Dysfunctional leadership; revenue over reputation - Policy R Street Institute Employee Review

Thank you for this candid feedback. As an organization, we greatly value input from staff—both past and present—as it helps us to improve the experience of working here. In particular, the critique of our leadership is well-taken and we want to learn from it. R Street is a young organization and the strength of our research and brand has meant that we’ve experienced rapid growth and change in a relatively short period of time. This, of course, is a good ‘problem’ to have but, as with all things, there are also challenges to address and adjustments to make along the way. For these reasons, our senior managers continuously work together to review our culture, organizational strategy and our future plans, and to solicit feedback from all our colleagues. Engaging and valuing the perspective of all parts of our organization is key to our success and to our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. We want to be humble enough to admit when we don’t have the expertise to achieve our objectives. This is why we periodically seek counsel from outside experts in order to gather data we don’t have, provide objective analysis and supplement our existing knowledge base. We believe this makes us stronger and helps us confront internal blind spots. And, while these initiatives sometimes do lead to change on our policy teams, we never retaliate against staff for offering candid feedback or for requesting transparency from our leaders. Never. Instead, we continue to refine our internal communications policies, prioritize professional development, and encourage people managers to ask for resources when building their teams. Our people are our greatest asset at R Street and we conscientiously make decisions that put them first. For example, early on in the pandemic, our executives swiftly adopted a ‘continuous employment’ policy that pledged not to lay off or furlough any staff, nor to institute any across-the-board pay or benefit cuts in 2020. We doubled-down on our people in order to provide safety, well-being and a bit of certainty in a very uncertain time. We haven’t always been in a position to make this kind of pledge. Like most non-profits, fundraising often dictates the size and growth of the organization, and our president and business development teams work tirelessly to seek new opportunities and new relationships to ensure that everyone is funded for their time here. Despite our best efforts, there have been instances where we have had to reduce single positions when funding is not available or our organizational priorities shift. Do know that we take these kinds of decisions very seriously precisely because of the impact it can have on an individual. In these instances, our guiding principle is to provide a generous amount of continuity and support for the impacted staff member—and to be as transparent as possible along the way. We also invest heavily in our employees through our benefits package. From very generous healthcare and wellness benefits to unlimited vacation and student loan assistance, we go far beyond the norm in Washington, D.C. And, each year we survey staff directly about their satisfaction in this regard and often make changes or add new benefits in direct response to this feedback. We are certainly not perfect. But, every day we strive to be better. Which is why we so appreciate this type of feedback. We view our progress through the lens of one of our most important organizational norms: Have the courage and integrity to support one another; we are part of one team. We know no one person can or should do it alone. Our leadership is grateful for the opportunity to support and develop such a thoughtful, talented and passionate group of mission-driven individuals. And, we are very proud of R Street and the direction we’re headed in. If you have further feedback you’d like to share or would like to discuss further, please reach out to me so we can meet. Our doors are open. —Erica S.