Pros
The content of the work was interesting, personally fulfilling, and varied. A few really good people who have worked at this affiliate a long time understand the mission and are making a difference locally. I got to learn more about the community. Work/life balance was pretty good (no one rarely works more than 40 hours a week) and benefits are fairly robust for a nonprofit.
Cons
Working here was a complete 180 from my experience as an outsider (volunteer) and my previous impression of Habitat, especially in the office. Turnover is extremely high, and current senior management has no competency or experience in construction or real estate, which is kind of important for a homebuilder. Most employees (managers and non-managers) with talent or applicable experience turn over quickly because they get frustrated with the lack of common sense and bad decisions consistently made by management and quit, or they question that authority and bad decisions and get fired for hurting someone's ego. Since senior managers have no good experience in handling the business of Habitat, all decisions originate with board members, many who are very experienced and knowledgeable. Unfortunately those worthwhile board members are busy working and running their own businesses, so most time, decisions, and involvement fall to retired, non-working, or inexperienced board members that are busy-body limousine liberals and treat the affiliate like it's their own pet project. In my time there, I saw millions of dollars squandered in bad real estate transactions and in growing a bloated office staff that contributed nothing to housing production, operations, or raising money. Despite the fact that we all worked in the same physical space, every small department was extremely siloed and there was absolutely no accountability in terms of an individual's role or work output. As long as you talked the talk, you wouldn't get fired for not doing your job. No one was really cognizant or interested in what other departments did, or how they needed to collaborate to get any work done. Departments that did most of the real work and heavy lifting, such as construction and real estate, were chronically understaffed and unappreciated. Much of the office staff would choose to "work from home" and come in to the office 2-3 times a week and be out of touch the rest of the time. Some managers would shirk and take off months at a time just because, claiming disability for supposed accidents or injuries at home. Beyond that, it was culturally very weird too. Collectively we all knew something was dysfunctional, so managers would espouse in meetings how we could improve transparency, be more inclusive, and grow careers and reduce turnover. The more this was being said, the more things were getting opaque with major decisions being made by 1 or 2 board members behind closed doors that didn't even know employees' names. The new CEO who started last year liked to say she was instilling a "culture of accountability" but nothing really changed. Day-to-day amongst the "little people," the office felt very much like a sorority house, replete with gossip, backstabbing, immature goofing off, and a general lack of professionalism. Most of the staff were young millennials and suffered from special snowflake syndrome. They were unable to communicate any worthy concerns or constructive criticism directly, and instead thought that going behind your superior or co-worker's back to complain was the appropriate avenue. Anyone mature enough to communicate directly with a snowflake would risk said snowflake going to a corner to cry and melt over hurt feelings. Human resource and operations managers would also abuse their power by trying to reprimand employees that weren't even under their supervision.