Pros
The junior staff (directors, deputy directors, and coordinators) are smart, driven, and wonderful people who believe in the cause and what the organization could be. That is, until they spend several months in the position and become disheartened by senior management.
Cons
Senior management are absolutely awful. Working at Earth Day Network involves being constantly belittled and undervalued. Every day the attitudes and tone of emails from senior management range from unpleasant to degrading and malicious. Every step forward is met with two steps back. You will be bombarded with immediate, pressing tasks that are “the priority of EDN”, which often contradict what was “the priority of EDN” the week prior and when you put in all kinds of hours to get the task done, it isn’t even acknowledged by senior management. Which is a blatant disregard for the value of staff time to continually ask for a paper or a proposal, only to have it completely re-written (horribly, I may add) or completely disregarded. The culture of EDN is one of condescension. Senior management feels that they know more than any of their content area directors. There is no trust here. There is no potential for growth in an organization that does not support their staff. The culture here is one that borders harassment, as staff have frequently been told they should be working “70 plus hours a week”, must be available on a sick day or it will be taken as a vacation day, need to call back senior management even when they call on your personal cell phone at 9pm or on a Sunday, and should always “do what you are told without question”. The turnover rate for staff is incredibly high for these reasons among others. Earth Day Network is a sinking ship and will not prosper until the senior management is replaced.
