Pros
- Professional corporate culture - Good insurance: medical insurance, health benefit and covid-19 vaccination - Good reputation: an organisation receiving funds from the UK government to promote the relationship between the British and the rest of the world. - Most colleagues are nice - Quite good office - Seems to make an effort on EDI.
Cons
- Cannot use my name of choice for my email and company account. - MacBook users are not welcomed. Various systems only require access from their own devices, which are Windows laptops. Their excuses are cybersecurity. - It's a British public body so it's highly bureaucratic. - Main reason I left: overworked staff are unhappy staff. Even when we work extra hours (at night and on our holidays), there is still more work to be done, we constantly feel behind the job. The salary is no longer fair if counting the extra hours of work. My colleagues are dangerously exhausted for too long. Yet they have talks about mental health and meditation in the internal newsletter. - Even when you have excellent (internal) reviews and leave on good terms, managers here won't give you a reference letter that mentions their job title or anything to do with British Council. It's quite ridiculous. - Most people seem to stay at their positions for a long time, it makes opportunities of career development not very wide and even rare for young talents.