National Math and Science Initiative Reviews

Terrible compensation and culture. Incompetent leadership. Blatant nepotism. The current situation is unbelievable. There are 7 C-level employees (CEO, CIO, etc) for a 70 person staff. Although each C-level employee gets paid a six-figure salary (those salaries are openly posted on their website), you'd be hard pressed to find any one of them in the office on any given day of the week. While they all receive copious bonuses, HR has continued to coincidentally re-vamp their employee evaluation rubrics so that almost nobody is granted raises due to "under performing according to the new rubric" (there is a new one every year). That is, of course, unless you are one of the many new staff who are related to the C-suite staff either by blood or by friendship. In that case, you might get a raise and a promotion within your first 4 months of employment (all while "working remotely"). On top of all of this, there are more contractors and consulting firms than even a private corporation might employ. Everything from basic communications to strategic planning seems beyond the skills of the senior staff, so they dump hundreds of thousand of dollars into contractors and consultants every year. Of course, all of these contractors are coincidentally old friends with the C-level staff. The sad thing is, none of this is a secret. All of the capable and high-value staff are leaving as fast as they can and being very open about it. The office is uncomfortably quiet and barren on any given day. There have even been new employees that have turned around and walked out within a few weeks of witnessing this mess. Unless you are related to one of the members of the leadership team by blood (or marriage) or are a close acquaintance, there is no future for you here.

Where did it all go wrong? The mission is definitely worthy, but the evolution of the company has not been pretty and has also been a huge waste of donor funding in many ways. I would never recommend for anyone to work for this company. The actual work that goes on in interfacing with teachers and schools is wonderful. However, inside the office, the toxic atmosphere, the backstabbing, the lack of management, the lack of communication and the politics are stifling. Harassment and bullying by managers was rewarded. I witnessed so many great, brilliant people treated so very badly. Top management are too many and are grossly overpaid for a non-profit. HR Department is not supportive of employees. Overall, the worst job I ever had. What a nightmare!