Working here is like being in an abusive relationship. Everything starts off great, but a few months in you realize you've been fooled by promises that will never come to fruition and people begin to show their true colors. This is a membership organization for some of the world's wealthiest (mostly) men. Many of the members are inspiring and a joy to work with, however one or two difficult members can make your life miserable -- especially on a long-term project. My first year here a member threatened to kill me, in writing, for a mistake in an email. Not only was nothing done (it was explained to me that the members are very "passionate" and he was likely not serious, just letting off steam), this was seen as par for the course. Members are regularly verbally abusive to the management team (mostly women), and have successfully gotten women fired when they don't get their way. If you are a woman and you stand up for yourself in any way you get labeled as aggressive and a troublemaker. You're expected to work 24/7, 80-100 hours a week and only get paid for 37 hours. If you don't do this you get told you're not a team player. Good luck trying to take any time off without getting called or texted by your boss as early as 6 a.m. during your vacation for things that aren't actual emergencies. Most everyone leaves vacation time on the table at the end of the year as it is simply not possible to take time off and get your work done as there is often no one to cover when you're out of the office. You're given 100% accountability and only 10% authority to do your job. Disclosing these problems to HR does nothing to help fix the situation. One or two people are often expected to execute a workload that in other organizations would be spread out between multiple departments. The technology is at least five years behind so you don't have the resources or tools to do what is being asked; many processes are still manual. I have had a lot of jobs in high powered organizations, but this is the only place I have worked where people take medical leave for stress, which was caused by the job. The CEO and COO work people to the bone and lead with fear and threats. This is the most unethical place I have ever worked, and I'm ashamed I stayed as long as I did. By the time you realize you need to leave this place you're so beaten down and exhausted you think you don't deserve any better.
