Significant structural issues, all talk and no action, cronyism. - Locally Engaged Employee Australian Embassy Employee Review

Severe management issues. Strict hierarchy and very poor leaders in senior positions. Lots of lip service to things like 'women in leadership initiatives', 'work life balance', 'professional development', and professing a camaraderie that plain doesn't exist in practice. I have seen the most senior levels yell at a junior female staff member and reduce them tears, but are meant to be the women in leadership 'Champions'. Local staff are often treated as inferior by 'A-based' or posted personnel. There is zero career progression for local staff, and the funds allocated to locally engaged staff for Professional Development are very hard to access, because when the budget for the Embassy is overspent, they allocate what was meant to be for the local staff to other budget to try avoid overspend. Similarly the addition of 'flexible working' into the Locally Engaged Staff terms and conditions at the last 'negotiation' (which changed from negotiation to consultation because ultimately the local staff had to accept whatever they were given with no course for redress) was lip service and sold to staff as a positive, while people were known to have applications to work flexibly completely ignored and refused to be rejected so it wouldn't look bad for the statistics. Because of the prestige of the positions, overqualified staff that apply are taken advantage of and perform a role much higher than the job description with zero reward. Overtime is scarce, even when worked, as the culture of 'doing what it takes to get things done and not complaining about it', as well as the A-based pressure of 'well we don't get overtime so why should you' shames and shuns those that seek compensation. If opportunities for overtime arise, it's very unevenly available, and depends on who you know. While it's nice to have people on your team rotate every 3 years with the posting cycle, poor posted leaders can ruin a team very quickly, and as local staff members it's often a gamble to see if the replacement is better or worse than before. Finally, the Cronyism is real. Some roles are already practically hand picked for people. It's evident in parts of the Defence team, but most obviously in the Ambassador's office and Public Diplomacy teams. Perhaps it has changed with the change in Ambassador since I left. I saw 3 roles given to people without proper recruitment, and everyone -up to and including the senior leadership- said and did nothing about it, even when the issue was raised by multiple people. The feeling of 'well, if the very top can do it and get away with it, what is the point of fighting the issue'. The most eye-opening 5 years of my professional career so far, and has significantly jaded my view on Australian senior public servants, particularly in certain organisations.