Is an NGO job really the dream? | Why I left the NGO, Dyrenes Alliance

Hello blog!

Like many people, I've always dreamed of making a difference in the world and creating more justice. Activism is a very central part of my core as a human being, and over the past decade I've done everything from socialist work, LGBTQIA+ activism, fundraising for human rights, animal rights activism and a whole host of other things. Therefore, the NGO industry has also been a very attractive place for me to find work. Combining paid work with being able to make a difference for something you are passionate about is something that very few people get to do, and working in an NGO seemed like the most obvious way to do just that.

I was therefore happy and felt incredibly grateful when in October 2019, at the age of 21, I got a student job as a local coordinator - and then a full-time position as a campaign manager from August 2022 - in the animal rights organization and youth association Dyrenes Alliance. An organization that, with around 11 local associations in Denmark and a million-dollar grant from the Danish Youth Council, is one of the better funded animal rights organizations in Denmark - and one of the only Danish places where you can work with and make a living from working for animal rights.

Since I became a vegetarian at 14 and a vegan at 17, I've been passionate about animal rights. It felt amazing for a Jutlander like me to come to Copenhagen and suddenly have a platform to make a difference for animals in the animal industry.

But unfortunately, the happiness didn't last. I would later find out that my previous idea of what would be a top tier dream job for me was simply too good to be true.

In this post, I will dive into the factors that influence the severe level of unhappiness in the NGO industry based on my own experience as a former employee of the animal rights organization Dyrenes Alliance for more than 4 years.

Let's get into it.

Picture of me and my girlfriend from one of my many small protests against turbo chickens that I held in front of various supermarkets as local coordinator for Dyrenes Alliance Frederiksberg (posters have been removed for legal reasons)

Alarming dissatisfaction in NGOs

The statistics speak for themselves. I am far from alone in feeling unhappy as an NGO employee. A 2018 survey conducted by the Danish union Dansk Magisterforening among their members shows that around one in three employees in NGOs state that the psychological working environment at their job is either poor or very poor. A figure that is twice (!) as high as the average across industries.

With those numbers, you might think: Well, even though more people in NGOs have unhealthy work environments, the majority of NGO employees still rate their work environment as good. In fact, 25% of the survey respondents answered "Neither" when asked to rate their psychological workplace, which is still a pretty lukewarm assessment - while only 34% answered "Good" and 12% "Very good".

At first glance, you might think that NGOs would be one of the places where employees have the highest levels of wellbeing. That's certainly not far from the idea I had myself. After all, NGOs are in the business of social justice, so it's reasonable to assume that passionate people who choose a career in the industry will be more aware of how individuals are doing - not only outside the organization, but also internally.

However, passion for fighting for justice and making a difference does not make you more qualified to run an organization or create healthy work environments.

The survey from the union Dansk Magisterforening showed that the majority of employees in the NGO industry point to the following 5 factors that have a negative impact on the psychological work environment at their workplace: Poor cooperation with management (which 82% point to), unclear expectations (71%), unclear tasks (68%), organizational changes (58%) and too much work pressure (51%). All factors I also very much recognize in Dyrenes Alliance. And at the beginning to the end of my employment in Dyrenes Alliance, it was the factor with the highest percentage, namely the collaboration with the management, that ultimately meant goodbye to the organization.

Is it unethical to critize an NGO?

Before we move on to the actual sequence of events that led up to my leaving the Dyrenes Alliance, I would like to comment on the vulnerable position of being a (former) employee and criticizing an NGO. When you work for a commercial company and are treated badly in the workplace, it can naturally make you feel guilty if you choose to go to your union, your colleagues or management about the problems you are experiencing - even if the criticism is entirely appropriate. As an employee, you can feel a deep sense of loyalty to your workplace, where you spend so many hours every week, and not least to your colleagues, who may also be your personal friends.

This sense of loyalty and guilt is turned up to 100 when you work for an NGO. In addition to feeling like you're going against your workplace, you may feel like you're criticizing the very cause that the NGO is working for. And you may be afraid that your criticism and standing up for your rights may have financial, social or legal consequences and end up harming the cause you work for.

Dén loyalitetsfølelse og dårlige samvittighed bliver skruet op til 100, når det en NGO, man er ansat i.

(Therefore, I would like to make a disclaimer and strongly emphasize that my criticism of Dyrenes Alliance is in no way a criticism of animal rights activism. Animal rights work is one of the things that matter most to me and is crucial for the future of animals in the animal industry. The fight for animal rights did not and will not end with Dyrenes Alliance).

When employees feel obligated to protect the reputation of their organization and cause, it can make them especially vulnerable. When speaking up for your rights and prioritizing your wellbeing can be seen as treacherous, selfish and "at the expense of the cause", it can be really hard to stand up for yourself. (And when you're met with the classic excuse of all excuses: "You should just be grateful for the opportunity to work on (insert justice issue here), it's not something everyone gets to do!"

Because of this, it can also be easier for NGO employers to tap into this deep loyalty and dedication of their employees and use it to get them to accept breaches of contract, deny their rights in the workplace, and generally accept conditions that they otherwise wouldn't - with the excuse that you should accept it "for the cause" or for the activist community. This was something that was clearly also the case in my experience with Dyrenes Alliance.

What also had an influence in Dyrenes Alliance was that the organization is not only an NGO, but also a youth association. For many of us, the association was also a social place that we felt very connected to - and not only that, for many of us, our jobs in the association were our first real "adult jobs". When you're young people who just want to make a difference in our new adult work, it can be difficult to know what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior on an experience. For example: Is it really normal to not get paid on time? Is it something you normally accept and are you "hysterical" if you complain about it?

This inexperience and ignorance can be easily exploited by an organization that employs a lot of good-hearted young people. And especially Dyrens Alliance's classification as a youth organization could - at least for me - be used as another reason to be more forgiving of the workplace, like: "Well, this isn't like a "real" workplace. It's just an activist community where money happens to be involved and people are doing the best they can."

The problem with this mindset is that management can use it as an excuse until they suddenly see it as more than just a "nice, equal, activism-based relationship" and use the power relationship between employer and employee to their advantage. No matter how much you pretend and talk as if your employment relationship is the same as doing voluntary activism and that you have an equal relationship, it doesn't make it true - no matter how nice it may feel to management. Being an employee is NOT the same as being a volunteer, and as a workplace, you have to abide by the requirements they have signed up to in employment contracts.

And if we were to play devil's advocate and say that activism for a good cause can be at the expense of employees' conditions. That employees can suffer as long as it helps the NGO make the biggest possible difference. Then I would point out that studies show that employees who feel happy and secure in their workplace have significantly higher productivity than others. So even if you're only thinking about the good cause, one of the very best things you can do as an NGO to achieve results is to create a healthy and safe working environment.

Everyone, whether they work in an NGO, government institution or for-profit company, deserves to be safe at work and have their rights respected <3

Our experience in Dyrenes Alliance

To understand our experience in Dyrenes Alliance, I would like to refer to the video that my now former colleague, Maria, has recorded. Here she describes very accurately and well the painful sequence of events that led up to me (and several others) choosing to leave Dyrenes Alliance. I 100% support everything Maria says in her video and can confirm that all the experiences she refers to are completely true - and I see no reason to repeat what Maria has already explained so well and accurately (and it would also be an endlessly long post). After watching the video, you can read my additional words to Maria's description, which you can find here below the video <3

Watch the video here:

Additional comments to Maria's video

Refusal of dialogue

As Maria also mentioned, we were repeatedly refused to have a dialog with management. I found it incredibly difficult. Right up until the very last moment, my goal and dream had been to resolve the communication conflict I felt had arisen between management and us employees, so that we could be open about our financial situation and stand together in the association to solve it. The management are people I've known for all 4 years I've worked in Dyrenes Alliance, with whom I've shared my everyday life and with whom I had a really good relationship. And I had a feeling that if we could just talk to each other, maybe we could learn something and there would be a chance to resolve the situation. A colleague and I finally managed to get a meeting scheduled with management at the end of September - on September 29th, the day before I ended up resigning. The meeting ended up being canceled fifteen minutes before without further explanation.

Union

If anyone is familiar with the rules around late or non-payment of wages, you're probably wondering: Why on earth didn't you make a "påkrav" and get out of the situation?

For those of you who don't know what a "påkrav" (which I didn't know before this situation), it's a letter you can send to your employer, for example, if they don't pay your wages on time. It gives a date set by your union for when your wages must be paid by or you have the right to terminate your employment. Terminating your employment means that, unlike a normal notice of termination, you can stop working immediately - and the employer must immediately pay you wages for the length of your normal notice period.

It took some time before any of us contacted our union about the delayed salary payment. As I described earlier in this blog post, we felt an incredible amount of loyalty and dedication to the union, which can make it really difficult as an NGO employee to stand up for your rights because you are afraid of potentially compromising the cause you are fighting for. But as many days passed and the impact on the personal finances of several colleagues became more and more severe and unbearable, we contacted our unions. They urged us all to file a claim. We were all initially very reluctant to do so because we were afraid of the consequences for Dyrenes Alliance.

But our unions insisted that it was the right thing to do, as it could have fatal consequences for us. The rules are such that if you as an employee do not make a demand when your workplace does not pay your salary, it is legally perceived as "accepting" the non-payment of salary. If Dyrenes Alliance were to end up not being able to pay us the wages we had not received at the time, we would not be entitled to receive them or any form of compensation for what we had not received. had not received. With a demand letter, you protect yourself from this situation, as you are then entitled to compensation for the missed wages from the Danish National Guarantee Fund.

With the support of our unions, I and five other employees ended up submitting a demand letter to Dyrenes Alliance on September 12. With the advice of the unions, we stated that if we did not receive our salary by September 15 at 5 pm, we would have the right to terminate our employment. Immediately after the demand was sent, we received an email back from Dyrenes Aliance stating that we would receive our salary before the deadline. But on September 15 at 5 pm, the salary had not yet arrived in our bank accounts.

But did we start the process of terminating our employment? No, neither of us did. Despite the frustrations of the situation, the passion, dedication and loyalty to the organization kept us going. And that's what can be so difficult about NGOs: you can make your employees stay, persevere and suffer personal consequences, no matter how much their contracts are breached, because they want to protect the organization they work for so badly.

It wasn't until September 19th that I couldn't take it anymore and took steps to terminate the employment relationship. But before I could send it, the salary had finally been paid into my account.

Resignation

Unlike Maria, I was lucky enough to resign before I could be fired or dismissed. On September 30th, I submitted my resignation, giving me one month's notice, during which I was on sick leave. A few hours after I resigned, I received a written warning on the basis that I had been "disloyal to management". In the evening of the same day, I received an email stating that I had been excluded from Dyrenes Alliance without reference to any specific reasons.

Picture of my desk from a normal day at the office

What's next?

It has been surreal to go from being completely immersed in a job, an association and a campaign - constantly thinking about how I could improve my work, how I could contribute to making the association stronger and be involved in starting new projects - to suddenly pulling the plug. As campaign manager, I had single-handedly prepared, researched, launched and kick-started a new campaign, Free Fins, with the aim of creating better conditions for Danish farmed fish. To suddenly find myself without what had felt like a huge responsibility for over a year was both relieving, but also incredibly strange and heartbreaking. It still makes my stomach hurt to think about all the plans I never got to realize, so I try to do what I can to not dwell on it too much.

In addition to the grief of everything I have lost, there is also a huge sense of exhaustion from the insane amount of sleep deprivation, stress and anxiety this situation has put me through, and I am still recovering my energy and healing from everything that has happened.

Just as breaking up with a partner can break your heart and make you lose faith in love, I feel the same can happen with activist communities: you can lose faith in them and be afraid of ever finding one again. Creating a sustainable, healthy and rewarding activist community can be incredibly difficult to build, and it all still feels too new for me to dare to "fall in love again". To give in to the fact that a community genuinely wants the best for me and the world. This is also one of the reasons why I'm starting this blog: To have a platform where I can write texts and share thoughts without necessarily having to go through an organization. That sometimes it can just be me, my passion and desire that drives the work <3

So what's next? I am fortunate enough to have a Bachelor's degree, but not a Master's degree. Therefore, I'm in a position where I don't have to worry about facing unemployment, but instead can easily jump back into the education system and further my education in an exciting program. As I've written about here on the blog, I'm in the process of making college applications to some American master's programs, and in addition to that, I've also applied to a master's program here in Denmark (guess which one).

I've always been a person who likes to be in control, have a plan and a direction. Therefore, it feels quite exposed and vulnerable that I'm now in a situation where I'm not even sure what's going to happen in my work/study life over the next year. But I'm incredibly happy that I have the time and space over the next few months to feel, immerse myself in what I find valuable, recharge - and make room for new dreams to grow <3

2 Danish animal rights initiatives I would recommend supporting (and volunteering for) <3

I want to end the post on a positive note and recommend cool Danish animal rights initiatives I would recommend supporting (and volunteering for) <3

I myself am a monthly supporter of both my recommendations.

Dyrenes Frie Farm - https://dyrenesfriefarm.dk/

An Animal Sanctuary. An oasis where production animals that would otherwise be mistreated and killed in the animal industry are given the opportunity to unfold their natural instincts and live the rest of their lives in a protected environment.

Dyreretshuset - https://dyreretshuset.dk/

An activist hub / animal rights house run entirely by volunteers doing activism and civil disobedience for animal liberation.

Thank you for reading <3

Love,

Louise Anna