Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Reviews

FIRE is far too top-heavy and disproportionately rewards seniority. It pays salaries to some that are much too inflated in proportion to the value they bring to the organization simply because they have been at FIRE for many years. This hamstrings the organization's ability (or willingness) to seek, retain, and fairly compensate mid-level talent. It also discourages non-senior level staff from remaining with the organization due to the lack of meaningful opportunities for growth either financially or professionally. Such a peculiar strategy has caused a noticeable trend in turnover. Despite insisting that there is no budget to compensate mid-level staff near the national average for their roles, FIRE embarked on an unsustainable hiring campaign (of mostly frivolous administrative support positions) that doubled the staff over the course of a year. The organization is constantly letting talented folks with impressive credentials walk. I've seen several mission-aligned people with Ivy League degrees leave due to unfair compensation (the directors of policy reform, government relations, and litigation were paid less than the former HR woman). You’ll spin your wheels for a couple years, get irritated at the compensation, and then they’ll burn and churn by bringing in a recent graduate. Rinse and repeat. There is also an identity crisis at FIRE. Although anybody with enough brain power to blow their nose can see that the VAST majority of censorship is directed against conservatives, the organization is going to great lengths to cater to Leftists both in terms of branding and fundraising. They abandoned the fight against grooming and indoctrination in K-12 education despite the fact that it is the area of most need. This, among other things, has forced any conservative voices out of the organization and out of its leadership as FIRE continues its leftward grift. Lastly, the organization will not win in any meaningful sense due to its approach (policy reform, litigation, individual defense). It’s not simply enough to have a "watchdog" that puts out fires willy-nilly. There needs to be institutional pressure that disincentivizes those who commit censorship from doing so. Even if your defense is perfect, you will still lose the match if you don’t have an offense that scores any points, and I don’t know any honest observer who thinks that the state of free expression is better today than it was ten years ago.

There are many people that work here who demand their individual personalities be "massaged" on a daily basis. Those who complain the most tend to get paid attention to the most and placated. Senior management mostly work remotely or from home. Unless you are one of them, don't expect much face time with anyone above your pay grade. It is strange to be in a big office where no one really seems to be in charge. And even those more senior staff that show up to the office work behind closed doors most of the day. This company is obsessed with email. If you don't like the fact you will have to write down 95% of what you do and send it via email then don't work here. Meetings are unproductive and usually cancelled last minute. If you get someone on the phone most likely they will keep the conversation as short as possible because, yes you guessed it, they have to answer email. At least it used to be like this, but expect to work most evenings and a lot on the weekend. It won't be actual office work but trying to catch up on other work that you could have been doing if it were not for the constant barrage of emails. There was rarely an evening or weekend where I did not have to do some kind of work just to stay on top of my to-do list. Management has no idea how to handle priorities and time. This can get frustrating when work you need approved or passed along is back benched for the newest, ever changing priority. Managers will cancel your scheduled meetings if it simply inconveniences what they want to work on at any given time. Very little transparency. Upper management will make decisions without consulting more junior staff or at least seeking their opinion. Then those decisions are usually announced via an email with little to no expectation on why it was made. This can get frustrating especially when someone leaves then another staffer finds out their job has substantially changed without consideration for their professional desires and/or current workload. One last thing is that minor mistakes in work, even when it doesn't matter, are usually harshly punished and treated like the "end of the world" as far as seriousness. It won't get your fired but it will get you yelled at by your boss and could be held against you for any future raises and/or promotions.