Disillusioned UK charity worker here with a little list
Crap wages – Live on pats on the back
Crap managers – The only way to get a half decent wage is to get a promotion, don't worry you don't actually have to be good with people
Crap recruitment – shoddy job descriptions, offer jobs that aren't funded yet, poor communication, HR seems incapable of reading the whole email you sent..
CEOs – the only ones on a decent wage but they are martyrs because they could get paid sooo much better in the private sector
Mental health support – Better staffing? Training? Team meetings? Allocated time to actually wade through your emails? No chance! But here's a helpline and there's boardgames once a month in the meeting room.
Do no evil? – Unregulated for the most part and do-gooders making it up as they go along, forget Safeguarding, basic training, client confidentiality, even the disabled toilet hasn't got a working alarm cord in it!
Organised – roll with the chaos, never mind if you have caring responsibilities, a disability, or just want a good work life balance. We're too busy doing good yo care about our staff!
I know none of this is unique to the charity sector but there seems to be a bit of a lethal combination.
The only long termers I know working on the front line in the charity sector raise no issues, don't participate in team meetings, don't try to change ir improve anything – and why would you? Nothing's going to change anyway, save yourself the trouble