OK, now for some of the negative aspects of working at NWF.
First, just a small disclaimer: this is my personal opinion. I fully acknowledge that other employees have had better experiences than me and I know for 100% certainty that others have had much, much worse. If you choose to work there, your experiences could possible be better than mine and others. So please take what I’m saying with a measure of caution and judge the job opportunity that you are interested in pursuing based on: how well it will advance your career and the other benefits that you are currently seeking.
1. NWF has a very high staff turnover and it’s for good reason. NWF is, sadly in my opinion, the place where new ideas and innovation come to die.
There is a certain longtime staff member who has bucked the “quitting within three years” trend and he explains it this way: a) new hires come on board: they are excited to make a difference and believe in NWF’s mission. After about half a year, they realize that not only is there a lot of red tape to getting things done, there is a lot of internal resistance from other staff to change. B) They will then realize that other staff are complaining about them (because trying to change something is a great way to make enemies), they will become despondent and start to settle for doing things the way they have always been done, with little hope for change. C) They then become complacent, bored and in most cases, depressed. For some, it will then lead to anger and treating others poorly. They then get fired or quit and, in most cases, they realize that they have wasted some pretty good years.
I watched this happen to a colleague. They became frustrated and then went beyond voicing that frustration to treating others badly. Alas, termination followed pretty rapidly – I wish they could have been saved – the problems they noticed were accurately evaluated, they just let the fact that no one was listening to them lead them down the path of anger.
Most new staff tend to leave before 3 years. But we have had staff leave after six months, ten months, a year and, my personal favorite, just two weeks. You’ll be tempted to read this review and tell yourself, “that won’t happen to me, I’m an experienced professional – I will survive and thrive!” From what I observed, NWF goes through experienced professionals in much the same way it goes through fresh college graduates. I assure you; I’m not exaggerating.
2. Jerk culture. Do you like gossiping and being gossiped about? Do you like finding out that staff are making weekly complaints about you to your boss, your department VP and direct to HR for the most trivial of things? I wish I could say this was an isolated instance. And frankly, I feel bad for NWF’s CEO who was (is still?) eager to see this behavior change.
Alas, there are many, many staff who engage in this behavior and it is incredibly demotivating. Now, I’m not talking about complaints about real things that should be complained about, like harassment, insulting someone or some other major thing. I’m talking about little, tiny things that, if staff simply engaged in direct conversation with the person they feel has upset them, could have been easily resolved. If you think it won’t happen to you, well, I hope you are right – NWF needs excellent staff to stay around and I hope you are able to buck the trend. Alas, I fear you will be mistaken.
While working at NWF, I was someone that others trusted and confided in. Now, if I had to count how many staff were telling me, “I’m looking for a new job and I can’t wait to get out of here” I could easily count to ten. Of those, maybe 3 are still there two years after telling me that, but the others are long gone.
3. Lack of donor cultivation and stewardship. When you treat donors like walking ATMs and are of the opinion that they should be lucky to donate to you, after all, your organization is well-known and the brand is excellent. Then, dear reader, you are in for a very rude awakening.
Now I’m pleased to say that this does not happen on all fronts, but it does happen on many. One of the departments I worked with is losing their major funders hand over fist and, surprisingly, no one seems all that concerned about it. In just three short years, I’ve seen them lose half of their largest funders and two more are in imminent danger of collapse.
Now, like me, you will most likely believe that if you simply show up, point out the situation using facts and then, drawing upon your many years of professional experience, show a better way of doing things, that the situation will change. You will, sadly, be mistaken.
Surprisingly, losses in revenue that, obviously, also lead to termination of staff, do not seem to be enough to cause change. If you ignore this word of caution because you are determined to fight the odds (or you just really, really need a job): I applaud your bright-eyed and unfailing optimism and wish you the very, very best!
4. Fiefdoms. This is probably the biggest obstacle for organizational success that I’ve come across – the internal fighting for resources, budget and funders. NWF talks a lot about collaboration, sadly however, no one seems interested in doing it.
Well, to be fair, I should say that most don’t seem interested in doing it.
There were a few of us that have tried and were then punished for doing so. I was told things like, “ignore those guys, don’t work with them, they are the worst” or “they are going to get fired soon, no need to collaborate with them,” and “I don’t want you working with those guys – we would have to share resources with them and that would not be good.”
Also, there is truly nothing so disheartening than to discover that someone you have been trying to collaborate with has been doing their level best to steal your clients. Again. Again. And again. In fact, not only did other staff call me a “sucker” for continuing to try to collaborate, it sort of became the office joke.
Now I know for a fact that NWF’s CEO does not endorse this behavior and is working to change it. However, unless they really start enforcing it from the top, collaboration will simply remain an ideal as opposed to a working reality.
I hope that both the pro and the con will help you evaluate whether NWF is a fit for you and, should you choose to work there, how you can best help NWF thrive.
