Amazing mission, great work, does not appreciate staff - Associate Protection Officer (UNV) UNHCR Employee Review

3.0
Aug 31, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Carries out extremely important, life saving work. An incredible mission and super rewarding. Lots of opportunities to really be in the thick of it, great career development, amazing coworkers that have dedicated their lives to this work, and a lot of prestige that comes with the role.

Cons

UNHCR will work you to death if you let them. Everyone that works there is an absolute workaholic and expects the same from you. There is absolutely no work-life balance. Any talk about self-care is complete lip-service. They also claim to be a human rights organization that cares about labor rights, but most of their contracts are for UN "volunteers" or UNOPS. They abuse this system to not pay their staff what they are entitled to and to avoid giving them benefits. Staff will put up with this for years (and even decades) because they love the mission and because of the prestige of working for the UN. This leads to an incredibly competitive work environment and it can be quite cut throat.

Explore other reviews about UNHCR

5.0
Nov 3, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Best Mandate to see people of Concerns benefit. opportunity to be in an international team

Cons

instability of employment contract and job opportunities

3.0
Apr 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits, you really do help people

Cons

Human Resources takes a highly specialized approach to talent management. In that you cannot really change functions easily in UNHCR. You have to hyper-specialize in one area. So if you are a protection staff, you tend to burn out from trauma without an internal mechanism to alleviate the burnout. The higher you go in UNHCR, the crazier you become.

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