Optimistic mission, really hard to thrive in the org - Anonymous employee Amara Employee Review

1.0
Jan 5, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing mission, incredible clinical team. If you are looking to adopt a child from foster care, this is an excellent place to learn more and possibly partner with.

Cons

Leadership seems to have martyrdom confused with leadership. As others have mentioned, the board seems to have little knowledge of the actual challenges faced by the organization, including staff retention and support (for both clinical and administrative roles), equipment upgrades, working conditions. Below market pay (even for a nonprofit). Little in the way of professional development opportunities - few advance, and there seems to be little budget for investing in the growth of the organization (technology, continuing education for non-clinical staff, tools to support fundraising and marketing efforts). There is no human resources staff, so if you do run into a challenge, you have no one to go to for guidance or support. This was brought up several times during my employment at Amara, so I'm assuming that means that several people had cause to want to speak to an HR professional. High turnover in key roles, which had a destabilizing/demoralizing effect on the organization as a whole. No boundaries - expect to get emails at 2am, and expect to be expected to work around the clock during certain projects/seasons.

Explore other reviews about Amara

5.0
Jan 26, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The staff at Amara are passionate about the mission to support youth in foster care, foster families, kinship caregivers, and parents working to reunify with their children.

Cons

Sometimes feels like you are not equitably paid for the amount of work you produce while others are.

1.0
Nov 13, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The pay is competitive with other community based child welfare agencies. The health benefits were decent.

Cons

The workplace culture is terrible. It's an echo chamber of middle/upper class white women who preach *social justice and inclusion* but have literally no skills or stakeholder interest in putting their money where their mouth is. The work environment is unnecessarily hierarchical, with the organizational flowchart being updated every other month to reward a loyal, longtime employee with a new promotion. Most people with goals for their career beyond hanging out in a swamp of Stepford wives leave as quickly as they're able, either working for a yer or two so it's not a red flag on their resume, or literally ghosting and taking a new job. The only people who seem sincerely happy there (aka not fearfully complaining in private) were those who had been promoted into new roles.

3
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