To make a super long story short, the non profit I worked for has staff with college degrees living on food stamps while the director makes a hefty salary. The organization also does not offer any benefits besides PTO. No medical, dental, anything. Several of the staff voiced to the management team (which I was a part of) that they can’t make ends meet and might have to walk. They felt unheard and unseen.
Part of my job was volunteer retainment. To me, if your employees aren’t valued and respected, then there is no way we will retain good volunteers. I sent out a survey to our 18-person staff asking “what would make our organization a better place to work?” “What is your stress level on a scale of 1-10?” “On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy your job?”
My only goal was to get employee feedback. I never promised anyone anything, but the staff knew that I was in their corner and I had several long time employees thank me for standing up for them.
The organization recruits and trains volunteers to advocate for children in the foster care system. We needed someone to advocate for our staff. As a manager, I felt that was part of my job. The director did not like that. Here we are. The director specifically mentioned that I was fired with cause so that I will be unable to collect unemployment.
Any advice is appreciated.