I feel I am valued in this organization:
HSUS overworks and underpays. This is well-known; almost every review you’ll read here mentions it. “Valued,” to me, means something different, though: it means how work is seen by superiors, how you are treated by executives and fellow staff, how you’re recognized and communicated to about your work and contributions to the organization. People, myself included, leave HSUS because they don’t feel valued by superiors or executives. How a nonprofit in 2017 can hew so closely to the “cogs in a machine” model is baffling. My team had massive, transformative success in their field while I worked there — but that success went consistently unnoticed and unrecognized — and in fact, expertise challenged on almost every topic imaginable. It was assumed anyone could achieve similar success — that the person didn’t matter as much as the buttons getting pushed putting out decrees from executives. Strategy and experience were pushed aside, and instead, it was all about the next thing, about how that wasn’t good enough
HSUS has experienced overwhelming attrition over the last few years. Not because people don’t feel passionate about the cause, or don’t like their coworkers. HSUS does not value its employees. Full stop.
I have confidence in the leadership of this organization;
If we are to trust our organization’s leaders, they need to trust their employees. If employees are hired for their expertise, executives should trust that expertise. Public relation blunders aside, related to reshuffling the golden children (read: “boys club” is real, and going strong at HSUS!) rather than deal with their inappropriate behavior, leaders have no confidence in the people doing the work. They value instead outside opinions from vendors and agencies who gouge them endlessly — donor dollars, mind you — and sycophants who hang on, barnacle-like, willfully ignorant of how others feel or that there’s a culture problem because they are “in” with executives.
Leaders at HSUS have no confidence in their staff enough to foster, steward and retain employees — how can staff have confidence in them?
I like the type of work that I do;
Point in favor: I loved the work I did at HSUS. This kept me there far longer than I should have stayed and boy howdy does HSUS know exactly how to take advantage of that!
Most days, I feel I have made progress at work;
Are you working 10+ hours a day? And available at night, and on weekends? If you struggle with work/life boundaries, HSUS will take that to the extreme. And if you respect your boundaries, you aren’t committed to the cause. Even when progress is made, or a team achieves success, if that success doesn’t fall into an executive’s “pet project,” or isn’t something they understand, or doesn’t personally reflect positively on them — or doesn’t fit within the extraordinarily narrow scope of leadership’s myopic worldview, it isn’t progress.
Everything is a priority. Work is piled on endlessly without respect for workload or prioritization. Want to focus on something? Too bad; on to the next thing. And the next. Oh, and while you’re at it, here’s breaking news you had no idea was coming until you had to be on a conference call at 12p on a Sunday.
It’s often incredibly hard to feel like you’re making progress when you work in animal issues. Animals are suffering and dying every single day, everywhere around the world, and most of the public achieves the cognitive dissonance to allow that to continue. The people who work at HSUS should feel like they re making progress as they address this issue; they are among the hardest working people I’ve ever met. However, it isn’t there.
At this organization, employees have fun at work;
When among my team, yes. Many of my direct superiors worked overtime to provide some value and investment in my team — aware of work/life balance, boundaries, personal time, etc. That was difficult when not supported or invested in ways beyond that team. Without those people often killing themselves to rectify the otherwise suffering culture at HSUS, I’m not sure who would be left.
I can trust what this organization tells me;
I learned to trust that promises often went unfulfilled, concerns unaddressed and unlistened to. I trust that HSUS is working on their mission — but as far as executives and HR go, there was no trust.
Overall, I’m satisfied with this organization’s benefits package;
HSUS pays poorly and their HR is a mess; you can read any review here to find that out so I won’t repeat it. Promotions are fought for with tooth and nail, and during my tenure there, were often miniscule. Instead of investing in employees, they have to kill themselves to fight for career growth and raises. Or title changes. A colleague was told, “If you aren’t happy with this offer, you can keep doing your current job.”
Benefits are fine. Flexibility is available, which is a plus. You’ll need it, because you’ll be expected to be available 24/7.
There is room for me to advance at this organization;
The gap between middle management and executives is endless; it’s a canyon from which decrees are made and minions are left to do the work. You might get a minuscule raise, but you won’t get that title change. Or vice versa! It’ll be a surprise, just like the offer letter you’ll get with no room for negotiation; take it or leave it.
Many of my middle management colleagues worked double time to get their work done and also protect their employees from the unrealistic expectation of executives, especially as teams grew smaller, budgets were cut, people were fired, and revenue goals or project goals or priorities did not change or evolve to adapt to new circumstances. And since executives are so completely out of touch with middle management and employee satisfaction, they are left to do their best to try to retain employees who take their marketable skills and go elsewhere — for more money, personal time, and investment.
So really, at HSUS, the room for advancement is often through the exit.
I like the people I work with at this organization;
As I mentioned before: I worked on the same team with people who became my best friends. Lifelong friends. I still miss them every single day — and without everything else on this list, I would still be at HSUS.
However: I have also never been spoken to or behaved toward the way I was when I worked at HSUS. Many people are rude, downright mean or cruel, and dismissive. Sometimes contemptuous. Some of this has to do with the fact people are overworked and underpaid; some of it falls under the banner of lack of boundaries and “dedication to mission only.” Executives included — and some are the worst offenders at all: some play on their multiple phones while employees are given presentations, told their expertise doesn’t matter and that they know better, shut down, demeaned and made to feel insufficient, unqualified, under performing and pushed aside. I’ve been in my new job for nearly a year, and I can say no one here has ever treated me once the way I was treated regularly at HSUS and felt. My new job has never made me cry or feel worthless — that’s a huge plus!
I feel part of a team working toward a shared goal.
Again: on my team, yes — without a doubt. As part of the larger organization, I didn’t feel part of a team as much as a means to an end. I stayed because for a long time, that end (working to save animals) justified the means (see above). Eventually, I realized that unless or until I was part of the executive team, that would never happen. And that executive team is closed off in an ivory tower of unrealistic expectations and no true knowledge of how to run a successful business with happy employees.
