Pros
Some amazing volunteers passionate about the organisation who are ignored in favour of those with the loudest voices.
Cons
This is a volunteer-led organisation where success depends on whether your face fits and whether you avoid challenging poor decisions. Many volunteer-facing roles operate on seven-day working contracts, with expectations of frequent evening meetings and excessive availability. If your role depends on volunteers to deliver objectives, you are unlikely to succeed and will ultimately be blamed when things fail. Workloads are unsustainable, systems are broken, data is often inaccurate, and processes are overcomplicated and inefficient. The organisation has gone through four restructures in four years, with more seemingly inevitable, creating constant instability and change fatigue. There is a pervasive blame culture driven by a lack of accountability at both senior and middle-management levels. Volunteers frequently blame staff for systemic failures, and senior leadership does little to challenge this behaviour. Silo working is widespread, respect for staff is minimal, and HR is widely perceived as having little regard for employee wellbeing. Internal recruitment processes lack transparency and fairness. The CEO has no prior charity-sector experience and appears out of her depth, relying heavily on a small group of self-serving volunteers with the loudest voices. How the organisation continues to operate in this state is difficult to understand.