Population Services International reviews

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.

Leadership regularly brings up low morale, low pay, long hours, bullying, toxic work environment, complete and total lack of HR in staff meetings but when it comes to making changes that would help address the root of the issue nothing meaningful is done. At first it was refreshing to see the CEO talking openly about these issues but years later I am just tired. Once leadership collected feedback but in the meeting to discuss the results we were told that none of the reasons we cited were accurate—we were not upset because of pay, burnout, toxic work culture—but because of office renovations. The conversation ended there. When employees expressed anxiety over job security (low cash problems due to COVID/bad management). Leadership’s response was to cut the conversation short saying we ‘should be adults’ when talking about these uncertainties. The message was clear ‘don’t complain if you are afraid of losing your job because that would make you look immature.’ Meanwhile rightsizing is coming. Bad management is rampant (and top heavy). There are managers that belittle, ignore, even yell at their staff. Others dump all the actual work on their staff with no guidance or support. Their names are known but if anyone asks that is not a trusted confidant you better not say anything for fear of retaliation. PSI has a non-retaliation policy that is a farse (see other glassdoor reviews of people who went to HR to with legitimate complaints of harassment only to be put on a performance improvement plan and let go). Given that HR is just as bad or worse at simultaneously doing nothing and being mean about it, it is not a surprise nothing is being done. Reminders of how lucky you are because ‘hundreds of people applied for your job and you were chosen’ with the unspoken and ‘hundreds more will apply when you are gone’ just to let you know that if you are upset about working conditions you can easily be replaced. Junior staff created a committee to bring complaints of harassment, bullying and low pay to leadership (notice they bypassed HR). The response was ‘PSI pays the market rate’ as if underpaying employees is acceptable because other organizations also do the same. The harassment was not addressed. The toxic work environment is so bad that people have exchanged stories about where the best place to cry is so often that it is common knowledge even if you do not need to. Turnover has been high which makes an organization already difficult to navigate even harder. There are no systems, no accountability, feeble attempts at keeping records and an attitude of ‘that’s not my job’ that permeates way too many interactions. There is a paralysis in decision making. It is literally no one’s job to make a decision. Because almost all work is done by lower level employees who do not have decision making authority, they find themselves running around like chickens with their heads cut off until even minor issues are escalated to the Vice President level (that isn’t too impressive, we have at least 10 of them now) where people who really shouldn’t be weighing in on the day-to-day have to get involved. People say ‘good luck’ when you tell them you are going to X person’s office because they have had to pull teeth to get X person to do their basic job functions. Racism from DC staff towards field staff is well known (see other glassdoor reviews). Expats (white, mostly Americans) who live in the countries we work yell at staff, make unfair demands to their time and say racist things. “These people cannot learn,” “these people are lazy,” “they will never understand,” “you have to hold their hands to get anything done.” Worth noting, many of these same people cannot be bothered to have a working knowledge of the 2nd (sometimes 3rd, 4th or 5th) language that local staff uses in the office. They cannot do basic daily tasks in the country they live in such as go to the market or catch a taxi on their own. If you are not sure why someone would move to a country where they do not like the people it's probably because they make 90k+ a year (with many making much more than 100k a year), plus 40% of their salary in cash benefits (that’s tax free), their kids tuition to exorbitantly expensive private schools are paid for, they get to go home 2 times a year on company/project funds, etc. In these countries drivers usually make around $500/month in salary and every expense report they submit is closely scrutinized because god forbid the guy making $6,000/year get an extra $20 in per diem (“those people are always out to take advantage of the system”). The positive reviews on glassdoor look like higher level staff (the one scolding people for leaving bad reviews was funny). They are generally happy because they make more money and are shielded from the worst of the office politics. Not surprisingly they often stay longer. Before you accept a position at PSI, read more of the reviews and really consider where you are in your career. I would not join PSI unless you are starting as a senior manager. It is not a place to grow your career.