To ask if anyone here has ever worked for the National Trust?

[Candlerow2018]

And would you consider them to be a good employer / what was your experience like?

I really want to! Place marking.

I have a close friend who works for them in their Swindon office. She loves it and thinks they are a great place to work. I think a lot of people start out on temporary contracts though - but this is just the normal route in AFAIK.

I haven't personally but i know a few people that have - a couple in fundrasing and some that worked in the homes or gardens- usually casually over summer and stuff.
Universally positive when they talk about it.

I thought it was mostly voluntary work

I am a volunteer and we far outnumber the paid staff at the property. I am on the fringes but I notice a considerable improvement in the morale of the paid staff in the last year or so - surprise, there has been a management change there.

lots of targets and manager babble but they have now stopped bothering the volunteers with that. most of us have done our office time and know that is all nonsense- but if you are paid be warned, nt hq are full of it.

so it is probably like any other workplace. btw the paid staff always, always say thank you and it is appreciated.

In an interview for Nat Trust job I asked the panel whether the NT was a good organisation to work for. They said yes. When I asked why, they spluttered a lot but couldn't answer. That told me quite a lot.

I didn't get that job (nor did I want it by thst point) but I have worked for them since and it was fine. Depends very much on the team you're part of and your managers imo. Ultimately though there is a lack of autonomy (fair enough in such a large organisation) so I moved to a different, smaller charity where I can have more of an influence on my area of work.

Worked for NT in retail at a large property for 5 years. Obviously it’s fantastic to work in such an amazing setting. I used to love walking across the gardens before opening time and pretending it was my house! They are good on flexible hours if you want part time, but the flip side of that is that a lot of the roles are zero hours and the pay is awful. You do get into all the properties for free, and a discount in shops and cafes - we managed to considerably reduce the cost of a holiday in Cornwall by organising it around visiting NT sites! Almost all of the customer facing staff I worked with were lovely, as were most of the volunteers.
HOWEVER, the organisation is run badly in my opinion. Until I was on a permanent contract I hardly ever got paid properly, and this was common. Working out things like holiday entitlement is a nightmare. I am still sure I missed out on pay somewhere along the line. There are constant new initiatives being handed down from on high with little help to implement them. This is why I left in the end (about 4 years ago). I worked bloody hard but didn’t have enough support or recognition.

Yes, in a customer service role about 6 years ago, worked there for 5 years.They were nice enough employers at the time, their sickness and maternity packages were very good although people I worked with at the time abused that. They do have a yearly wage review based on your achievements etc during the year but even the manager told me it was unlikely to ever get above the minimum wage rise, her managers had told her not to award staff with a higher pay rise due to the amount it woukd cost them so that did seem a bit pointless.....

I think it very much depends on which property/office you work in - my mum worked in a NT property after completing a degree in conservation and was really disillusioned with the whole industry as they were really money grabbing and not interested in conserving the house and it’s contents properly. But I think the place she worked had bad management. She works in another historic property not owned by the NT now and has been there for ages and really enjoys it.

i volunteer at a west lancs national trust property once a week. Apart from being short staffed so asked to do more hours regularly (which isnt their fault) I love it. Great people, great property and very well cared for. Also free membership to other properties which I make use of. No issues on my end.

I volunteered for them. I noticed there was a high turnover of paid staff but that may have just related to the property I volunteered at. Lots of them went on to work for other NT properties so it couldn’t have been that bad.

If you're looking to work in heritage or similar I would highly recommend looking at privately owned houses, gardens etc. I work for a privately owned estate and it's honestly the best job I have ever had, I absolutely love it. No managerial politics, no national targets, and far more flexibility. Some of our visitor facing staff and tour guides (all of whom are paid) have previously worked for the NT and found the politics draining and considered the amount they were asked to do considering they were volunteers, to be a bit over the odds.

@Nolagerformethanks we used to have the same thing where I worked. All the staff got the same grade in the annual pay review, so there was little incentive to go the extra mile. Our manager had also been told not to award any higher grades.

I have a former colleague who I was quite close to who had previously worked in swindon head office. They had a mixed bag of things to say - good and bad. Some gripes which I can't remember enough details to reproduce here. One of the positives mentioned was a good supply of baked goods that various team members tended to bring in from home regularly which makes it sound like a good friendly vibe.

Yes - and I think it depends where you're working, will be different in properties, head office or regional office. I worked in one of the regional offices and it was very mixed - lovely people, the best flexibility of anywhere I've ever worked (hours and location), fantastic variety and the opportunity to spend your working day in some truly amazing places. But organisationally it can be quite frustrating from a regional perspective, as you're led half from the region and half from the centre and the two don't always meet.

I volunteer with them every week.

I see how stressed out the staff are, the hours they work for free, the latest jargon from HO.

Target driven and the pressure on staff is immense. Really shocked me. I guess it’s down to the property you work at, but I’d say morale is very low currently.

my mum worked in a NT property after completing a degree in conservation and was really disillusioned with the whole industry as they were really money grabbing and not interested in conserving the house and it’s contents properly.

This, absolutely. I also work in conservation, worked for NT for years, it was my dream job. I have left within the last year. I was very disillusioned with the increasing failure to look after their houses properly. 363 opening means no winter closure for lots of properties so no chance to really do the deep clean and conservation work houses need, especially given so many are also open seven days a week too, so no chance to do behind the scenes work properly and light levels and pollutants therefore increasing etc. So many issues / criticism of NT reported in the press, often unfairly, but this one seems to be escaping everyone's notice - not doing properly what they are meant to be so good at.

As an employer, they are OK as long as everything is tickety boo. If there are problems then forget it, they are hopeless. I saw bullying overlooked and staff being 'managed out'. There is a huge amount of being promoted to your level of incompetence, especially in House & Collections. Lots of staff running the houses have never worked anywhere else and oh dear god it shows, so many incompetent, clueless staff with very limited experience despite being in the Trust for ten years or so.

There are of course, many excellent, hard-working and dedicated staff too, whose enthusiasm is hugely exploited. Just a very, very frustrating place to work. So sad, I loved the work and each of the houses I worked in but it was just too frustrating, I just had to leave, with a very heavy heart. Work in museum now, full of grown ups and professionals. Bliss. I miss the houses though, I really do but I have no regrets.

Yes. I worked on an HLF funded contract at a NT property working on public engagement. It’s a funny organisation - it is huge, but in reality each property operates by itself so can feel quite small and incestuous, quite disconnected from regional and national offices. It does feel strange having regional experts sticking their oar in. The manager at the property I worked was a despotic bitch which was unpleasant for everyone.

As an employer I thought they were pretty good, but their pay is shocking, even in a poorly paid sector. A lot of the good work and interesting projects seem to happen in isolation with very little sharing of best practise etc.

Like a pp, I now work in a museum and much prefer it.

I worked for the NT in a business support role for a number of years. I worked in a beautiful location with some amazing volunteers. However, I would not recommend working for them, the pay is low, their IT systems are hopeless, staff bullying is rife and the management do absolutely nothing about it. They generally treat their permanent staff appallingly, they expect you to work long hours with no overtime and no thanks.