A nonsense surveillance culture where you’re frequently reminded that your work output and movements are being closely monitored and tracked. Claims to champion flexible working, yet individual teams are not allowed to choose which days they go into the office. Instead, these days are dictated by senior managers with no flexibility allowed. You’re also strongly advised on where to sit in the office, and anyone who errs from this seems to be regarded as non-compliant and not a team player. This feels actively discriminatory and unethical, the kinds of behaviours BHF purports to be vehemently against.
Some managers don’t display much agency or drive to act on their own initiative. Rather they are “yes” people to the people above them, and seek their approval on every little, banal decision. It makes you wonder what the point of their role is if they’re not willing to/allowed to actively manage people with some degree of autonomy and gumption.
Overall, the work culture is the strangest and most demoralising I’ve ever experienced. I don’t feel like I’m working for a charity but a private company. Profit and target-hitting are always the core focus of every meeting, even when your role doesn’t involve income generation. The cause and people we’re meant to be supporting (sadly) feel like a complete afterthought. Many of us also feel a constant pressure, like we’re being monitored and have to justify our existence through a set of arbitrary, irrelevant and nonsensical metrics.
The obsession with (mostly meaningless) data and metrics means you could produce a terrible piece of work and management would barely notice. As long as you’re hitting these arbitrary metrics, the output doesn’t matter. Quantity over quality.
