Good people, poor senior management
Pros
The passion people share is incredible. People are great and you get to work with like-minded people across the globe. There’s a lot of flexibility in terms of work schedule.
Cons
Even though Ashoka has existed for over 40 years it still feels like a start up. Important decisions are made mostly by the CEO, so it’s a big bottleneck. Pay is incredibly low, which means that only people who have partners who earn more or who have family wealth can afford to work here. In the US there are only 3 federal holidays and no vacations guaranteed. You have to work extra hours to accumulate comp time to take vacation. There’s also no standardized parental leave, so people have very different experiences and it’s not equitable. You have to earn comp time to take parental leave. Operations in general are not taken seriously. There are bright people working in operations doing their best, but often times decision making at the top doesn’t prioritize or even allow improvements in processes. This results in the organization having very basic and manual operations.