Easy place to work has changed a lot - Program Coordinator ICTJ Employee Review

I had excellent collaborative supervision and was able to take on meaningful projects during my time with ICTJ.

like many grad school internships, this was unpaid

Great people on staff who genuinely care about their work and each other. Nice work life balance.

The Director of Development made my experience working there unnecessarily challenging. She was rude, impatient, and condescending. She maximized my mistakes and minimized her own. It bears mentioning that I applied for a full time position, but was offered a 6 month contract instead. I approached it as an opportunity to prove myself and get my foot in the door. What wound up happening was I started crossing off the days until I no longer had to work under her. Technically, I wasn't her subordinate either, but she used language and management style to make it seem that way. What started as a great chance to grow and apply my prior experience became a 6 month long game of managing my de-facto supervisor's emotions. It felt like the game "operation" where every time I made a mistake or misunderstood her communication, I got scolded and berated. It did a number on my mental health and raised concern from my spouse. Eventually she stopped redirecting me or clarifying things and started to attack my character accusing me of not caring. She created a hostile work environment that has cast a long shadow on an otherwise excellent organization needed now more than ever. I learned off-the-record from others that this was a pattern with director of development and that is primarily why she outsourced positions to freelancers. It gave her more control over hiring and firing so that HR was hardly involved during my experience at all. There is a high turn over rate in the development department and it has everything to do with leadership. In spite of overseeing and executing a successful annual fundraiser in which I was told by the executive leadership they had never before had a such a well done and enjoyable benefit, she treated me with disrespect and angst right up to the event. If you are applying for this job prepare to manage up, learn how to work around the director, and get ready for the rest of the staff to approach you so they do not need to interact with her. Devil Wears Prada was never meant to be an aspirational film, but this person absolutely thinks she is Miranda Priestly... at an non-profit that specializes in Transitional Justice. It's just sad.