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 did!

I worked in the charity sector most of my working life.

We did have sanitary bins but much of the rest is familiar.

Keeping down overheads.

Every thread about charities on MN criticises charities overheads.

Some of it, yes. The muddling of work with “passion for the cause” sounds very familiar.

I run a food bank. Alongside high-level decision making, financial planning etc I empty the bins. Wouldn’t expect anyone else to though.

I worked for a local branch of a national charity. No sanitary bins until i repeatedly sent them links to the HSE and they grudgingly got some. Cleaning happened because we were in a rented office and the cleaner came with it. This job involved some of the most dysfunctional working arrangements and relationships I have ever seen. So much competitive martyrdom and drama.

It wouldn't happen in say, Save the Children or Shelter's fancy head office in central London but in local little ones in poor councils, yes you bet this is usual!

Charity sector paid staff end up doing unpaid often because the ethos of voluntary unpaid contribution is so ingrained. It's embarrassing clocking off at 5pm when volunteers are still there grafting!

I have worked for a small/medium charity and all of this sounds familiar.

The trustees would claim to be horrified but in reality had been made aware time after time.

Well I’m not surprised you are finding it off putting.
And it’s not because it happens in many charities that it’s normal either….

I worked for a small-medium sized charity in an office setting. The only "housekeeping" we were expected to do was put the bins out, wash cutlery and crockery, wipe up spills and water plants. Everything else was paid for.
Our fundraisers would always factor in admin and hidden costs (like heating and lighting as well as consumables like photocopying) into any funding they were applying for (donations formed less than 1% of our income).

I volunteer for a big name charity and I would say a lot of the paid staff regularly do an extra half an hour. It’s not encouraged officially but it happens.

We have things like sanitary bins provided and cleaners once a week, the only time I’ve seen paid staff hoover is if something couldn’t be left e.g. the shredder got dropped as it was being emptied.

The thing is, charities are very judged (and you see it a lot on here) on how much they spend on 'back office' costs so they try to keep those costs as low as possible. The majority of the donating public would like charities to spend 100% of the money they receive on their front line charitable aims.

Normal for the charity I work for. Expectation of non-client-facing work being unpaid, etc etc.

I’ve never worked for a charity but have had a similar experience when working in a small company, or for a small satellite office of a larger organisation.

I’d never work for a similar set-up ever again.

I worked at a small charity for a few years and yes the penny pinching was ridiculous. Overworked, underpaid, always being given 'exciting opportunities' to do extra fieldwork and community activities at weekends which were voluntary but very frowned upon if not seen to be a team player and attend with gusto.
I left with mental health issues, and it completely disillusioned me to charities unfortunately.

I've worked for a small charity and we didn't even have an office (cue four Yorkshiremen story) .

Yes it was exploitative and took the piss, they didn't even provide me with a laptop for work I had to use my own.

My line manager was such a pisstaker he asked me to do admin tasks like stuff newsletters into envelopes while I was signed off sick for a week with a doctors note (condition caused extreme dizziness so he figured I could do that while lying in bed).

Endless expectations to 'pop in' to events even when I was on annual leave celebrating my kids birthday.

Constantly expected to drop everything for the cause. Exposed day in, day out to traumatic material because our beneficiaries were very high needs and no form of supervision to process any of it, not even team meetings.

I could go on....

Will never, ever work in that sector again.

Yy to the constant expectation of dropping into things at the weekend and the judgment that I chose to look after my small children instead.

Sorry it caused MH problems for you, I do understand why,

The cleaning and the tea towels etc, yes. I was happy to pitch in with this because I used the toilet too. I am not too snooty for cleaning. It is literally cleaning up after myself. Everyone in the office did it, regardless of seniority, and it was actually really good for the team to see the boss pitching in too.
The high expectations that you'll work for free though, that wouldn't have been tolerated at my charity job. Staff were valued and respected. We had a TOIL system, and yes, I would have done the odd Saturday etc when needs demanded, but I claimed the time back later. Expecting people to work for free is not okay at any job. Ever.

I work for a very large charity and toilet cleaning, hoovering and dusting in the office we all do. I recently got them to install sanitary bins in all the toilets. Work load is mad but I love my job which helps. Boss is great and ensures we take TOIL to make up for extra hours.

What’s the deal with the lack of sanitary bins which seems to be prevalent - is this not a H&S issue?

We seem to have lost most of our volunteers that used to help with form filling ! And really struggling to recruit new ones.

this doesn’t answer your question but you’ve just reminded me my nurse mother used to bring home the towels from the GP surgery she worked at to wash. I remember her saying the towels were used to catch the waxy water that came out when syringing patients ears 🤢

This thread is interesting. I’ve worked in the sector for my entire career (circa 15 years) and I’m now at Director level. I’ve worked for small, medium and large charities, and I’ve never worked anywhere with these sorts of conditions (apart from the long hours, but that’s par for the course).

I’ve always been based in Head Office in London, I’ve never worked anywhere funded by donations from the public, and I’ve never been frontline staff. So, those are probably key factors.

I've worked in charitable sector for 20 years (different medium-sized charities) and I've never had to do this. We've had to do little jobs like (obviously) washing up your own mugs etc but there's always been a cleaning service once a week whos popped round with a hoover, do loos etc. There's also always been a company to empty sanitary bins etc.

Is the charity desperately strapped for cash or is this just a culture that's grown up? I think asking staff to do all these jobs on top of an already heavy workload is really unhealthy. If there was literally no money at all then I can understand it but it's not a mis-use of charitable funds to spend some money on ensuring your premises are clean.

I work for a council and as my office was in a secure area we had no cleaners so that was down to the two members of staff, if I used another toilet in a different building there was a female hygiene bin but not one where my office was. Tea towels were washed by myself for years until covid struck and I could get the greens to agree to blue roll. The office was only cleaned when I felt the urge, like my house it was rather dusty

Is the charity desperately strapped for cash or is this just a culture that's grown up?
I’m guessing it’s a culture which has grown up - can’t see too many other sectors putting up with emptying their own sanitary bins