29 Sept 2021

Disrespecful, arrogant employer

Analyst/in

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Hands-on work experience in climate change field; interaction with investors

Cons

Disrespectful and arrogant employer, managers have no clue about what management means, Doesn't care to do any training or team-building

2Degrees Investing Initiative Response

Thank you for taking the time to review 2DII. We take all feedback serious and appreciate everyone who takes the team to review us, even if the reviews are negative. We are obviously unable to comment on subjective assessments of arrogance. We conduct monthly satisfaction surveys that inform management policy design and are released to all staff members. We are an organization run by a management team with a strong content focus. Over the past years, this has allowed us to flourish creatively and in terms of our impact, but the current management team recognizes the limitations to growth for an organization moving from a start-up to an established think tank. This is why the management team has taken the initiative to diversify and expand the leadership bench, to elevate professional administrators with a more robust management toolkit. We are disappointed that despite these efforts, this employee considered management to be disrespectful and arrogant. We don't think these actions are a sign of arrogance or disrespect, but we recognize that such assessments are subjective. While we recognize management shortcomings in our transition, we have sought to address these pro-actively without consideration of personal egos. You can find testimony to these changes from other employees, here: https://www.glassdoor.de/Bewertungen/Bewertungen-2Degrees-Investing-Initiative-RVW47723203.htm We would like to advise prospective employees as to our team building and training exercises: 2DII has a dedicated training budget that staff members can apply for and over the past years have supported staff development across financial markets training, presentation trainings, leadership training, and management training. As a NGO, our means to provide budget for trainings are more limited than corporate employers, but we have made significant investments in providing financial means for training. We also seek to complement these activities through learning from each other in the form of brown bag lunches and knowledge-sharing. In addition, the German entity also provide financial support for mental welfare coaching. Team-building has been curtailed during the pandemic, but we organized a number of remote team building events and on-site events as the pandemic permitted and they form part of our annual activities, in addition to smaller activities within smaller groups within the team.

1.0

10 May 2019

Unprofessional outfit - agree with previous review

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Can't think of anything at all

Cons

It's run by two bullies who still seem to be at high school. Utter disregard for rules, laws and other people. Unprofessional through and through from behaviour to management and it's outfits like these that have hindered the progression of ESG issues and ensured that NGOs are often not taken seriously by investors and companies.

2Degrees Investing Initiative Response

While there are a range of employee experiences at 2DII, we regret the negative experience of this indivdual. We would like to respond to the statements made. First, the management structure has been fundamentally overhauled since 2019, as well as the staff welfare mechanisms to prevent these types of experiences. These include coaching support for management and staff, monthly satisfaction surveys (at time of writing 7.1/10 satisfaction score overall and 7.5 satisfaction score with management, despite a global pandemic), and a diversification of the leadership team in order to ensure sufficient management capacity is in place to build the organization. Second, the author of this post suggest that we are not taken seriously by investors and companies. Accusations of "not being taken seriously" conflict with a 9 year track record of driving change in financial markets. 2DII is on the Advisory Group of the largest investor engagement network (https://www.climateaction100.org/news/climate-action-100-issues-its-first-ever-net-zero-company-benchmark-of-the-worlds-largest-corporate-emitters/), coordinator of climate alignment assessments across 6 European countries with formal governmental partnerships, supporter of 6 financial supervisors (see e.g. https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/content/sensitivity-analysis-of-climate-change-related-transition-risks_en), and developer of tools used by the largest banks in the world (https://www.transitionmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Katowice-Banks-2020-Credit-Portfolio-Alignment.pdf). Our impact reports are testament to the level of change we have been able to drive. As this review shows, staff members were not always supported as necessary to grow and be succesful in the organization as we grew from an idea with no big philanthropic or governmental funding to one of the largest independent financial sector think tanks in the world. As with almost all organizations experiencing growth, we failed to upgrade our management systems and infrastructure in line with the growth. Whether we agree with this individual's assessment or not, and while we recognize that it is inevitable that sometimes employees-employers don't match or that there may be personal issues between the staff member and the organization that are outside of the organization's control, we regret that they feel this way. However, our management team and process has been overhauled since then and while we recognize we can and must always strive to do better, we are proud of both our investment in the staff and welfare, and also of our real world impact.

5.0

3 Feb 2016

An exciting place to make a real impact

Program manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

The 2° Investing Initiative is an organization that is truly making waves in the climate NGO space. As a pioneer of high-quality research on aligning the financial sector with climate goals, they have had a huge impact on the narrative of this field and have been able to directly influence government policies and regulation in Europe. (Working with them genuinely feels like you're with the smartest guys in the room.) As a result, working at 2°ii will give you unparalleled exposure to governments, central banks, key industry players and other think tanks for a non-profit of its size, allowing you to make a real impact on the global transition to a low-carbon economy - and build an impressive network of industry contacts at the same time. Uncharacteristically for a non-profit organization of its size, its employees also have a strong sense of job security, as the leaders of the organization have been exceptionally good at securing long-term funding with major funders, and paying employees higher than average salaries for this industry. Career development is also highly encouraged and you have the flexibility to undertake projects and advance your career in a direction that interests you... plus the international offices give you the option to travel around and work from either NYC, Paris, London, or Berlin as you like! And unlike most jobs of its type in the U.S., a genuinely healthy work-life balance is also encouraged, thanks to its European culture and mindset when it comes to both work and life! But above all, the best part about working at 2°ii is the people – it may be a small organization but everyone who works here is really welcoming, sociable and fun and no doubt your colleagues will end up becoming close friends. Generally speaking, 2°ii is a fantastic place for work for someone who cares about climate change, who gets excited at the idea of working in a fast-paced, growing and dynamic non-profit organization, with ample opportunities to take the lead and develop one's career, and who is a creative, outside-the-box thinker who doesn’t like the idea of being confined to the same set of daily responsibilities in a large organization where your work can sometimes lose all meaning and impact.

Cons

Any fast-growing company of its size is inevitably going to come with some organizational growing pains... but if you’re a flexible type who’s able to roll with the punches, it’s actually a great opportunity to carve out a meaningful career trajectory for yourself and progress at a rate a large and well-established employer could never allow you to.