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British Council

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Awful experience - Assistant Manager British Council Employee Review

1.0
Aug 17, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Brand name NGO * Nice office location and facilities * You can take unpaid "career leave" with a guaranteed job if you come back afterwards...but most of those I knew who took it ended up not coming back!

Cons

* Low pay, even for non-profit * Toxic work environment * Inflexible bureaucracy * Bickering and aggressive competition between different offices * They require recommendation from your current employer before they can give you a formal job offer (i.e. forget about a discreet job search!!) * Lack of opportunity to advance * Despite large office, not a great support network . Communication between different project staff in the same dept, let alone different departments, was essentially non-existent. * Finance and IT department was all outsourced to India, even the local finance director and IT staff could not help with basic issues * Questionable use of UK taxpayers' money for "charitable purpose" while generating profit from ESL teaching (i.e. is BC a genuinely charitable organization or an ESL/language school subsidized by public funds?). Questions regarding the validity of the organization's non-profit status in some countries isn't a great morale-booster. * If you aren't a revenue-generator (i.e. English teacher), you are an afterthought. * Restructuring * High turnover and staff dissatisfaction

Explore other reviews about British Council

5.0
Oct 20, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefit package is quite generous. People friendly.

Cons

Nothing special to mention as cons.

4.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free to work whenever you want

Cons

Working for more than 8 hours sometimes

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