Prós
Outside of the leadership team and their chosen few, there are some really good people at the Foundation - passionate, talented people who really care about the mission and are crying out for proper leadership.
Contras
I'll start with the low pay. Pay was less than half of what other companies in the area offer. Yes they're a charity, but a) other comparable charities still offer more, and b) they certainly find the money for a bizarrely large number of mediocre "leaders". They'll talk about passion and their mission, but that doesn't put food on the table (especially in Cambridge) and none of their other benefits are anything to shout about. There is no performance-related raise structure - discretionary bonuses are pitiful, and entirely at the whim of the leadership team, meaning anyone who isn't close friends with their boss is going to miss out. There's also no hope of career progression - it's "Dead Man's Shoes" for every role, except (funnily enough) in the leadership team, where new roles seem to crop up every 5 minutes. There's been a huge amount of employee turnover in recent years, and this is purely down to the company's toxic leadership, starting with the CEO. He plays favourites, hires his friends over more qualified candidates for leadership positions, and forces out anyone who dares to call out the mediocre results his methods are achieving. The leadership talks a big game about taking employee feedback seriously, but the only action I saw them take was to bully and patronise anyone who left negative feedback, including trying to find out the names of those who left anonymous feedback (and not to clap them on the back and say "well done"). If you aren't smiling and saying how great everything is, don't expect to have many friends in high places. When allegations of racism were raised, the leadership promised to act but did nothing. When the question of a member of the Royal family being the charity's patron were raised, the leadership's only concern was of their own reputation. Good people are leaving in droves or going off sick with stress, and replacing them is getting harder and harder. I see there are some recent positive reviews here to push these more negative reviews out of sight, but don't ignore them.
