Pros
The work itself is engaging, often positive, and GRI is made up of a wide variety of knowledge bases, so you learn a lot from your peers. The support staff , middle management and some executive staff at GRI are made up of some lovely, passionate, knowledgeable and driven people. However this is becoming less of a pro over time due to the poor retention rates, so i would advise against having this as a big consideration. when applying to GRI Career opportunities are good outside of GRI, but not internally. The only reason they are good outside is because of GRI's long standing good reputation.
Cons
All negative reviews are true, unforuntanetely. Some in the previous leadership were bad, but new leadership is terrible. The CEO is more concerned with being the face of GRI, and exploits resources for long haul work trips. GRI is becoming an increasingly hostile work environment for POC and women, especially WOC. The new management board is even less diverse than it was previously. Many senior women were driven/forced out/demoted, even to be replaced by people brought in by the CEO. One example, a Chief level Job that requires 5-10 years of experience in a comparable role has been given to one of the CEOs old colleagues, who has less than that in total experience. HR will randomly create unwritten policies out of thin air to prevent or delay staff promotions. Then will change them when one of the select few wants a promotion. Some executive level staff do not have any experience in the function they are being paid to do. HR and others also overlook bullying by some upper management, despite acknowledging that it is a problem. For a large amount of staff, approaching HR for help is just simply not an option. It was also discovered support staff were being underpaid compared to the market, but HR delayed the required payrises by months, and refused to retroactively apply them. Despite this being standard practice. The few promotions for that do happen outside of the CEO's 'inner circle' only come about because line managers have to really advocate for their staff, and there is frequent pushback. However, for those who dont have a line manager willing to do this, they are basically stuck in their positions. Also, for hq jobs, beware if you are non-EU and do not have a permanent residency in the netherlands. They will exploit you and treat you worse, knowing that many people's right to stay in the netherlands is tied to their job. They mostly push for diversity in the secretariat when its to hire for the lower paid support staff positions. The Supervisory Board who are allegedly there to supervise and provide accountability also sit back and do nothing.