Pros
The clients and the work are great, as are most colleagues. Most everyone really cares about the movement and the mission. A decent place to start out if you're trying to break into the industry.
Cons
Unfortunately, despite their big talk about the importance of unions and the labor movement, management doesn't extend the same courtesies to employees that they do their clients. The staff union has really passionate and well intentioned members, but management wore down its effectiveness and momentum through drawn-out negotiations and acting like every inch given was a mile. Some initial progress was made when it was revitalized and contract negotiations occurred, but after that, nothing has changed. Reasonable demands for clarity in policies are sidelined. For example: Employees have to track their time worked down to five minute increments, and there is unclear guidance about the standards for this and how to log contract-guaranteed breaks and lunch time, so many staff overwork or don't take their breaks because they feel that's the expectation. Requests for clarity have been made, but the explanations given back are just as convoluted, and staff who haven't explicitly asked for clarity are still working off their assumptions or whatever their manager (often incorrectly, because of the unclear guidance) told them. This is just one example. Also, having to track your time down to five-minute increments in the first place despite not having billable hours in most circumstances is kind of insane - the tedium of this was a big struggle for me, it was one of the most hated aspects of my job. It certainly felt like management was just doing it to make sure people were working "enough" in a mostly remote environment. Return to office policies were a nightmare too by the way, with many junior staff getting assigned to a less convenient suburban office that was difficult to reach by public transportation and dangerous to get to on foot, meaning that those without a car (by the way, it's technically company policy that you have to own one) were in a bad situation. It took several employees I know of 4-6 months and hounding our union rep just to hear back on promotion requests, and the complete lack of communication and intentionally vague standards and rules for promotion made the process tedious. Junior staff are overworked, underpaid, and not treated with the respect one would hope for from their employer - in fact, I know that most junior staff have now left the company. The micromanagement and asinine standards for how work is done is also exhausting. Most of junior staff's work - and often senior staff as well - is rewritten because it doesn't fit an impossible standard or isn't exactly how the president or managing director would have written it. Press releases and op-eds can take months to finish as they get re-written to oblivion. Overall, my experience at this company can best be summed up as frustrating. I wanted so badly for the company to be what it said it was and treat employees with respect, but eventually, I realized that my efforts to fix things were only wearing me down, and I had to leave for my own mental health. I was so disappointed, because originally when I started at the company, I could have seen myself there for a long time. Bad management and bureaucracy are to blame. Also, don't believe all the positive reviews on here. There's a glowing 5-star one that I know for a fact was written by a Senior Executive Vice President who is basically (if not literally) management, and it glosses over a lot. I know exactly who it was because of this person's location, they are the only staffer in that location.