Great organisation doing great work, despite being undermined by bureaucracy and high staff turnover. - Fundraising Oxfam Employee Review

4.0
Jun 13, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Inspiring place to work; your effort matters and will directly benefit others. Colleagues are motivated, hard working, knowledgeable and mostly friendly. The mix of age groups, nationalities and cultures is very interesting to be part of. Work content is varied and stimulating, you get to see the big picture and the details. Scope to travel to and/or learn about issues and places you'd never know about otherwise. Oxford offers a good - but not cheap - quality of life.

Cons

Induction is prefunctory given there is a massive amount to learn in this complex organisation. Huge bureaucracy, loads of administrative flim-flam, hard to feel effective in your role. Inefficiency, training / intro to Oxfam courses not happening until long after they'd be useful. Continual interruptions to attend briefings and meetings of little tangible benefit, though they did have the upside of not spending the entire day glued to a computer screen. Lot of silos, surprisingly little interaction between different teams/depts/confederation members. Surprisingly high staff turnover, particularly at senior management level. Horrible location on the ring road, no where to go at lunch except staff canteen. Poor payers compared to their peers.

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5.0
Feb 26, 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

Great people and culture in the space.

Cons

Not as many people in the office.

2.0
Jan 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

working with people who really care about the work and the mission; mostly remote work

Cons

Oxfam America's senior leadership team has presided over three consecutive years of layoffs with little evidence of accountability or learning at the executive level. Despite repeated rhetoric about fairness and equity, leadership decisions consistently undermine those stated values. New initiatives are rolled out frequently, only to be quietly dropped, creating instability, confusion, and deep skepticism among staff. Directors are routinely excluded from key strategic discussions, yet are expected to deliver decisions to their teams with no meaningful context, rationale, or ability to answer questions. The CEO appears insulated from the day to day realities of the organization, reinforcing a growing disconnect between leadership and staff. As a result, employees are chronically overworked, morale continues to erode, and trust in senior leadership has been significantly damaged by unmet commitments and constantly shifting priorities.

2
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