Avoid if possible... - Associate Program Manager Population Services International Employee Review

Grab a cuppa because there is unfortunately a bunch: Take heed and believe when other reviewers say there is a propensity to bully: there are instances of blatant bullying that’s I’ve witnessed and experienced myself, and absolutely nothing was done. Higher ups witness it as well and pretend to not see anything, complaints are tossed out and you’re made to feel like you’re the issue. There are departments (certain regional department - ask around there is one that is know as the problem child) where staff get fired, reprimanded or ridiculed for making the same errors that others in other departments have made countless times with no consequences. Junior staff are treated like dog doodoo on the sole of middle to upper management. You are underpaid but overworked and on top of that there is an instilled fear of losing your job They’ll work you like a mule only to blame you for their errors and take ownership of your successes Your manager makes your career – you will have some managers (claps for Southern Africa and East Africa) who are so involved into your professional growth and make sure there is equity in opportunities awarded to all their supervisees. Then there are the mean managers (clap for yourselves, you know who you are) – If you have one of those, they will break you, make you feel worthless, undervalued and underappreciated, etc. God forbid they’re with the in crowd! Basic criteria for promotion or advancement is to agree with them blindly – How dare you have you own opinions on anything! Managers often time have not received training on how to be a great leader, they have zero knowledge of people management and are not required to learn Supervisee opinions on their supervisors are not asked, talk less of taken into consideration. In the 3 years I’ve worked here, I have been asked just once about a supervisor’s performance. And even that was useless as said supervisor was able to strike down any negative feedback on their performance. There is supposedly a non-retaliation policy that is complete doodoo, a sad sad joke – every complain, supposedly confidential will get discovered (because HR… sigh... that’s another point I’ll make below) and you will be retaliated against. HR is truly the biggest joke – there is no privacy or confidentiality whatsoever, and they end up getting you in more trouble than you were before you reached out to them to help. Case in point: junior staff complains about bullying manager, not long after, HR calls meeting with staff and said manager about Manager’s sudden complain about staff performance, staff gets reprimanded for poor performance, staff gets fired for poor performance. Staff if fired without once having a separate conversation to delve into bullying and manager never once gets a talk to about bullying. Manager is still employed by the way and situation is repeating. Someone else mentioned the rampant toxic environment at PSI – I wholeheartedly agree. the only thing I disagree about is the it being most prevalent in Senior managers and director levels. This starts with managers, who play the blame game and are quick to throw their subordinates under the bus and/or encourage their subordinates to throw each other under the bus! This is even more so intense at the senior manager and director level. Lots of turnover – every day a new person, new eager faces are introduced to you. It’s sad to see how those eager faces change in the course of the year, if they last that long. Up until a couple of months ago, there wasn’t an onboarding process! I know! Unbelievable but true! It’s a baptism by fire here meaning you’re thrown into a burning building your first day and expected to come out victorious. There’s actual shock when you fail at something you were never trained on! and you’re given looks for asking things you’re supposed to know but didn’t. The systems are totally out of date – like we’re literally just now getting excited about SharePoint for example when others have been using it for years and have even moved on. PSI is king of reinventing themselves – same old outdated ideas covered up with shiny brand-new names and taglines. Also great at putting band aids to cover up infected wounds. Recently made changes to the names of regions we operate in, a whole overhaul of portfolios and such, as if that would solve the deeper issues staff deal with. It’s the biggest waste of funds, the biggest joke between staff and the topic for water cooler conversations. Feedback on performance varies greatly depending on your department! There are different standards for performance for the same roles. Feedback isn’t given in a constructive manner – if the goal is to help you grow and develop professionally, there should be an emphasis on this. But there isn’t, as such it’s hard to further your career goals or feel empowered If you are interested in a technical position, try to get your foot in the door as such rather than getting in through a regional department. It’s very hard to match the switch and you’ll be stuck with admin work. It’s common practice to have people with MPHs doing admin work. I personally know one who escaped West and Central Africa for a position with a core technical team. As they put it, it required herculean efforts and years of being unhappy and unfulfilled. Salaries for entry/mid level staff are not on part with similar organizations – it’s clear you don’t work for a non-profit to makes big bucks – not this is not the case for upper management and C-Suite. We had an intern send a company-wide email asking for people’s leftovers, that tells all.