Pros
While I'm the sort of person who tries hard to see the positives, it really is impossible for me to think of any pros about working for Acas.
Cons
Salaries are not competitive. You could easily find a comparable role for other public sector organisations that entails fewer responsibilities and has no requirement for specialist knowledge/skills that will pay considerable higher than Acas would. An association with Acas can harm future career prospects. As I have found out to my misfortune a lot of people out there including prospective employers have a negative opinion about Acas (deserving in most cases) and you can easily get on a hirer's bad side by having an association with Acas. It's the only place one could work at where you may have kept a customer satisfied but managers will still find fault with what you did. With the pay structure in place now it is extremely unclear how people employed in the administrative or Grade 10 roles can progress up or to the top of the pay scales. It's more likely somebody would be employed at the same level of pay for 10 years. Very limited room for progression. Even before I worked for them I heard various accounts of their history of "temporary promotions." I should have stayed well clear based on those alone. The select few who do manage to get a T.P. (stands for something found in bathrooms, doesn't it?) are left in limbo as to whether they can continue in the role or not. A lot will end up reverting to their original job. The other possibility is you'll be due to commence the T.P. but for some reason or another it never happens. Waiting lists. They do this during recruitment stages. You might pass their assessments and succeed at interview stage but they'll put you on a waiting list for a year and if a role actually becomes available you'll be offered it. If it doesn't, well sorry for going through the whole process but you'll have to do it all over again. This applies to internal recruitment too. No incentives to perform your job all that well. Even when you may have really gone out of your way to do a task exceptionally well you won't get any meaningful recognition for it. A thank-you for doing a great job from managers just isn't a done thing here. Ivory Tower Syndrome is rife here. The senior management are some of the most self-aggrandising individuals one could ever hope to meet. This is something that trickles down. The Chief Executive - Anne Sharp - has a blog called 'Sharp Focus,' which does not live up to its name and is actually full of fatuous and purposeless anecdotes and information like the fact she purchased a second-hand Volkswagen Polo. Relevance to the organisation and the work it supposedly does? ZERO. Working for it will open anyone's eyes to how public money is not used for worthwhile causes and is squandered. Despite management expressing concerns when staff say they don't feel safe to challenge things and trying to convey that as an organisation it wants staff to challenge things, if you dare attempt to challenge something or raise concerns you will become persona non grata. The Chief Executive once replied to a member of staff who had been expressing his views about some of the working conditions with words to the effect of, "we all have choices we can make." In other words: if you don't like it then leave. Tip of the iceberg stuff but it is the prevailing attitude towards issues that the sub-creatures employed below at the Grades below 7 experience. Inconsistent treatment of staff. Managers who will not apologise to people when they have been shown to have been in the wrong. If you do a job that brings you into contact with the public you're expected to basically skirt around the issues, give non-committal answers to any direct questions and be vague so as to avoid any impression of giving an opinion. Quite understandably this irritates a lot of people and you'll be lucky if you get through a day without someone telling you that you're, "about as useful as a chocolate teapot" or worse. There is a definite "us and them" vibe between teams. Long-term sickness absence and return to work after such absence is not dealt with in any way that resembles the good practice guidance given out to employers.