Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Employee Reviews about "leadership"

Pros

Incredible colleagues, grantees and partners - opportunity to learn new things everyday with people who truly care about serving others. Best benefits in the business and great pay.

Cons

The foundation leadership doesn’t care about employee development and retention. As one deputy director put it “we’re not here to be an employer, we’re here to achieve our strategy goals”. Why those two things are put at odds with one another is baffling, but a pervasive attitude of leadership throughout the foundation. There is little to no training, yet somehow most managers are deeply skilled at this line of thinking and demeaning their employees - taking credit for their work in public settings, making them perform two or three jobs with no pay increase or title change and then holding sessions on burnout and asking why people feel so stressed, hiring limited term employees and offering no support at the end of their contract, laying full time employees off while telling them they’ve done excellent work and there was nothing they could have done to improve. This place is full of performative strategy shifts and reorgs and leadership has convinced themselves that those types of changes (and impatience) somehow equates to impact. Unfortunately it does not.

Pros

-Inspiring mission with ability to connect your work every day to that mission -Opportunity to do interesting and novel work constantly; if you are willing to lean in to it, you can find tons of ways to add value -Amazing benefits - frankly, I can't imagine finding better ones anywhere -Smart and motivated colleagues -Decent work/life balance (somewhat depends on your team but if you're willing to set personal boundaries, people generally respect them) -Senior leadership's priorities are in the right place

Cons

-No clear or logical pathways for promotion -Job title in the program officer family can feel arbitrarily assigned -Visible voices and charisma are valued over quality of work execution; translates into a culture where men are systematically valued over women -You need a manager who values your work and advocates for you to move ahead; if you don't have that, you are out of luck -They over-hire and hire often without a clear idea of what folks will do when they get there -Senior leadership priorities don't always get translated to action that makes sense

Pros

Mission of the foundation is amazing and infectious - a rare opportunity to pursue your passion; Great benefits (golden handcuffs); Flexible work schedule; Beautiful building

Cons

Speaking solely on Global Health division (other divisions don't seem to have this level of dysfunction) - extremely hierarchical that comes from the very top with expectations for the bottom to execute without question. Otherwise, be prepared to be thrown under the bus. The leadership are all from the same network of followers - disease teams used to be led by experts in the field and not from the same pharmaceutical empires. Doing 'what is right' isn't about the community - but avoiding getting fired / laid-off. Support staff (assistants, coordinators) constantly shifting between teams or leave the foundation because they are overworked and unappreciated. Very few opportunities for career advancement, especially for program staff. Performance reviews don't appear to make a difference for managers or employees. Endless strategy reviews throughout the year reflect a lack of trust and leave little time to get actual work done. It's not a coincidence that the average lifespan of a foundation employee is 2-3 years, with few exceptions - two years ago over 40% of employees admitted to be actively looking for a new job on a culture survey.

Pros

The mission is incredible and there are a lot of smart people working hard to achieve it Amazing campus and great benefits Work/life balance can be great for many who take advantage of the "flexible work styles" For geeks you will have all the Micorosft latest and greatest at yuor disposal

Cons

For anyone in IT it is a disfunctional and ineffective organization. The CEO is a very smart and capable man but is very introverted and his focus his up the organization. This is a huge problem as his 'leadership' team are incompetant and lack even basic management skills. Their traits range from basic immaturity to emotionally unstable; there is also a 'boys club' whose behaviour is oftern very inappropriate. The result of this lack of leadership is spinning at the lower levels; no clear strategy, inablility to make simple decisions effectilvely and worst of all a huge waste of foundation resources.

Pros

*Mission *Benefits *Campus (facility and location) *Some great people

Cons

*Culture is suffocating, toxic, hostile, arrogant and not supportive *People's egos get in the way of getting work done ('I am smarter than you, NO, I am smarter than you') *Dysfunctional IT org with a weak CIO and embarrassing leadership team (What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.) *Money is not a constraint like true non-profit and for-profit companies

Pros

3:1 matching gift program. Outstanding benefits. Passionate and engaged workforce. Access to amazing talks with Bill, Melinda, Warren and other guests.

Cons

Cold and distant leadership team. Limited career growth potential. No recognition for work well done. Leadership looks externally for hiring without considering internal candidates, which gives the foundation a cliquish feel under Sue's new leadership.

Pros

Benefits package is outstanding. Some genuinely nice people. The belief that what you are doing is truly helping to save the world. Beautiful offices and landscaping. Onsite fitness gym and food (food is not free).

Cons

Continual hiring of individuals only for their field/specialty talent results in individuals in key roles who have no experience or interest with people management, career development, technology, or communication skills beyond the grantees. The framework (of how teams report upwards) and executive leadership continues to operate in a clunky old-boys club fashion. Considering how dismal morale is across the entire company, I and many others believe that change is currently underway; however, the change is being done in such a mean, rapid, and secretive state that many current employees such as myself are meant to feel like pawns. The family feeling that once existed as vanished and there is no hope of it coming back. Bill and Melinda have not been present.

Pros

Great benefits Amazing mission Smart and devoted colleagues

Cons

Lack of leadership Inefficient processes Culture of perfectionism

Pros

As an intern, I was provided with a clear project and goals for the summer. I was invited to meetings with senior leadership and got to present my recommendations to the team. The office space was amazing, very green and a great atmosphere. Seattle is also amazing in the summer time.

Cons

There isn't a clear program structure for summer interns to get full-time jobs at the Foundation. There is some bureaucracy which makes it hard to get things to change quickly. I was also told that people are passive aggressive though I didn't see that myself.

Pros

* The mission and values of the company can't be beat * All health care covered, including domestic partners * Money Share Account in which 15% of your annual pay is automatically contributed by the foundation * They match your personal donations to charitable organizations by 3xs * Many opportunities for promotion if you are a self-starter and proactive * Lots of parents with young kids work here * Wonderful office/campus (across the street from the Seattle Center) *Great commuter benefits

Cons

*If you aren't liberal or progressive, this is NOT the place for you * Ethnic diversity is low, despite the work we do. Therefore you can feel like a 'colonizer' at times. Most of the senior leadership at this (global organization) is white and male- and from South Africa at that. (They just replaced their Asian president of Global Health, and their female president of Global Development with white men- go figure. * Passive-aggressive, but this also reflects the PNW/Seattle area * Lots of Type A people, and many who don't have a lot of personality * They often overhire, i.e., many of the program assistants (admin assist.) have two degrees.