Pros
As an employer, Wikimedia is a rare find. It is second to none in that it offers the incredible intersection of mission-driven, non-profit, working to help do our part in sharing free knowledge equally with the world while also being a top trafficked website and tech entity --- so much to gain from dedicating time in your career to this organization and cause. Because of our place in the world, we attract amazing individuals so working both with foundation staff and within our broader communities across the world is always a pleasure and there is always so much more to continuously learn from each other. We already were 70%+ distributed/remote pre-COVID. 40% of our staff is non-US so we have a wealth of perspectives and support each other in continuously learning more about each of our backgrounds. Leadership has a visible commitment to making org decisions based on consensus first whenever possible. Staff is actively asked to provide feedback and it is taken into account when we are making big organizational decisions. During COVID, we were one of the first organizations to proactively make changes to how we work, how we travel, etc. We are a highly distributed org with staff in 40+ countries so this was really awesome and helpful to keep us aligned, and make sure we were supporting each other during the pandemic. Similarly with BLM, leadership made a statement to the world quickly about our committments around diversity, equity and inclusion and what we plan to improve on moving forward across all areas we touch. 3 day weekends every month and ample flexibility, travel opportunities (in normal times), remote work encouraged and runs smoothly!
Cons
Sometimes consensus culture can slow things down, but I think it is done with best intentions in mind. If you are in a leadership role, there are frequent presentations and goal check ins - which is good and keeps us all aligned but plan to spend time often preparing for these. There is a very high bar, we all are striving to do as best we can. I have found the struggle at this org is not pushing for quality work as much as it is encouraging each other to take time when we need it. Working in an impactful organization, we attract dedicated and passionate individuals. Our work is never done so sometimes we need to encourage each other to step back and take a breath!