Amnesty International reviews

I have nothing for cons

Upper management is sometimes out of touch with the lived realities and everyday experience of canvassers. Their top-down approach has led to some controversial policy changes that I fear, in the long run, will be ineffective and disempowering. Some coworkers are whiney brats that think themselves better than ground-work. These are the young students that took a human rights course in school, decided they want to change the world, but aren't willing to sacrifice their energy at the grassroots level. They fantasize about visiting war zones and refugee camps, are well-versed in historical events, and can write a 30 page thesis about issues. But put them on a sidewalk to mobilize people to action, and they cave under rejection in less than 30 minutes. If you are a canvasser of color, differently-abled, and/or from other disenfranchised groups, this work has an added layer of hardship, and unfortunately, there's no mechanism in the quota system to account for this. Some office-based Amnesty employees are known to be dismissive of (and sometimes hostile to) the ground-based staff.