Poor management and inefficient - Anonymous employee Learning and Work Institute Employee Review

There are some genuinely lovely people who are dedicated to delivering the charity’s aims. The benefits (not the pay) are good for the size of the charity. The work is stimulating and interesting for the most part.

The charity operates with the bare minimum of people and resources to keep their head above water. This means you will be expected to work hard and constantly deliver, but for less than market rate pay. I found some of the demands to be unreasonable and made senior management seem completely out of touch. I had some unpleasant interactions with senior management to the point where I felt powerless and under appreciated on a number of occasions. There was a complete lack of understanding about what the role entailed, the workload, effort and stress. There was an air of snobbishness and dismissiveness from some which I did not like, and was ironic given the supposed ethos of the charity.

I had the opportunity to work at Learning and Work Institute (L&W) for several years, and during that time I had the pleasure of working with talented colleagues within the research and development team. The variety of interesting and impactful work at L&W, with partnerships with key policymakers and stakeholders, made for an engaging and fulfilling experience. I also appreciated the opportunities for flexible working, including the ability to work from home and flexible hours.

However, L&W had its fair share of cultural issues that impacted the workforce. The way workload was allocated and managed often meant that researchers and research managers were stretched too thin, resulting in little opportunity to reflect and learn, leading to stress and poor work-life balance. In addition, there were limited opportunities for training and development, which was frustrating. Issues within senior management and HR, including not listening to the workforce around key issues and gossip amongst leaders, contributed to a lack of trust in them and the decisions they made. Decision-making often took a top-down approach, which was not always beneficial. While the real talent at L&W was at lower levels, there was little effort to listen to and respond to their input. Diversity was also an issue at L&W. The organisation did not represent the communities it researched about, and there were very few efforts to address this despite sustained efforts from junior colleagues to take action to improve diversity (both organisationally and within research practice). All of these issues contributed to high staff turnover, with lots of churn of talent and junior people moving, which made it difficult to maintain consistency in the workforce. Overall, L&W was an interesting place to work, with opportunities to work on meaningful and impactful areas with talented colleagues. However, significant changes are required to ensure that the organization supports its workforce and listens to their needs. Despite the challenges, my time at L&W was valuable and provided me with valuable skills and experience.