Why Do Nonprofits Treat Their Employees Like Crap? (Part I: A U.S. Perspective)

Recently, I’ve been outraged and saddened by stories about two well-respected nonprofits that apparently treat their employees like crap: Hispanics United of Buffalo and the Soundville Family YMCA.

The Facebook Firings at Hispanics United

First up was the article about how Hispanics United fired five employees after they went on Facebook to criticize working conditions at the organization. So not only were the employees dealing with a heavy workload and staffing issues, but the organization didn’t even have the decency to mediate the situation internally and work with the staff to improve job satisfaction. Instead, they chose to get rid of the dissenters. I’m really wondering who made that call, because with all the negative press, finding great new talent to replace them will undoubtedly prove to be a challenge. Their website boasts Hispanics United of Buffalo as the “Heart of the Community” since 1989, but their actions actually show an icebox where their heart used to be.

(Yes, I just quoted an Omarion song. Don’t worry. There’s more where that came from.)

Make sure you read Maria Smith’s brief, but opinionated response to the Hispanics United debacle. (By the way, Maria’s is definitely a new blog to watch! Her commentary on nonprofits, arts and culture is smart and thoughtful, with a pinch of sass, just the way I like it.)

YMCA Doesn’t Want to Give Workers Paid Sick Days

Then yesterday, the Nonprofit Quarterly reported on the Connecticut YMCA that, instead of celebrating landmark legislation that would mandate sick days for service workers, they fought to ensure that their organization was EXEMPT from this ruling. According to the article, the YMCA claimed it would break them to offer their employees paid sick days.

One Senator said he would have had serious misgivings about the bill without that exemption because he had been approached by the Soundville Family YMCA in Branford which feared cutting programs or staff if they had to conform. Presumably the workers they are talking about would be working with children and seniors and disabled populations among others so it makes sense that the community would want them to come to work – sick or not.

The most ironic thing about the YMCA story? They actually have an ENTIRE organizational initiative called “Activate America,” a program to promote HEALTHY living and well-being. Crazy, right?

Activate America is the YMCA’s bold approach to directly address our nation’s growing health crisis. Our mission compels us to transform the way we work, both internally and externally, to support all kids, adults, families and communities in their pursuit of well-being in spirit, mind and body.

Yet, no sick days for your employees, huh?

The Impact of Nonprofit Hypocrisy

Clearly, this type of thing really, really pisses me off. Why? Because I know that nonprofits are so vital to the health and growth of this country, yet the very principles they stand for get called into question every time organizations take actions like this.

Every day, nonprofits have the opportunity to live out their values – not just in public, but in private, too. Folks in the community look to see whether “do gooders” are really walking the talk of social change or if they’re all about the money and power just like many politicians and corporations who don’t always have the interests of the people at heart. And what it comes down to is the sad truth that nonprofits like the YMCA don’t give a damn about their sick employees and Hispanics United are firing people for venting on Facebook. On the one hand, nonprofits do important work to help people, yet on the other, they seem to be the ultimate hypocrites when it comes to the way they treat the people they employ to carry out said work.

I, for one, have questions.

Is this really the kind of change we want to see in the world? What would Gandhi say? Or maybe the real question here is whether we can honestly consider these kinds of organizations to be “doing good in the community” when they are blatantly screwing their staff. Is the staff not considered part of “the community?”

Weigh in, folks. Would love to know what you think about this. How can the nonprofit sector improve in this area? What might be the board’s role here?

Also read: Why Do Nonprofits Treat Their Employees Like Crap? (Part II: A UK Perspective)

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Socialchangediva

Who operates the machine behind the curtain. For me, its an abuse of passion at work with nonprofits. And one that as as social change becomes more permanent in other sectors, nonprofits may have to address their ways.

http://www.rosettathurman.com/ Rosetta Thurman

I think you’re right about “abuse of passion” in nonprofits. Organizations know that the mission is the draw for people, so they’re milking it for their own means. Some would call that smart business, but I tend to see it as exploitation in this case.

http://twitter.com/DeliaChristina DeliaChristina

I agree. I used to work for a well-known, historical women’s org. Our mission to support women and eradicate racism fueled a lot of good work. You couldn’t find a more dedicated or hardworking staff. But it was clear that we were supposed to be happy with our mission work – nevermind we were burning out, were grossly underpaid, under appreciated and could actually qualify for public aid in some cases. More and more, I think nonprofit orgs need to rethink their mission and concentrate on providing opportunities for excellence – on behalf of the communities they serve *as well as* the people they employ. An internal culture that’s focused on this wouldn’t face these sorts of issues.

Anonymous

I love your comment about “providing opportunities for excellence” in constituents. So many organizations perpetuate the roles of “haves” and “charity cases.” It is actually degrading to the constituent communities and individuals. (And I know exactly what organization you work for; I once worked for them, too!)

http://twitter.com/MsB616 Bunmi Akinnusotu

Unfortunately the interests and needs of donors, volunteers, board members, and anyone who “invests” in the organization, comes before the work conditions of the employees. Any challenges or conflicts with these individuals and institutions are dubbed “learning opportunities” for us and we’re basically asked to suck it up or act like nothing is wrong for the sake of wanting to please social investors. At the end of the day, we’re asking everyone in the organization to change they way they think and work. This is hard no matter where you go.

I think a solution is to start with recruiting staff and board members who “get it”, stating clear values to outside and internal consituents, and drawing a clear line about what will and will not be tolerated. From there, EVERYONE, including the board, should be held accountable by the leaders of that organization without fear of losing money or whatever. For every non-profit, the question is how far are you willing to go and willing to lose, to keep good people around and carry out your mission. Using the analogy of the drummer and the dancer…it’s the dancer that leads the beat of the drummer. Not the other way around. Non-profits need to better manage their dancing and who they let beat THEIR drums.

barb

Typical example of where an organization, under the guise of the work that they do, claim they need not abide by the other rules of good behavior or good business. Where they expect, ney demand, that services be provided for free or at a discounted rate and where they pay out nothing or reduced sums because what they are doing is so ‘good’. Baloney. It’s like the bully in the school yard getting you to do something for them because of the privilege of being noticed by them in public or not harrassed by them – no different.
http://twitter.com/kirstenbullock Kirsten Bullock

Oh boy – not sure I should get started on this one . In order to figure out what to do, I think we need to determine what the root cause is.

Is it an idea that nonprofits are best run by volunteers? Is it a perception that if you’re working at a nonprofit you should only be able to scrape by on what you earn? Is it just taking advantage of people who are passionate about what they do (as socialchangediva suggested)? Is it because so many people fall in to nonprofit work without any formal training regarding nonprofits, so assume that no special knowledge is needed? A combination of the above?

I wish I had the answer – it’s too prevalent an issue in nonprofits to ignore! Thanks for once again bringing up a tough issue.
http://parisianfeline.wordpress.com Tatiana

I am not involved with non-profit work personally, so I don’t have much experience in the way a business is supposed to run, but perhaps the people who run these organizations operate on the premise that the good suffer and the bad prevail. In our culture, the people who contribute the most to our country; like teachers, are paid the least amount of money.

To me, it seems that non-profits exist as an antithetical to for-profit organizations who are all about making a quick buck. That schism is placed there mentally, and add to that the fact some of the world’s most well-known “do gooders”, Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi – didn’t live in palaces, lavished in precious gems and women. This idea that you must suffer (or at least not prosper) financially as a “do gooder” seemed entrenched in some people’s minds.

It’s why artists suffer – or at least people have that association – but business persons prosper. Even if no one says it, I think people associate doing good with suffering and being poor and being evil with riches and happiness.

So maybe these non-profits operate on that mentality in some way.
http://twitter.com/blackatworkblog blackatwork

Whoa! Did I just get a shout out from nonprofit rockstar Rosetta Thurman?? BOOM! It’s a good day in America. And yet still a sad day for nonprofits when Hispanics United of Buffalo and CT YMCA are in the news, NOT for solving problems or for effective management, but for misfortune and mishap.

To your questions though, nonprofits that run like large corporate machines (and the exist in every industry) are not necessarily filled with do-gooders. In general, I have a feeling that the age of the do-gooder as a nonprofit professional is coming to an end. This is good because that means do-gooders can be found in more than one sector and nonprofit professionals will get off the high horse of having done good and be about the business of doing good well.
http://twitter.com/MsQuarter Mandi Lindner

I think part of it also stems from funders. Tell your donors you’re instituting pay raises for hardworking staff (even though a 3% raise is still below the level of inflation and on non-livable wages besides), or providing health care or other benefits, and there’s an immediate backlash that the dollars aren’t going directly into programs. Everyone wants to fund the programs, but no one wants to fund the staff who run those programs (there’s more of an “admin v. program” stigma here, but I hope you see what I’m saying). Lower wages and benefits and maltreatment lead to NPs not being able to attract talent, which leads to a nonprofit being run in an inefficient, ineffective manner with costly high turnover.

I’m not saying it’s possible or even preferable for a NP to reward employees to the same level a for-profit does, but there needs to be thoughtful balance. I think it would make great strides toward balance if our perceptions of the value of NP staff in regards to budget and funding were changed.

Anonymous

I think there are managerial ways around this. (Perhaps this is a management development issue as much as a culture issue.) The difference between a full-time $30K admin who does data entry in a high-cost of living city and a $30K person who can set up an interactive database system and work half-time does not change the admin/program ratio.

Judy Anderson

What you are talking about is what I call the “Culture of Appreciation”. What does it feel like to work in the organization–and do they value people as a team? When we talk about diveristy, we must consider the importance of providing a positive working environment (with benefits) so that single parents, folks with kids or aging parents, those who have college loans and mortages, those with car loans…and yes, those who are grappling with health challenges can afford to work in the nonprofit sector (emotionally as well as finanically). Thank you.
Anonymous

One example of a board that helped: I was on a board that directed the ED to conduct a “true living wage” study for our area and brought all staff salaries up to that level.

Byamelia

They’d never do that at the nonprofit where I work in Seattle–no one cares that staff isn’t paid a living wage. It’s like it’s your fault for working there to begin with, when you’re presented with salary info during interview process and still accept the job. Of course, no one mentions up front that raises are nonexistent. It’s so misleading, and a total joke. . .on the employee, of course.

Hue Nguyen

I think sometimes, orgs treat their employees like crap because the employees treat themselves like crap and the org has such poor management and leadership in place that they just don’t notice. Non-profit folks need to stop over-extending themselves and burning out because they eventually create an unsustainable culture at the org where employers expected more and more from them.
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http://twitter.com/jpatnosh jpatnosh

As always your posts make me think, so thank you for that. I would say though that in every profession there are outliers who present poor pictures of an industry or profession (and then those that present such ‘rosy’ pictures they are unbelievable in comparison). There are plenty of days that I am frustrated coming home from work for how I was treated or was put into an annoying situation, but those are greatly outnumbered by the positive experiences and the “YES!” moments. I would be interested in seeing the flip version of the column one day asking ‘what is working’, or ‘why do you love your job’. Sometimes as non-profit leaders we feel the way to make it better is to change what is not working, rather than build upon what is working.
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