Avoid This Company – Unethical, Exploitative, and Deceptive - werkgeversreview Account Executive bij learndirect

1. Unethical Sales Practices Instructed to contact financially vulnerable individuals, including South Africa, to sell TEFL courses with unclear or poor job prospects. When older learners returned frustrated by the lack of results, we were told to upsell/upgrade under the pretext of making them more “competitive”. I never once saw evidence of the supposed “job support” team we were told to promote, and even colleagues joked that it didn’t exist. Learn Direct is FCA-regulated, but I worked in the only unregulated department ‘i-to-i’ which raises serious concern. The office were incentivised to push high-interest loans (up to 60% APR via Snap Finance instead of the internal 0% plan — simply because they paid more commission (8% vs.1%). I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed chasing “warm leads” over and over when data was poor— it crossed the line into customer harassment. There is a difference between sales and exploitation, and I now know which side this was. In addition, concerns are reflected in the BBC Watchdog investigation (Jan 2025), which outlines systemic financial and service discrepancies for students. 2. False Promises & Withheld Commission In my final month, I raised concerns about commission being withheld after talking to my peers. The senior head of sales reassured me vehemently that I would be paid my commission in full because I was leaving on ‘good terms’ On my last day, I stayed over two hours late to reach target, submitted all evidence. I followed up properly and even CC’d myself in so i had my own proof. By that time, most people had left my own leaving drinks, as I powered on to secure commission. The commission was never paid, and my emails have been ignored ever since — for months. I’ve spent countless hours calculating, chasing, and researching what should have been managed internally. 3. Broken Trustpilot Incentive The company ran an incentive to reward positive Trustpilot reviews from customers (£5 each) I generated nearly 40 five-star reviews from customers praising my service and effort - no bonus was paid. After confronting this, I was told they had “already been paid,” but when I requested proof, they refused to provide it. Follow-up emails were again ignored. This felt like another case of being used for output with no reward. 4. Toxic Target Culture & Excessive Workload Call quotas regularly increased, reaching 200+ dials per day — pushing us to work beyond contracted hours. If you focused on meaningful rapport, you’d still be penalised for missing numeric targets. There was no space for nuance or humanity — it was robotic and transactional. The stress has lingered even after leaving the company. 5. Poor Work-Life Balance & Health Neglect Promised limited weekend work but did six weekends in a row during probation. After the 3 months, I heard nothing regarding if I had passed probation (where you receive a pay rise); I was told “Oh no, we’ve extended it” leaving me disheartened with no explanation, annoyed that it was me having to clarify these things. Holiday requests were declined without explanation. Worked full hours on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Repeated requests for proper ergonomic equipment (like a wireless headset) were ignored — I now suffer hip issues from poor workstation setup under pressure. 6. Ignored Communication & GDPR Concerns Since leaving, my emails have gone unanswered for months regarding unpaid commission and transparency. Basic information like payslip breakdowns or contract follow-up were denied or ignored. During a recruitment drive, over 350 personal email addresses were accidentally CC’d in a chain — a major GDPR breach that was never addressed internally or externally. I had a friend reach out to me who did not even work there but was included in this recruitment outreach, concerned for his privacy and the legitimacy of the company I once worked for.