Pros
The very best thing about EJF is the team - they employ some of the most genuinely wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. They are all driven, passionate and deeply care about the work that EJF does, and there is a great sense of camaraderie within the team as everyone tries to support each other. The London office makes such an effort to incorporate new starters into the team, with welcome drinks and regular pub meetups.
Cons
Unfortunately, there are many issues I experienced during my time at EJF. Firstly, there are little to no middle managers, meaning that for the majority of the staff, their direct line manager is the CEO - this was the case for myself. It became clear very early on that this was an unworkable situation, with many employees being left to their own devices as he did not have capacity to effectively manage such a large number of staff. During my six months working there, I had meetings with the CEO possibly three times, none of lasted more than 20 minutes. This was compounded by an unfortunate situation where the head of my team had gone on maternity leave the day before I started, leaving me and just one other colleague who subsequently left the organisation a month or so after. Nobody was recruited to fill either position, leaving me the sole team member. I regularly had to ask for more work, as I was left alone with little guidance on what to do. The work I was initially assigned by the head of the team seemed arbitrary, as nobody really knew what I was supposed to be doing and no member of senior staff checked in to see how it was progressing or even knew what it would be used for. This was really demotivating and very surprising for an environmental justice organisation where there is so much work to be done. Secondly, the vast majority of staff seemed unhappy with management, salaries, and lack of progression. Employee turnover is extremely high, with plenty of stories of senior management shouting and swearing in meetings with junior staff members - the phrase 'walking on eggshells' springs to mind. Salaries are very low for the work expected (particularly in London) and do not appear to be based on experience or job description, but rather what senior management decides they are willing to give at the time of job offer. There is very little room for progression into more senior roles, with many employees staying at the same level for several years - again, this is reflected in the absence of any middle management. Finally, for an organisation with such passionate people, a lot of the high quality work that is produced simply never gets used, owing to senior management's limited capacity to review it. Everything has to be approved by the CEO prior to publication, creating a bottleneck that meant on several instances pieces of work had sat waiting to be published for 6 months or longer. Not only was this demoralising for staff who work really hard on producing these exposes, but it created additional work to keep every piece of work updated with new developments in order to remain relevant at the time of publication. Despite this being brought up regularly, senior management is unwilling to compromise or delegate responsibilities, meaning that situation is unlikely to change unless there is an overhaul at director level. In essence, while EJF has a great mission and an absolutely wonderful team, the absence of any coherent organisational structure, senior strategy planning or middle management all create a toxic work environment that leaves staff unhappy and demoralised, hindering EJF from its potential of being a really wonderful organisation to work for.