First, I want to give kudos to the recent review “Avoid at all costs” from 3/16/23, which does an incredible job of summing up the problems at GLSEN. Everything in that review is so accurate and on point. Additionally, 3 of the recent positive reviews stare they were written by someone in the comms or the HR department, two departments whose job is to make the org look good, take that into account when reading those.
Here’s my take on the most toxic place I’ve ever worked. Everyone who leaves GLSEN leaves a little bit broken and needs months to heal from the trauma. Please, please, please, take care of yourself and don’t work there. Leadership is ruining people’s lives, forcing out or firing trans, disabled, BIPOC, low income, and older staff (And they joke about those people on their public personal social media accounts!). If that’s the kind of hostile environment you crave, then GLSEN is the perfect place for you. You’re probably interested at a job at GLSEN because you care about the mission of ensuring safe and affirming schools for LGBTQ+ youth, especially in the current political climate, where LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and people in general are under attack. If this is the case, this is not the job for you. So many incredible people have worked at GLSEN, committed to this very mission, and either left, been forced out, or fired, in the last 2-3 years because that is so clearly not the mission or priority of the org anymore. Instead, the mission has become coddling the ego of the narcissistic and bullying ED/leadership and serving as their PR firm. Look at their social media and you’ll see nothing but talking head videos featuring no one other than the ED, requests for donations, and hollow calls to “rise up” with no tangible actions other than buying GLSEN merch.
While there’s lots of communication work happening to promote the org, that’s basically all that’s happening at GLSEN. At a political moment when GLSEN should be front and center of conversations about LGBTQ+ issues in schools and churning out programming to support students and educators, virtually every product or program focused on the mission of safe schools for all has stalled under new leadership. Professional Development training paused at the pandemic and 3 years later has yet to be revived to fully functioning (not due in any part to the efforts of the passionate and committed local Chapter leaders). The education department, of an education nonprofit, has been without a director for over 2 years, and has been staffed by only one person for almost just as long. Chapter leaders are frustrated and feel ignored and voiceless. The research department has been decimated. The only visible thing they're doing at the moment, their "Rise Up" campaign consists of nothing other than asking to take a pledge (where they collect your email to add you to their list of donation emails) and hawking GLSEN merch.
Executive leadership is staffed by the ED’s biggest allies, a group of people who received multiple promotions in a very short amount of time based on fealty to the ED and throwing lower staff under the bus instead of on performance or possession of the actual skills and knowledge needed for their positions. Of this group is someone who is now in charge overseeing and making decisions about the research dept despite having zero research experience and being underqualified to oversee a research department. (One time a researcher received edits from them and they changed where the researched had written “disaggregate data” to “desegregate data,” because they did not know that the word disaggregate existed). This is the kind of talent they have running the organization and the kind of people who will be your boss.
There’s a very good chance you learned of GLSEN through their research. The research page, for the 5 years I worked at GLSEN was consistently the top visited page on the GLSEN website. GLSEN Research is world renowned and respected, due to a 20+ year history of success, institutional knowledge, and leadership of the department. The LGBTQ+ movement relies on the biennial National School Climate Survey, and other GLSEN survey reports. However, in the last year the entire research department were either forced out after a prolonged and failed HR witch hunt by the ED or laid off with no cause from the organization. To date, no one with any research experience in LGBTQ+ issues, let alone LGBTQ+ youth, have been hired into the "new direction" research department. Explanations from leadership about the move to eradicate the Research Institute and go in "a new direction" vary based on who the explanation is given to. Each different explanation rings hollow and makes it clear that the decision was nothing other than a vindictive personal decision to clean house of a department that did not “fall in line” with leadership, despite being the most productive department at the org. All that to say, if you are eager to apply for a job doing Research at GLSEN because you are excited to work at such a respected and renowned department, under the supervision of someone so important to the field of LGBTQ+ research, look elsewhere.
