Interview - Program Assistant Project Concern International Employee Review

Flexible, challenging and fun

Inconsistent work, limited hours, pay

PCI should be a great organization. It has a lot of potential. The CEO is really smart and makes a genuine effort to show her employees that she cares about them.

In reality, PCI is suffering as an organization and it really comes down to a senior management team (especially in programs) that is fatally detached from the work of their employees. PCI has had rounds of lay-offs every fiscal year for some time now, and employees pay the consequences of the lack of good decision making in leadership. They talk a lot about how the organization needs to change to reflect shifting realities in the international development world, but have yet to enact any meaningful change. Many NGO reviews on Glassdoor will say that organizations lack "room for growth" - this is not only true anecdotally, but institutionally at PCI, as promotion freezes are endemic to their HR policies. Perhaps due to PCI's two HQ offices being on opposite sides of the country, internal communication is terrible (to the point where communication between DC and San Diego becomes antagonistic). Common processes are often either bottle-necked or require review/approval from an excessive amount of staff, making everyday tasks difficult to complete. As PCI continues to lose employees, management forces extra responsibilities upon those who remain rather than rehire critical staff. I do not exaggerate when I say most of my contacts in both offices are currently looking/applying for jobs elsewhere.