Burnout approach to scale - lacking diversity of staff and thought - Recensione dipendente - Dipendente anonimo presso Health In Harmony

I have worked with Health In Harmony more than ten years, and what has kept me here, besides a true belief in the potential of the mission and a desire to see it through to its full expression, plus the excitement of the current moment of growth, is the supportive environment and level of personal opportunity. The organization is ambitious and has prioritized investments in programs and growth opportunities, so there is always more work to be done, and you will be on your toes. With the growing programs, personnel, and external partners, there are so many learning opportunities and a strong openness from the leadership and the whole organization to new ideas and anyone who wants to take ownership and responsibility for aspects of the work. I have had a career path I couldn’t have had many places by being able to quickly take on new and more challenges, explore interests, and design my own place in the organization based on what is needed and my own strengths. Being an employee at Health In Harmony is truly being able to see your influence on the outcomes of the work. A lot of initiative is required, but if you enjoy creating and problem-solving, you can build such a fulfilling experience for yourself here. In addition to professional satisfaction, my experience at Health In Harmony has always been one of personal support. The onus is on the individual to create personal boundaries, as is appropriate, but those boundaries are respected, and one way Health In Harmony has always lived its values is by prioritizing people-friendly policies, so the structure exists to do what is needed for your personal life (flexible schedule, ample time off, progressive leave policies, generous healthcare and other benefits and reimbursements). I recognize that being here for so long, my experience is likely different than a new hire, but I have always witnessed respect and appreciation for people’s personal lives from every member of the team, and I do believe each employee can take a higher and wonderful level of ownership here than at more established or dogmatic organizations.

The organization is still young and growing - and it is growing quickly. It does not always have the resources and history to have everything we need in place. The other side of the coin of individual opportunity I mentioned above is personal responsibility to be part of creating what is needed internally. It is not an organization where you will show up and be given a checklist of things to accomplish each day, for better and for worse - every role has ownership and innovation built in. We are still in the process of building the infrastructure of the organization, especially as it evolves into a new and different type of organization. We, myself included, have a lot to learn about building a smooth-functioning organization, plus anticipating upcoming gaps and pain points. The pace and enthusiasm, combined with the size of the organization, has absolutely led to communication challenges and feelings of chaos that we are working to improve. There is a lot more to do, but I feel a commitment to learning and improvement, and the challenge, the personal support, and the ability to see one’s fingerprints on the work has been more than worth it for me.

The mission and vision of Health In Harmony resonate with me to my core: following the advice of conservation leaders with generations of experience, IPLC around rainforests, to slow if not reverse climate change. The opportunity to work with communities across the world and learn about intersectional solutions that were culturally relevant and had massive impact was awesome.

I was heartbroken that I felt forced out of the organization, similar to several colleagues before me.  There was a noticeable shift in Leadership's attitude at the beginning of 2023. By summer, decisions were made in a black box without any staff input or ideas, with questions and critiques treated as personal attacks on those who made these decisions. They espoused the importance of equity and diversity yet seemed blind to the fact that Leadership’s treatment of multiple employees of color led to their departure from the organization without any new opportunities lined up. Leadership only started prioritizing hiring racially diverse candidates when they felt it would lead to more funding opportunities, and even with that, racial diversity is not reflected among senior leadership and barely apparent among directors. Hearing Leadership explicitly ask staff to screen for "diverse candidates" when reviewing job applications, despite having made no changes to organizational culture following the departure of employees of color, was tough to swallow. Diversity is indeed a hot-button word, and it's disappointing that an organization claiming to be rooted in justice and driving diversity forward does not follow words with actions. There was a clear disconnect between senior leaders and everyone else, which was voiced to leadership on multiple occasions, yet never tangibly addressed. They said they wanted feedback and then would forget/disregard/ignore junior staff’s thoughts and then wonder why organizational culture was deteriorating. If someone wasn't part of the top leadership clique, their voice did not matter. Work was micromanaged, and Leadership changed their mind so frequently, without sharing the changes outside of the clique, that much of the work done was pointless. It was exhausting to do work that was not trusted or appreciated, at odd hours, and to consistently see how the words and actions from the top simply did not align.  The unspoken rule was, if you don't have something to say that agrees with Leadership, don't say anything at all. This extended to external relationships as well. It was observed that when a consulting party told them something they didn't want to hear, Leadership would just go find someone else who agreed with them instead of considering the critiques.  Almost one-third of staff left the organization this year, many without another opportunity lined up. I sincerely hope that incoming staff have a different experience and wish them luck. If you join the team and don't have a therapist yet, consider finding one.