Pros
CCSSO has a seat at the education policy table, allowing for great networking opportunities for staff. Before COVID, travel was frequent and allowed for a lot of meaningful on-the-ground professional development opportunities. Some staff members are amazingly capable, kind, and thoughtful about their work and its impact on students. Benefits are great and PTO is especially generous.
Cons
The characteristics of white dominant culture are pervasive, particularly defensiveness, quantity over quality, power hoarding, and paternalism. The organization focuses on protecting (and expanding) power, criticism of leadership is viewed as threatening and inappropriate, and this defensiveness creates an overall oppressive culture for staff. Strategy is increasingly guided by corporate dollars rather than what's really needed to move the needle for students and teachers. Workload is not evenly distributed among employees and compensation is wildly inequitable. Staff have to spend wasteful amounts of their energy navigating power dynamics within the organization rather than on producing quality work. Crying on the job is not uncommon.