Working in a Charity - anyone want to compare notes?

[ageingdisgracefully]

HI all. I'm looking for some insight really, I think. I work in a Charity (quite a well-known one, with a national presence) and I'm finding things a bit..strange. I've been here two years in a paid capacity so not a newbie by any means. I do not have a background in the charity sector, having spent all of my career in education (as a teacher and manager). I took this job after a period as a sahm. I volunteered initially and offered paid work. I was temporary for almost two years and I am now permanent (whatever that means).

I have never found the work difficult and I have a solid record. I do not make errors and I am thorough and punctilious.

However, I find the organsitional culture very odd. There does not seem to be an particular leadership, or focus. For the first three months in the job, I did not interact with my manager at all. There was no training, and no direction. Everything was a bit hit and miss. It wasn't a problem for me at that point, as the work was relatively easy.

I'm now in a much more difficult job (my choice) and wfh since last March. For the first 4 months in the job, there was no training, no identification of training need, no training plan. However, we are expected to reach a standard of work which is pretty much error free without any kind of proactive input from management. Everyone is supposed to be "helpful" but in reality the "help" is hit and miss. I've basically taught myself the job out of a Handbook, and resources cobbled together from the internet. Any training I've had, I've had to practically beg for (I'm talking basic training here, not anything fancy). I try to raise these issues and any questions are met with silence.

I'm beginning to feel there's some sort of conspiracy going on which I'm not part of!. I feel like I'm running round in circles just trying to get the basics of the job done.

I feel like I'm getting the side-eye for asking perfectly reasonable questions and beginning to feel somewhat paranoid.

Is it me? Are other charities like this? The vibe of the organsiation is happy-clappy where everyone is "nice" on the surface but I'm beginning to wonder if this just a veneer.

Me? I feel invisible, patronised and disrespected.

Anyone else? Is this sort of culture just a part of working for a charity or am I just a complete misfit?

@TildaKauskumholm

I don't work for a charity but have the general impression these days that many big charities are poorly run, as you describe. Free money coming in, huge salaries to those at the top, no one to answer to. That's why I and many others prefer to give to small local charities nowadays.

I don't think it's a big charity problem. The best-run charity (by a country mile) that I've ever worked for is a big, international one. The worst-run would be a tie between two small-to-medium ones. Though I've also seen waste at a very big charity too. Not wasteful spending exactly, but a waste of time and human resource because of poor direction.

Big charity salaries aren't huge when you consider the scope of responsibility that the postholder has, and how much more they might earn in the private sector. Charities need to attract talent in order to operate effectively, and those people have bills to pay.

However, I do think there is something softly corrupting about the "be kind" culture and the absence of customers, i.e. people give without receiving, so the accountability is just not the same, however much charities might claim that it is.

Before joining the public sector also worked in the voluntary/third/charity sector. It's very variable and I do think as organisations get bigger they lose sight of their initial intentions and purposes and become brands.

Charity job one was small and local charity. Very clear objectives, set KPIs, not very on it in terms of IT and efficiency but getting there.
Charity job Two small local charity with big lottery funding. Business plan was unachievable and never going to be self finding (ironically when aim was sustainability) and charity had relied on continued council funding for feel good and network based projects without ever looking at long term. I had no clear management or direction other than "get X groups signed up to this". What is this? Oh it's going to be great. Over £500k wasted.

Third charity job same org as @Babyroobs the sheer waste was extraordinary and I still am not sure what we were doing as we had no measurable way of evaluation Lots of branding though, pens keyrings, balloons. I think most people would be surprised that the majority of the McM professionals were not funded by McM anymore and it's only ever first three years funded. The 3 day conference in a hotel was the final kick in the teeth as my father in law was diagnosed with lung cancer at the same time.

My sister in law worked in the same sector for a long time too. Her most well known employer had very poor practice regarding mental health despite it being the core of what they do.

@Councilworker

Before joining the public sector also worked in the voluntary/third/charity sector. It's very variable and I do think as organisations get bigger they lose sight of their initial intentions and purposes and become brands.

Charity job one was small and local charity. Very clear objectives, set KPIs, not very on it in terms of IT and efficiency but getting there.
Charity job Two small local charity with big lottery funding. Business plan was unachievable and never going to be self finding (ironically when aim was sustainability) and charity had relied on continued council funding for feel good and network based projects without ever looking at long term. I had no clear management or direction other than "get X groups signed up to this". What is this? Oh it's going to be great. Over £500k wasted.

Third charity job same org as @Babyroobs the sheer waste was extraordinary and I still am not sure what we were doing as we had no measurable way of evaluation Lots of branding though, pens keyrings, balloons. I think most people would be surprised that the majority of the McM professionals were not funded by McM anymore and it's only ever first three years funded. The 3 day conference in a hotel was the final kick in the teeth as my father in law was diagnosed with lung cancer at the same time.

My sister in law worked in the same sector for a long time too. Her most well known employer had very poor practice regarding mental health despite it being the core of what they do.

Exactly, the people donate thinking that money is funding Nurses, yet they only fund them for a short while then the Nhs takes over the funding and the charity have no accountability over those Nurses at all, but they want people to believe they fund them to keep the money rolling in. I had worked in cancer care in one form or another for 35 years yet was bullied and humiliated by a manager who had absolutely no knowledge of cancer which she admitted openly. Disgusting. My interview was held in a posh hotel, they took over half the hotel, laid on a huge buffet for the ten senior mangers who were there to interview just six candidates, half of whom they dismissed after the first round without even a proper interview. Managers came from all over the country, all expenses paid. Never ever known such a load of waste in an organization let alone a charity.

I do find it mad when charities think they are going to impress anyone by splashing money on showy events and tat. People expect frugality, not vanity, which is what it looks like.

And this is why I don’t donate to the large charities.

Also because as a lawyer who has been instructed by several, I‘ve yet to find one that isn’t totally dysfunctional and backstabbing inside.

@Invisimamma the problem I have with the dead weight isn't so much how their lack of work affects others workload (although it does bother me) but by not doing their work they are literally letting down 500 or so vulnerable service users. This is frontline programme management. Without outing myself, think along the lines of running support drug and alcohol groups, so this person isn't putting on the 75 support groups on a year they are employed to do and related tasks such as training group leaders, volunteers etc promoting the support groups etc so the whole 'people working in the charity sector just love the cause and finance, IT etc isn't always great because everyone is cause driven' doesnt wash with me!

Then half way through the year they make a big song and dance about putting one support group on and all the managers send well done emails copying everyone in when everyone else is on their 50th group and had to train LazyEmployee's group leaders because they didnt. It is very frustrating.

I am not in a drugs and alcohol charity, just anon-outing example!

Also you get CEOs who jump from one cause to another and claim to be 'passionate' about each wildly unconnected cause.

The lack of accountability is astonishing and many charity workers wouldn't last in the private commercial sector

*from one charity to another I mean

@goteam that is shocking and far from my experience, it just wouldn't wash where I am. But we are not service delivery or client facing in the way you describe so it is difficult to make the comparison. An example might be taking 2 days to prepare for a 2 hour training course (that they've delivered many many times before), or refusing to deliver something online because they 'don't feel comfortable with that'...well nobody is comfortable with it but it's what we do now that we can't do face-to-face.

Oh my ex manager uses to do that @Invisimamma booking several says off to work on a piece of work that takes an hour.

*days

I am a leader in a charity and have worked for big and small charities over my career. Previously worked in a different sector too There are standards that have to be met but such bad senior management in many of the large charities. Layers of bureaucracy and terrible governance in some. It's really disheartening and sadly it is sector wide. There needs to be more transparency on terrible leadership moving from org to org, people who have very little understanding of the needs/business case and just a told of bad behaviour in bullying and in some cases classism and racism..yes even in this day and age. However, there is also lots of good. I often get disheartened and disillusioned and many of my colleagues do too. It is exhausting especially working for a charity right now....

I should say also it is incredibly satisfying seeing what can be done in the charity sector and it us what keeps me in it at the moment.

Wonder if those of you on here with third sector / charity / social enterprise experience can advise?

Currently work in public sector but don't like my employer. Dream job advertised with a small social enterprise, doing what I've trained in and working entirely from home. Advertised as permanent. Salary good (although not the same non salary benefits as public sector obviously). They won a lot of funding to do a particular project.

I went through 3 interview stages, I do feel I could have done better in the final interview, to be fair. They had 5 candidates at the final stage.

I got told they liked all of us and wanted to take us all on but they needed to see if they would get more funding and hopefully they would in the summer.

So what I'd like to know from people on here is: are they saying 'no' but pretending it isn't a no? Is it common to interview someone but then not start them til months later? Do you think they took anyone on AT ALL this month for that job? Also why is the job being advertised as permanent when it is dependent on funding - that makes me a bit uneasy? If I got the job and got paid off on account of 'no more funding' would the fact they had advertised it as permanent help me appeal any dismissal?

I'm just starting to wonder if it will be a dream job after all, or if this is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about (assuming they do get the funding in the summer!)

@username2020 I would say that isn't good practice. Practically, waiting for funding after the interview process is back to front. I wouldn't count on the funding for the post coming in do don't rely on the post being available in the summer or whenever it is. I would have a discussion with them about the probability of the the role coming online and in the meantime keep looking around.

Also if the role is dependent on funding there will always be the worry about when the funding runs out and if they get more to keep it going. It would be worrying to me if you are wanting stable employment.

@username2020 they can advertise as permanent if they like (not the best idea) because when funding runs out they can either choose to fund from reserves (if they have any) or make you redundant.

Hit post too soon!

Normally roles like that are advertised as fixed term contracts with information about how long the funding is for.

I've been in my 3 year post for 8 years! I'm responsible for securing the extra funding and I'm pretty sure I've got funding secured to take it to 12 years.

It's quite stress having to fundraise for your own salary though...

My daughter works in a medium sized charity which has strong leadership and training. Judging by what has been written here it is an anomaly. She used to work in the film industry and would never go back. Spending the day with George Clooney didn’t make up for the back stabbing and ruthlessness she encountered. She says that one of the main benefits of working for a charity is that everyone wants to come to work. For the last year her team have been having a mid day chat on zoom and she is in close contact with her line manager and the CEO.

I've just had another look at the job advert. Marked as expired but still on the site. The word 'permanent' has been removed, but no information on how long the contract could be. However, I have an email from the director from months ago confirming the role is permanent. All very strange....

My role is funded by a charity, we never know from one year to the next if the funding will continue. This year due to lockdown the charity have lost millions so I'm not entirely expecting our contract to continue. looking for a new job all the time.

I think the most stressful thing from my experience of working for charities is short term funding projects and then seemingly no plan beyond the funding. Rinse and repeat.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but after my first week in a charity job where I've been in tears, I need to get some advice from others in the third sector as to whether this is 'normal' and whether I just need to calm down!

I have just started working in a home based role for a large international charity. A leader nationwide for our particular cause and expanding internationally. I am disabled so being home based was a big attraction. So working remotely via Teams although there maybe some travel from 2022 - I'll come back to this.

Previously worked in academia for a few months which was very laid back - hardly anything to do (and I like to be busy) and before that in the public sector, middle management, earning about £10,000 more per year than I am now but had to leave when covid struck.

Anyway, this job is something I have always wanted to do. I was told travel would be 'very occasional' but now its sounding like from next year it will be much more frequent. As a disabled person, this may be a problem for me. I'm 7 hours travel away from where my boss and his boss are based! So I worry I was misled on the travel aspect!

Also, the Teams meetings are back to back and non stop. I'm barely getting time to pee let alone eat some lunch. I'm exhausted. I'm overwhelmed. I don't really understand much of what everyone is talking about. I don't understand the abbreviations. Everyone keeps saying NSP will do this and I'm like no one has shown me HOW yet!

I don't have access to all systems so I don't know what resources etc I need to be using. Everyone talks so fast and everything is so fast paced. I'm not really getting time to actually take in what I'm learning.

There's only me and my manager in the team to do what appears to be a hell of a lot of work. Its very clear that we need a bigger team.

There are so many different teams and projects to be aware of and I'm struggling to keep track of who does what.

I feel very much thrown in at the deep end.

I'm expected to lead a presentation in 2 weeks and I don't know how - I haven't got access to any resources and no one has told me how I am expected to present. Just that someone will get back to me?

I just don't feel I'm being given time to BREATHE, to take things in, to properly learn and the induction course they want me to do is something I am just not getting time to actually do (and its things like equality and diversity, safeguarding etc, rather than the actual job).

I have done something like this before but its the type of thing where you need to know how specifically your organisation wants it done.

Not sure if any of this makes sense, but advice welcome. I worry I've made a big mistake and I'm feeling imposter syndrome.

This sounds exactly like my employer. Glad I’m not alone. Chaotic, no accountability, people being “feral” as someone said up-thread I.e. self taught at the org but not really qualified, weird nicey-nice culture where you can’t call someone out for not doing their job.

@Pineapplepyjamas

This sounds exactly like my employer. Glad I’m not alone. Chaotic, no accountability, people being “feral” as someone said up-thread I.e. self taught at the org but not really qualified, weird nicey-nice culture where you can’t call someone out for not doing their job.

I work in a very small team. One colleague does nothing, turns up for work late, leaves early and does very little in between whilst expecting praise whenever he achieves any remotely small success. It's appalling. he never should have passed probations. When I have made complaints about the fact that he loses money for vulnerable people by not doing his job properly, does not have much skills and knowledge despite 2.5 years in the job etc, I am told I am being mean and need to be more supportive !

I've worked for 3 charities are none were as you described.

There are good employers and bad ones in every sector.

If your current one isn't right for you then apply for jobs elsewhere.