If you work for a charity is this usual in the office

[Outandup]

I volunteer at a charity (medium-size, well
known in its sector) in one of their offices which is in a converted warehouse. They have 5 staff.

I’m wondering if the following is usual in charities because I find it disconcerting and off-putting to consider working there:

-Staff take turns to clean the toilets, vacuum, mop, and dust office, empty the bins outside daily
-No sanitary bins so staff also take turns to empty mini bins that they bought themselves
-Staff work long hours, never take a lunch break, go in on weekends unpaid
-They take ‘work’ home with them ie physical donations of stock to clean up, polish, see if they can fix etc
-Take turns to take the tea towels home to wash
-Two have said they are working Good Friday and the Saturday as they are so busy
-They had to beg HO repeatedly for heaters for winter (temp was registering 2 deg in the office in January)

Surely this is OTT penny-pinching and the toilet stuff is just not on? Years ago I temped for the NSPCC and had to
provide my own hot drinks which was fine but surely this is not on??

I work for a charity & yes this is usual

I used to work for an international charity, didn’t experience the cleaning etc - but the relentless workload, excessive working hours was all commonplace

There are millions of charities and as many different models for them as there are private sector organisations.

None of that sounds familiar to me apart from working long hours/unpaid weekends.

The office temperature sounds illegal, so you might want to look into that.

I previously worked for a charity.

Had a female manager and no sanitary bin which was offputting. This changed about 18 months in when a new female manager came and was disgusted we didnt have one.

No cleaner at all so i would clean myself.

Would take tea towels home to wash.

No donations at the chairty i worked for but yes i expect id have cleaned them up if we had any.

Wouldnt have had to go in on bank holidays.

I have worked for one charity and volunteered for another. None of this sounds normal to me.

I used to be a charity trustee and would have been horrified at most of this, although I think the save a penny/long hours culture is pretty prevalent amongst most charity workplaces, cleaning your own sanitary bins is taking it to the next level!

I'm a paid member of staff at a charity and we have finally convinced HO to give us some hours to employ a cleaner. We are a homeless persons charity and the office is in the building with the temp accommodation with communal areas. We have been cleaning the whole place, office and toilets, accommodation when people move on etc ourselves.

They've given us a cleaner that once they've been spread around all the locations, will equate to about 5 hours a week, which is about 25 hours not enough.

We eat at our desks, working throughout.

Work in a small charity, have been in several through career - some of this is really normal eg not having a cleaner. Not taking lunch breaks and expectation of unpaid overtime etc is quite rightly an HR nightmare waiting to happen.

I worked for a charity and yes this was normal.

All that penny pinching but everyone was grossly overpaid and had work iPhones, cars and very expensive IT equipment.

But too poor for tea and a sanitary bin!

Mileage varies. When I worked for a medium size charity with retail premises it was part of the duties of store staff to clean and mop the shop floor, clean staff toilets and kitchen area, empty bins etc at the end of the day (and I suspect that this is true of most small shops and cafes etc.) I wouldn’t have an issue with that, five people should be able to work out a rota for keeping their own facilities clean and tidy.

I wouldn’t ever choose to work somewhere though where there was an expectation of never taking a lunch break or working over holidays as standard. I do it occasionally (though am very senior, so expect to) but it’s exceptional.

I work in a university rather than a charity, and while we don’t have to clean the toilets and we have sanitary bins, all the other stuff is pretty normal, including washing the tea towels, long hours, taking work home, working bank holidays, no lunch break, cold offices, etc.

There is a big difference between working in a charity office & working in a charity shop
If you’re in a charity shop like me you’ll find that this is standard

@SoLongFurlough i was in a small charity office...a very small outpost of a national charity. 5 members of staff, mainly only me and manager in the office PT and the others popped in and out.

Not sure how this relates to my comment? OP said she worked in an office. That’s what I (and presumably everyone else) have responded about.

Nome of my charity work involves an office, but I'd say that the cleaning, T towels etc isn't overly onerous so I'd do it if liked the charity.

The working overtime for free, I'd be clarifying what happens if you don't. Is it a labour or love for some people vs a job that pays the wages?

I've worked for a charity and long hour, weekends etc is pretty normal, as it is in a lot of other sectors. Staff doing the cleaning- fine if they have contracted to do that.

Things like the lack of a sanitary bin and the cold working environment aren't ok and sound like poor management. Having decent working conditions for your staff is a necessary overhead of running any sort of operation, including a charity.

In small and micro small charities all of these things are very common.
In most charities the working extra hours and taking work home is very common.

There's no money and staff are passionate about the cause so pitch in. Its the nature of the sector.

Donate more money.

She mentioned taking donations home to clean up, fix etc

I too worked for a charity and whilst this can be the norm it tends to be smaller or say shop based. I don't see an issue with any of it if that suits the people involved. I would be wary that pressure to work unpaid extra hrs "cos its a charity" on new folk though or younger ones. So long as cleaning training is provided don't see an issue with that either. Plus PPE ie rubber gloves etc

I also work for a university and it's not normal where I work!

I used to work for a charity and there was some pressure / guilt trips to do overtime but I've never had to clean and have always had a sanitary towel bin.

You think op should donate more money to charity so they'll buy the offices cleaners and put the heating on?

I work for a charity.
Our cleaner left recently so the handyman type person has been cleaning the toilet but this usually involves just throwing huge amount of bright pink stuff down with overwhelming fumes. I don't expect to get a new cleaner for some time, we have a freeze on recruitment as the charity is struggling.
We are emptying our own bins currently ( cleaner previously did this )
I rarely take a lunchbreak but could if I wanted. I sometimes finish a bit earlier after home visits which I feel gives me a bit of time back.
We frequently have to find food parcels for people in emergencies. whilst we have some tins etc in stock, my manager will buy fresh stuff, bread milk etc and I suspect from her own pocket a lot of the time as the charity is really struggling currently. We get tea and coffee provided. manager is very kind and brings in biscuits, cakes, treats for us. I work very hard and probably do way more than I should but nee dis great. Some others go above and beyond also but not all. A lot seem to take a lot of sick time and others always going to every appointment possible in work time despite only working a couple of days a week. I suspect management don't say anything as they struggle to recruit as can't offer competitive wages. We are kind of expected to help out at weekend charity events etc and are frequently asked to bt I'm not sure if anyone does apart from my manager. I just can't do that after a full on weeks at work and family commitments. I have worked for charities for the past 20 years and it's always been the same.

Sorry I should say - heating is usually on but we have been told to limit it since the rises in energy costs. We have air con in the office and that was a god send last summer during the hot weather - I would rather have been at work than sweltering at home.

@SleepingStandingUp

You think op should donate more money to charity so they'll buy the offices cleaners and put the heating on

I think everyone should donate more money to charity.

And for the specific point about cleaning and heating - the only way to solve that is more money - cause in many places this is happening due to a lack of money.

And? I genuinely have no idea what that has to do with what I said.

She asked about experiences working in charity offices and I responded. If you want to share your experiences working in a charity shop, then do so.