Would you chose a job in the charity sector or public sector, given the current circumstances?

[Returnofthemaccies]

I am currently employed at a university (admin), my job is very secure and pays well. I don't want to "climb the ladder" within this role and its very unfulfilling.

Just before the madness of COVID19 started off, I was pretty much guaranteed a job offer within a charity, who I have been volunteering for. Also within admin. The pay isn't as good but I was willing to take the cut because its a worthwhile charity that I want to be involved in and grow my career within.

I am now thinking perhaps working within a charity may not be as secure, with the current climate and the way the economy may go after the pandemic. The government had already slashed funding to this particular charity in recent months / years.

I don't know a lot about it, but I will need to come to a decision at some point in the near future. Is working for a charity going to be a good or bad choice??

If I continue my role with the university, I can continue volunteering and training at the charity, but it will take me so much longer to become qualified. And I so wanted this new job. I'm gutted I have to question my new potential role.

Help, I'm stuck!

I’m in the public sector and have worked in the third sector for many years before that. In my current role I’m very well looked after, my boss is incredibly flexible about the balance of work and childcare and while I’m a key worker, there are realistic expectations on me. I know without doubt that wouldn’t be the case if I was still with my previous employer.

In small charities the culture can be very swayed by a change in senior management, in a large charity its often hard to tell the difference between the third sector and the private in that ultimately they both need to keep money coming in. If you have a particular affinity with the cause, it can help massively to cope with the frustrations that come with working life.

There are definitely drawbacks in the public sector but at this point my job is secure and my employers are actively supporting me to balance work and home. That for me is invaluable- I wouldn’t go back to the third sector for all the money in the world. If you’re planning on being in admin, I’d go public sector, if your a practitioner I’d go third sector.

Thank you for replying.

I know I am better off in my current job the way things are atm. It saddens me so much because I have an affinity with this charity, and I want to further my career within it. This was my opportunity and I was so excited.

Really useful reply BTW Jelly.

If you’re know to them through volunteering you may find that if an opportunity comes up in future they would consider you then. I’d also urge against dropping your salary to join them - in my experience of watching people do that, it sends a bit of a sign that you’ll accept “less than” because of the cause. Know your worth and maybe see if a job opportunity opens at your current salary level - there’s a fair amount of currency in being an existing volunteer which should pitch you up the salary scale rather than down.

That's a good point.

I was going to grab it with both hands because I actually have some stuff going on at my work, a grievance with a colleague. I wanted to just avoid it all and leave. If I stay, I will have to deal with this (huge) issue head on. Its daunting. But I need to be secure in my job so I can feed my family.

It's very helpful to hear your pov. It will hopefully help me with my resolve to get this sorted at work.

I work in a large, usually financially stable charity, and have been in the sector for 15 years. For the first time ever I am genuinely worried about redundancy. It's really shone a light on how vulnerable the sector is.

Personally, if you have a secure job, I wouldn't recommend leaving it anytime soon, and certainly not for the charity sector sadly.

Charity worker here, doing the work to restructure us to be very much smaller. Don't go anywhere right now. It's going to take a long time to understand the impact. Keep volunteering - theh likely need you now more than ever.

Charities are really financially vulnerable at the moment. Unfortunately I'd think twice before taking up a charity position now, the chance of redundancy would be too high for me.

I think it depends what the charity does, I work for a charity and the funding continues and we have got new contracts to provide some other services because of the virus outbreak.

It's Women's Aid...

I previously worked in public sector and left to work in charity sector for 4 years. Very fulfilling work and loved every minute of it. However - first job was for a smallish national medical charity, small in number of employees but well known - went through 2 restructures in my time there and people lost jobs - mine was on the chopping board until I pre-emptively moved to charity no.2 - much bigger charity but same issue. Had a change of CEO partway through the year and with that came restructure and lost jobs.

Work in the public sector again now and while I don't love my job it's secure and my previous collegues are no doubt going to lose their jobs as a result of the current crisis. Also employee benefits are worth it.

I will say though, if you are truly passionate about a career in the charity sector - it's relatively easy to move around amongst charities once you have experience in the sector - so while a long term job within one particular charity may be unlikely, you could move around.

I currently work for a small charity (environmental) and I'm concerned about the impact of a possible economic crisis - in fact, the organisation's already suffering as we've had to cancel a fundraising campaign that we were supposed to be launching this spring.

I'm considering doing the opposite to you and looking for a role at a university, as I have a background in higher education admin. I think it'll be more secure, plus the benefits are usually good.

Sorry, that's not v. helpful, but I agree with PP's that job security should be a major consideration atm. It doesn't stop you from continuing to volunteer = that's what I plan to do even if I do change jobs.

Never worked in the public sector, but I would not go back to working for a charity for any amount of money. The level of internal politics was unbelievable and the backstabbing and feuding quite amazing. I like working for the private sector - so long as you hit your financial targets everyone's happy. It's so ... peaceful.

I started working for a charity after working in boring dead end retail jobs for many years. Similar to you op I volunteered for my charity to gain experience and clinical hours for my qualification. My new role started 9th March, within 2 weeks my entire office was shut down due to coronavirus. You can imagine my panic and worry...single mum, 3 kids.. etc.
My charity is also a domestic abuse charity.
I can honestly say the charity i work for have been wonderful. Trying hard to train me on systems to get me up and running to work from home as soon as possible over the phone, im barely working 2 hrs a week right now ...whilst also continuing to pay me. They have even out sourced my role to another partner agency so I will be working for them taking referrals until we are back to normal.
You only have to look at the stats to see domestic violence will go through the roof as victims are stuck in with their perpetrators, we have already seen a huge increase in refferals over the past 3 weeks... it will get worse. So I guess I'm saying you will be needed more than ever....the government have also just pledged £750 million to charities to keep them afloat through this awful period.
Also have a think about what this looks like to your potential new employer. Working for a d.a charity is more of a vocation I feel, most of us who work there have a "history" so our passion for what we do supercedes looking too far ahead and thinking too much about security of work. Im not sure how far along you are in the application process but consider that pulling out now on the "assumption" there is no job security could make you look flaky and not up to the job anyway. Believe me you need strong boundaries and resilince working in this role. Talk to your charity manager, explain your worries...at the end of the day there are no guarantees in life, risks are worth taking, i do wonder if you dont make the move now how much you will regret missing out on such an amazing opportunity.
Its worth noting I did actually contact my old retail employer (worth millions, huge multi national company) to request a furlough...wouldn't cost them anything but a bit if time. Explained I'd worked for them for years, etc etc single mum....unprecedented times....they didn't even bother to respond. Baring in mind they promote themselves as an "ethical" company and huge on promoting all their charity work, looking after their staff is bottom of the list.
Personally I know what type of people id prefer to work for even without guaranteed job security.

Thank you everyone for posting. Really helpful. I'm still mulling.

Woke up to read an article about how universities aren't safe either, and what with my uni being made up mainly of overseas students (of which they are mainly Chinese), I am guessing my university job isn't that safe anymore either!!

stupid bloody covid19

Working for a d.a charity is more of a vocation I feel, most of us who work there have a "history" so our passion for what we do supercedes looking too far ahead and thinking too much about security of work.

In my experience it’s that kind of thinking that some charities rely on, meaning they can pretty much treat staff as they please because it’s a vocation and commitment to the cause drives people to accept conditions they would never accept in a commercial company.

Women’s Aid is nationally known made up on local cooperatives, so much will depend on how the cooperative is run, personalities and competence of the folk in charge. Don’t assume that because it’s a nice place for volunteers it’ll be ok for staff. If you’re going to be in the third sector, DA charities are likely to be relatively secure going forward.

In my experience it’s that kind of thinking that some charities rely on, meaning they can pretty much treat staff as they please because it’s a vocation and commitment to the cause drives people to accept conditions they would never accept in a commercial company.

I absolutely disagree with this comment! It is your own lack of boundaries and self worth that would allow you to be treated in such an appalling way, it is worth noting that ALL sectors could be accused of treating their loyal and gard working staff this way.....however it is UP TO YOU to manage that.

If I don't go for the job at women's aid, I will really feel I'm letting them down. This is really hard for me! My head and my heart are struggling with each other

Womens Aid are going to be receiving vast amounts of money to help victims of DV as its documented that domestic abuse has gone up under lockdown. At the moment more funding is going to charities who are dealing with immediate relief, help to those directly affected. Likely to be the case for six months or so.

However income has dropped vastly due to social distancing so its a drop really. Service delivery and financial challenges are changing daily/weekly/monthly.

Other charities like mine, a smaller medical/health charity, are not going to get a look in. We expect to forecast down again after quarter one.

No doubt redundancies will come for more resilient charities in 6-12 months.

Id go to womens aid in your shoes because opportunities at charities are often through internal recruitments and trust, trial through volunteering etc is their preferred method.

I worked and volunteered for several charities and agree whole heartedly with jellycats word for word.

Thank you all for your thoughts. I'm swaying towards staying where I am, much as it pains me.