Meaningful work in a toxic environment
Pros
People who work at PIH, especially those who aren't in the executive team, are a pleasure to work with because they are committed to the mission and have interesting experiences. The PIH approach to health care delivery is right on and an excellent thing to learn about and practice if you're interested in global health. It's still to be seen if Gary Gottlieb is the right leader for PIH at this time. My advice for junior staff is to negotiate your salary (HR is not to be trusted on equitable fair pay), advocate for greater responsibility and promotions that will benefit your long-term career, and plan on spending no more than two-three years there before moving on to something else you are excited about. Also, limit your friendships with co-workers to avoid gossip that will make you lose faith in the leadership team - and do your part not to promote gossip. Have a life outside of PIH.
Cons
Partners In Health is a toxic working environment because managers' actions so often do not align with the PIH values and mission, which is what attracts most junior staff to work there. Meanwhile, the seriousness of the mission and the culture of self-sacrifice may make you take failures personally, when it's not your fault. It's a chaotic and dysfunctional work environment, due to secrecy, cronyism, poorly thought out decisions in an unclear decision-making structure, consolidation of power in founders, executives, and people who have relationships with the founders, drastically different ideas of how PIH should operate, and rampant mistrust of executives. Turnover is extraordinarily high; most junior staff do not stay more than 2-3 years. Even people in the leadership team have been turning over (some thankfully).
