My coworkers at PETA were some of the kindest and hardest working people I've ever met so it's a shame that the corporate/employment side of the organization is all around terrible. I have never worked in such an unprofessional environment in my life and am honestly surprised the place is still "functioning" today. Some of my concerns (that were never addressed) include but are not limited to the following:
- I can only recall 2 weeks within my entire career at PETA where I only worked 40 hours a week but was never recognized for my unpaid overtime. It only got worse when I eventually moved into management and was informed that coming in late after working weekends was not an option. Even when not a manager, they expect you to be on e-mail and essentially on-call around the clock and will be scolded if you don't.
- I didn't take a full sick day for YEARS because there was never anyone to cover me and I always felt like I was going to be fired otherwise and yet the H.R. department had the audacity to send out an e-mail saying we should be taking less sick time because we're compromising the welfare of animals. This was particularly upsetting because I know that most of my coworkers worked around the clock and had no life outside of their jobs.
- Promotions are rare and subjective. You can work your butt off, get nothing but good reviews but no career path or raise is ever promised. I knew people who were there for 5-6 years with no growth.
- PETA asks its staff to donate money way too much. It's bad enough that people already don't make a lot of money there but they'll often ask staff to use their tax returns to donate to PETA, help with bail fees, etc. The president even sent out an e-mail saying in order to be considered real activists, we need to conserve every dollar possible and compared us to a woman living on a mattress on the floor. She needs to stop making her staff feel guilty for just trying to live normal lives.
- Many of the staff in upper management are rude in their communication and are out of touch with reality. Others are untrained and often try to overstep into areas that they have no knowledge in, so their changes and input just create unnecessary work and waste peoples' time.
- Some staff members spy on you and instead of talking to you directly, they report to the president like the organization is some sort of a cult. There was once a staff member who visited another PETA staffer who apparently hadn't cleaned her litter boxes frequently enough. Instead of talking to her directly, she contacted the president who then sent out a mass email to all of PETA shaming her in front of everyone.
- PETA also struggles to understand what it takes to keep staff. If people are paid so low but the offices are located in some of the most expensive cities in the world, you'd think they would just let people work remotely to save money so they can stay longer and then PETA would SAVE money. However they do not allow that at all and then hold it against people when they leave.
- The way they treat people who leave really turned me off, too. Some managers take it personally and will talk down to you when you leave claiming it's nothing to be proud of since you've "left the fight." They even say managers can't be a reference for former employees when applying to jobs!
