Internews reviews

Internews prizes itself on being women-led and “inclusive”. But how inclusive are you really if you only have 5 people of color (in an office of 70 staff) working at your headquarters in DC? Given that one of its missions is to promote the voices of minorities abroad, it’s a shame that this value isn’t reflected in both management and non-management. From personal observation, this isn’t the most pleasant environment for ethnic minorities given the prevalence of microaggressions that are casually written off or dismissed as simply jokes. Supervisors do not receive proper training in managing people. HR genuinely seems to care for employees but is heavily understaffed.

Disorganization does not begin to cover it. This company has experienced 6 organizational restructures in 5 years. Why? Because the executive level team is an endless revolving door. With every new leader come new ideas. Old leaders are unceremoniously kicked out if they don't fall in line with the CEO, or tell the CEO something other than what she wants to hear. Loyalty does not mean anything at this organization, if you do not sit down and fall in line, you will be kicked out regardless of how many years you have dedicated to this organization. Accountability does not exist. You will do your job, but you'll also do the job of at least two other colleagues because you cannot depend on them to do their part which affects your job. Ironically, this organization believes in access to information but it does not apply to internal communications. It is impossible to learn any information on goings-on, even if it affects your work directly. When you do finally learn information, you usually need to completely redo your work because you did not learn it in time. Executive teams always assume the information will somehow trickle down, but they never facilitate the distribution. There are no standards of work or management. Each individual program unit has their own expectations, and your experience at this organization will vary wildly depending on who your manager is. What may be seen as going above and beyond in one team may be the bare minimum for another. This is a great organization for entry-level candidates. You can gain great experience and knowledge working through the organizational mess. For mid and higher career staff, this organization can be a nightmare to navigate. Instead of focusing on the work, executives focus on drama.