Pros
The team at the Foundation are very committed / passionate about the work that they do, there is a very collegiate atmosphere which makes thinks quite collaborative. The culture of the organisation is very friendly, and helpful. You are generally supported well throughout induction and colleagues enjoy sharing information and skills with you. The organisation is Unionized and management relations are generally good, staff benefits are generous and there is a sustained and continual investment in training and development. If you are prepared to ask and make a case for the training you need. There are often opportunities for development, either through secondment or fixed term roles, or stretch objectives.
Cons
The organisation tries to do too much. Given the limited resources available, and the number of competing demands they should be much better at prioritisiation. The organisation does struggle with institutional siloed working, so staff might try to work together on an ad-hoc basis, but as teams they are quite inward looking. SMT recently started a reorganization, which seems to be creating more management levels, and more bureaucracy rather than breaking down the walls between the teams / directorates. Staff survey results show that a significant number of staff distrust or take issue with the organisations senior leaders / vision and the organisational strategy. Downside of the passion and opportunities for stretch is that work life balance can suffer. Management don't enforce time off / TOIL and I have seen some staff burn out because of this.