NGO types - do you sometimes think your job is utterly thankless?

[hatwoman]

cos I bluddy do. I'm SO fed up with being taken for granted. so fed up with the assumption that I can carry on doing the same sodding job for years, because I'm good at it. fed up with gutless managers who can't take brave decisions. fed up with being massaged with nice words. they're not e-fucking-nough. If I didn;t have kids I'd resign.

Yup. I left and work for myself now. I can still pursue the things I really believe in and get paid a decent amount for it. I just realised that the charity I worked for was a crap employer who expected the employees to take up all the strain of never having enough funding through some sense of duty.

Now I realise that leaving was probably the best thing for the organisation too - they have a new keener to burn out now!

It would take a lot to persuade me to work for an NGO again.

do you freelance now? some form of consultancy is an option for me - but not sure I'm brave enough

Yes. I do consultancy (environmental) now, but I am quite lucky that I am the sole expert in my line of work around, so now quite a lot of the funders who gave money to the charity I used to work for now give work to me. Do I feel guilty? noooo. I didn't have to work that hard at building up a client base.

It is difficult sometimes, like now, when I have a baby due in three weeks and am desparately trying to finish projects (when I'm not mumsnetting) but on the whole it is more flexible and more satisfying

Yes, I did. I ran press offices which was quite possibly the most thankless bloody role in the entire effing organisation - you get coverage and people preen that they've done something marvellous, you don't get coverage and you're up against the wall for the fact that the news agenda didn't happen to include you that day. And indeed when I went back into the sector to work in-house doing a mag a couple of days a week recently I got so fecked off with being micro-managed and having to defer to other people higher up the food chain that I left after my probation.

You are not alone.

ah MI - hadn't realised your recent fun and games was with an NGO. I can see exactly why a journo would find it difficult. which, in turn, is exactly why press officers tend to be youthful muppets who can't even write in proper English. My perspective is that I'm sick and bloody tired of doing other people's work for them. absolutely gutted today to be told that i was "very impressive" in my application and interview for an internal post but didn;t get it for a reason that they knew before the interview. I am - in a masochistic way looking forward to the next time I am asked to tidy up someone's work from said dept. I will enjoy going apeshit and then on strike.

I've worked all round the sodding voluntary sector, first as a rookie press officer and then running communications. There are some fab press officers out there, but I'm slightly surprised to realise having crossed over the fence that yes there are some muppets too