Toxic Workplace - Development and Communications Associate Teach for America Employee Review

The cons with TFA are numerous. The work hours are horrendous: if you're not willing to pull 55 hour work weeks, don't bother applying. More so, expect to simultaneously be inundated with trainings and webinars on work-life balance, and not wearing yourself out while also being asked to work until 8 or 9 pm everyday. During my time, the organization, or at least the regional office I worked at, would hold incredibly personal and intimate bonding or culture workshops amongst the team that asked people to speak to their most intimate traumas for the sake of "team-building" only to never provide aftercare or monitor employees for signs of trouble in the deep emotional waters they just traversed. On the corps members end, the amount of racist and privileged applicants admitted to the corps to account for "improving applicant and admittance numbers" when perfectly appropriate and diverse candidates were denied due to falling even slightly below ridiculously high standards, was outrageous. All staff served in some capacity on recruitment and the process is deeply flawed with arbitrary categories eliminating very qualified candidates. Pay was never negotiated and more so NEVER discussed, so everyone was kept in silence about what they were being paid, and only when I asked the question flat-out to coworkers did we realize the ridiculous disparity between our salaries. Overall, it was a deeply flawed organization who purports progressive ideologies, only to rigorously re-enforce typical business practices at the expense of the employee. The burnout rate at this company was incredible. You'd get new people every 6-8 months. I learned a good amount at this organization that I've taken to new positions, but it was at the expense of my mental and physical health, and work life balance. Just because you can wear multiple hats doesn't mean you should have to.