Pros
- met some great people there
Cons
Working at Herbalife Nutrition UK was an exercise in emotional endurance. What should have been an exciting opportunity quickly became one of the most demoralising and toxic professional experiences of my career. The culture within the team I was part of—particularly in the EMEA marketing and communications function—was marked by ego, insecurity, and outdated power dynamics. Team leadership often demanded involvement in every conversation or project, not to provide strategic value, but to maintain control. When ideas were shared without prior approval, they were often met with hostility or pettiness. Disagreeing, even respectfully, could result in being pushed out of conversations or subtly excluded from decisions. There was a strong obsession with managing perceptions upwards. Leadership figures frequently prioritised pleasing senior executives over supporting their own teams. Junior staff were often treated dismissively, with little effort made to foster inclusion, collaboration, or development. Gossip, passive-aggressive behaviour, and visible favouritism were common, making the work environment feel cliquey and emotionally unsafe. Unfortunately, these issues weren’t limited to middle management. Senior leadership exhibited the same dysfunction. The environment was male-dominated, with a deeply entrenched top-down mentality. Constructive feedback—especially from women or those pushing for boundaries and clarity—was often brushed off or responded to with condescension. I personally witnessed misogynistic comments go unchallenged, which further demonstrated the lack of psychological safety. Communication across the board was inconsistent. Decisions affecting your work were made behind closed doors, with little to no transparency. Rather than being kept informed, employees would often be questioned or blamed after the fact for not knowing about changes they were never told about. The emotional toll of this environment was immense. There were days I genuinely dreaded logging on, and ironically, the atmosphere would noticeably improve only when certain individuals were out on leave. That’s not a healthy or sustainable workplace.