag. Some are very pleasant people. Some are jaded, coasting to retirement and won't advocate for any change if it risks that. And some are total self-absorbed machiavellians, with very little talent, that just use their savvy of the UK business culture to manipulate and bully others into carrying out the directives of Korean management. I would describe the overall management style as insecure and cannibalistic. They respond to individuals that have a high impact on the business by minimising them, and strategically placing them in hierarchies where achievement can be hidden. I think the main reason they do it is to make sure all credit for good work is awarded in a way that suits the senior management agenda. But it's also a sort of LG tall poppy syndrome, which keeps people from becoming too confident in their own achievements. I get the sense LG wants their employee population homogenised, in a way where everybody is replaceable and nobody outside of senior management has any influence. As a result, they often turn on some of their best and longest serving, which is a large part of what makes the company such a poor long term prospect. Most interactions with senior-management will leave you with the overwhelming feeling that they think they're so much smarter than you. Whilst the reality on the ground is that they're running a organisation/department/team that is a smoking ruin. Totally unorganised with unmanageable workloads and understaffing, exacerbated by outdated, poorly thought-out processes, and staff both old and new fleeing the company in droves to a point where large parts of the business are struggling to function. But there's a culture enforced that makes it taboo to discuss the elephant in the room. The arrogance and shortsighted decision making by management would be comical if it wasn't so damaging to the good people working under them. I won't go into detail but what I will say is, some of the tactics I've seen employed by management to get individuals to toe the line, or punish them for not doing so, I consider to have been mean-spirited, unprofessional, harassing and deeply personal. I've honestly been shocked by some of the behaviour I've witnessed working at LG. Very bizarre way for an organisation of its size to deal with employees in a national head office.
