Pros
ICF had decent benefits and PTO - 3 weeks.
Cons
On a social services contract, you would think those people would be the most emotionally intelligent, but it was the opposite. I've never worked with people who were ruder, more critical, belittling, micromanaging, and authoritarian in my life. Two people who came in after me have reached out because they're having such a difficult time. Lots of tears and questioning their abilities. It can make a person feel crazy. I know I spent many YEARS in tears because nothing I did was ever good enough. Yet, somehow, the work I've done at my job since (where I make about 30k more) has been great. This, to me, speaks volumes about the team's culture on this contract and tells me for certain that it was not me or my work that was the issue. I hope the other contracts at ICF aren't like this. This one had lots of nepotism, which is probably why the culture continues to be the same. We once had individual meetings with a person higher up in the management chain because they became aware of the widespread dissatisfaction. But it was a joke. Several people had an issue with someone who had a nepotistic relationship to this higher-up person (someone who was essentially brought to the team and working almost directly under them), so we couldn't even voice our concerns. Also, I once spoke to HR at one point about a supervisor and the overall toxic culture, yet this supervisor only continues to get promoted. I can see why though. This supervisor seems perfectly nice until you work with them and their work is of good quality, but they are a horrible leader and represent the worst of the type of culture mentioned here. Other than that, ICF tends to pay people lower wages, in my opinion, considering I was able to get a much higher salary on another gov contract after I left, doing almost the same type of work. However, I give ICF two stars due to the generous PTO and fringe benefits.
