British Council reviews

There is a huge issue with colleague safety across the entire organisation. Country Directors exist in an unregulated role across the world, acting like demi-Gods. There are hundreds of reports of sexual harassment, harassment and bullying that go unacknowledged and hidden. A culture of intimidation and silence is rife. Nothing is investigated fairly. All priority is given to white male British leaders, who are often woefully inadequate, or worse - acting inappropriately across the world. The leadership are truly awful - lacking in any skill or experience, nepotism rules, they constantly give themselves pay-rises whilst cutting jobs, budgets and meaningful projects. During a HR restructure to save money, 3 under-qualified directors ended up on hugely inflated salaries and promoted themselves... then announced "we didn't make the cost saving targets". There is a lot of brilliant people across the organisation worldwide, but sadly they are stuck in a web of toxic management, and an organisation that is both morally and financially bankrupt. The concept that "we do good in the world" therefore we let people off who act poorly in the organisation? Just no. Do better. The British Government should shut this organisation down, and start fresh.

The endless 'transformation' changes that senior management push every few years are an utter waste of time and resource that add nothing of value to the organisation. Each time it happens the result isn't a more efficient structure, but severe disruption, frustration and stress that pushes the most talented and desirable employees to leave the company for better opportunities elsewhere (HR make very little effort to retain them). This brain drain combines with the fact that it is almost impossible to fire permanent employees no matter how awful they are, meaning that building long term success is all but impossible. There's great individuals that work here, but very few great teams. The organisation is disjointed across countries, with different regions operating within silos. Even within single countries, teams often work in isolation from one another which results in a lot of redundant work and poor communication. The organisation tackles diversity in misguided ways. Representation often feels like classic civil service tokenism rather than anything meaningful, with EDI discourse mostly being done by middle-class white women with degrees. Upper management is slowly recognising the issue, but little actual change so far.