Pros
The mission and vision of Health In Harmony resonate with me to my core: following the advice of conservation leaders with generations of experience, IPLC around rainforests, to slow if not reverse climate change. The opportunity to work with communities across the world and learn about intersectional solutions that were culturally relevant and had massive impact was awesome.
Cons
I was heartbroken that I felt forced out of the organization, similar to several colleagues before me. There was a noticeable shift in Leadership's attitude at the beginning of 2023. By summer, decisions were made in a black box without any staff input or ideas, with questions and critiques treated as personal attacks on those who made these decisions. They espoused the importance of equity and diversity yet seemed blind to the fact that Leadership’s treatment of multiple employees of color led to their departure from the organization without any new opportunities lined up. Leadership only started prioritizing hiring racially diverse candidates when they felt it would lead to more funding opportunities, and even with that, racial diversity is not reflected among senior leadership and barely apparent among directors. Hearing Leadership explicitly ask staff to screen for "diverse candidates" when reviewing job applications, despite having made no changes to organizational culture following the departure of employees of color, was tough to swallow. Diversity is indeed a hot-button word, and it's disappointing that an organization claiming to be rooted in justice and driving diversity forward does not follow words with actions. There was a clear disconnect between senior leaders and everyone else, which was voiced to leadership on multiple occasions, yet never tangibly addressed. They said they wanted feedback and then would forget/disregard/ignore junior staff’s thoughts and then wonder why organizational culture was deteriorating. If someone wasn't part of the top leadership clique, their voice did not matter. Work was micromanaged, and Leadership changed their mind so frequently, without sharing the changes outside of the clique, that much of the work done was pointless. It was exhausting to do work that was not trusted or appreciated, at odd hours, and to consistently see how the words and actions from the top simply did not align. The unspoken rule was, if you don't have something to say that agrees with Leadership, don't say anything at all. This extended to external relationships as well. It was observed that when a consulting party told them something they didn't want to hear, Leadership would just go find someone else who agreed with them instead of considering the critiques. Almost one-third of staff left the organization this year, many without another opportunity lined up. I sincerely hope that incoming staff have a different experience and wish them luck. If you join the team and don't have a therapist yet, consider finding one.
