Pros
The front line staff, those with direct day-to-day contact with clients, really do care about the welfare of their clients and just want to see them do well in life. There is a real passion there that, if left alone, would flourish and provide outstanding results.
Cons
Hard to know where to start, as there are too many to count. As a starter for ten... - micromanagement hell. I've worked in some tight places before but never, never, in my life have I worked somewhere that is so obsessed with monitoring its staff. - the abject and feckless business development strategy. Something that could have a book written about it in itself. Across the country there are swathes of staff that have either lost or are in danger of losing their jobs due to contracts running down and there not being adequate future business in place. Very poor planning and strategy that affects real lives - cronyism and bulletproof senior management. I should point out here that some of the senior management are genuinely good people, who care about what they do and treat staff well (the ICT and marketing leads are really nice in particular). But they are sadly in the minority. I will not share my complete opinion on certain other senior managers as I would not want to use a volley of profanities on this website, suffice to say it is not positive. - directors for directors sake. Really good comms strategy telling everyone how great certain new directors are when a) we know how much they earn (which for a charity is quite disgusting amounts of money) and b) half the staff are being made redundant. They will have a director of opening envelopes soon, and no doubt want to give them a promotion to executive director of opening envelopes complete with a nice big pay rise (while the staff continue to not even get a cost of living rise). - not practicing what they preach. Frontline staff are asked to promote the wellbeing service to clients, when their own mental wellbeing is being systematically destroyed by their management. I've had the displeasure of seeing 3 colleagues have severe breakdowns in the past year alone. Hardly the behaviour of a charity that is supposed to be helping the wellbeing of its clients. - Shaw Trust Units. Would you believe that this is the term they use to categorise the clients they help? Unbelievable.
