Extremely toxic workplace - Anonymous employee Reprieve Employee Review

The organisation has created some highly impactful programmes which are effective and efficient in their approach. They leverage public sentiment to moderate and influence private sector practices very well. Advocacy with certain governments is also highly effective. The benefits and support package are excellent, and during my time the Operations team was excellent and very supportive of staff and any issues they had. There is a union, which must be considered a pro, but for an organisation this small (45 people) it also highlights some of the deeply embedded practices and behaviour which demoralise and undermine many junior staff.

Obvious caveats that experience is subjective, but I came in to a junior role after many years in the sector, and in general I saw significant inconsistencies, duplication of work and poor information management. Suggestions and ideas to update systems and practices were met with a common response of ‘that’s the way we’ve done it for ten years so I don’t think it needs to be changed’. This was said verbatim several times. Information is kept and often duplicated in myriad folders, trackers and matrices which were often replaced and updated by newer ones without simplifying or consolidating. Existing data and CRM software was desperately underused and the case management system is an Excel sheet. Monitoring, evaluation and learning is very poor. As far as I could understand, there was no long term strategy but rather annual work plans which did not have a theory of change and focused purely on activities which were not translated into higher level outcomes and goals. There’s therefore very little way of measuring what worked well and what didn’t, and why. Data collection and indicators are lacking, and there are no reliable data for results in most of their programmes. The approach to managing staff seems overbearing and lends itself to an almost inevitable breakdown of trust. Management reviews are held every two months, focusing on mistakes rather than areas for improvement, and there is no 360 review system which prevents or limits the identification of capacity limitations or areas for improvement amongst managers. The email culture is overbearing; drawn out conversations taking place over days and weeks, performative public dressing downs and pontificating. Most emails could be a Teams chat.

The day to day working environment is pleasant and there is space to learn and work on interesting causes.

The work used to be cutting edge but senior managers now seem to avoid confronting the real problems of our age or upsetting those in power, always preferring to try and “get them on side” instead of holding them accountable. The organisation is being left behind, thematically speaking because of this.