I had a really nice time here - Anonymous employee Kinship Employee Review

Kinship’s cause is very worthwhile and meaningful. There is the potential for very satisfying work. Lots of great, committed and talented people.

The working culture at Kinship is surprisingly difficult. There is little room for new ideas from staff, which are generally met with suspicion and then outright disapproval. There are very high and often unrealistic expectations. The leadership style is punitive and accusatory when expectations aren’t met 100%. When performances aren’t deemed satisfactory, there is a surprising lack of due diligence in communication with staff and support to improve. Feedback style is harsh, unsupportive and unnecessarily hurtful. There is a lot of lip service paid to mental wellbeing for staff, but this does not follow through in practice. Staff are treated as expendable and standard HR processes such as an extended probation are not offered.

• A number of fantastic and talented colleagues who it was a pleasure to work with • Getting to work so closely with kinship carers is a real privilege, and I’m proud of the work I was able to deliver to support and champion them

• Leadership within the Comms and External Affairs directorate – if you dare speak up or challenge decision making, you will be ‘put back in your box’ - bullied, gaslit and undermined. If you are a high performer, this will likely not receive the deserved acknowledgement as leadership appear to like keeping others in the team feeling small. This breeds a hugely toxic environment (whilst leadership gives lip service to being supportive, of course). I’ve seen many brilliant, highly skilled and talented colleagues reduced to a shell of themselves – as well as being made to feel this way myself. •This toxicity comes from the top down, the office is an extremely unprofessional environment, I’ve never experienced anything like it. Examples include: Office/HR/Business team openly mocking and ridiculing job applications, quoting parts of job applications aloud, and using patronizing tone when answering the phone to kinship carers. Desks are rarely cleaned, food is left out for days, with unemptied and overflowing open food waste. Really unpleasant environment in multiple ways. • Incompetency is rife and a seemingly accepted part of the culture – for whatever reason underperformers are shielded from accountability. I can only assume this is due to lack of decent leadership having the confidence to address it. Instead, overperformers are squeezed to the point of burn out, and gas lit when they legitimately and professionally raise issues of incompetency/ difficulties working with other colleagues. God forbid you work with an incompetent colleague who is also a kinship carer – they will actively be praised for the work of others and can do no wrong. • Micromanagement and control. Directors insist on being cc’d into every email and involved in every minor task, creating huge inefficiencies and wasting everyone’s time. If you hire skilled professionals, trust them to do their job and let them get on with it. • Severe lack of meaningful support or proper line management – line management is tacked onto job descriptions rather than being built into capacity. Any 1-1 meetings will focus on your work output only, will be highly unstructured, and offer no space for you to meaningfully bring your concerns or issues to the discussion. • Disclose mental health issues at your own risk. As someone who is open about their mental health, I was told that I hadn’t been considered for promotion as the role would be “too stressful” for me. In deliberation during another recruitment process, a Director questioned a candidate’s suitability after they disclosed a mental health condition, suggesting it would “impact their ability.” The hypocrisy is staggering given how loudly Kinship promotes mental wellbeing in its external messaging. • Lack of HR, process, and infrastructure. There’s essentially nothing in place, and little appetite to create it. I had to create probation forms for a colleague and wasn't set objectives for the whole 1.5 years I was there. After being signed off with stress and burnout, I returned to no formal return-to-work process. Instead, my manager informally “checked in,” then secretly transcribed our conversations word-for-word and filed them as formal HR notes without consent. When I raised this as a serious concern, HR dismissed it, excusing the manager’s behaviour as inexperience and refusing to acknowledge the impact on my mental health. Unsurprisingly, HR didn’t get in touch with me about an exit interview… • A senior leader gave a role in Business Support to a family friend who had just graduated with no interview or application process. She also brought in her daughter and another Director’s daughter to work on the website project during their university breaks. Strange. • Lack of internal progression for genuine high performing colleagues, particularly certainly within Comms and External Affairs directorate, as you’ll notice it does happen in other directorates. The approach is in no way consistent. Within Comms and External Affairs, leadership will make it feel like it could be possible, but don’t waste time waiting for that to materialise - you’re better off leaving and preserving your sanity and professional self-esteem.