Transform Rural India Foundation "Senior Management" Reviews

Likes

This organization is a breeding ground for toxic favoritism, with a culture that thrives on connections rather than competence. If you happen to be in someone's good books, you essentially don’t have to work. The institution runs on blatant nepotism, with favoritism institutionalized across all levels. Every team is riddled with pers onal alliances, particularly husband-wife duos, who manipulate the system to their advantage. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, the HR head is the wife of someone who is notorious for having the most complaints filed against him. This individual shamelessly threatens employees, saying, *"Your job is in my hands,"* creating a culture of fear and submission. Key positions are held by husband-wife teams, with power concentrated in their hands, leaving little room for accountability. The Managing Director plays favorites, promoting select individuals while assigning them oversight over others. This creates a hostile environment where promotions and scrutiny are weaponized to maintain control. The promise of a “non-hierarchical” structure is nothing but a facade. The hierarchy is glaringly obvious, even in trivial matters like vehicle allocations. Senior staff get luxury Innovas, juniors settle for hatchbacks, and associates are often left to travel by bus. Associates, despite their critical role on the ground, are excluded from any meaningful decision-making processes. Leadership remains disconnected, conducting only superficial field visits. The Managing Director, Anish, has no real understanding of the ground realities, as he never engages with associate practitioners, the backbone of the organization. The culture and climate within the organization are dire. The toxic favoritism not only demoralizes employees but also creates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Employees are perpetually scared—scared of losing their jobs, scared of retaliation, and scared for their future. Complaints are swept under the rug, and no effort is made to address the deep-rooted issues plaguing the workplace. To make matters worse, there’s no genuine attempt to build a supportive or inclusive environment. Any semblance of celebration or team-building is non-existent. Employees are forced to spend out of pocket for personal milestones like birthdays, as the organization refuses to invest in its people. Leadership is entirely absent when it comes to employee welfare, focusing only on securing funding and impressing external stakeholders. This institution is a prime example of everything wrong with organizational culture—favoritism, nepotism, exploitation, and a complete disregard for employee well-being. The facade they present to funders and the outside world is nothing but a well-crafted lie, hiding a decaying, toxic core. It’s not just an organization; it’s a systematic failure, built on fear, favoritism, and falsehoods....Read More

Dislikes

The organization operates on a foundation of false promises, particularly in its claims of fostering a non-hierarchical culture. This so-called "non-hierarchy" is a sham; the hierarchy is blatantly evident, even on their official platforms. Worse, by denying the existence of a hierarchy, they’ve unofficially handed power to their fav orites, enabling them to make decisions that are not only unethical but also inhumane and discriminatory, particularly against gender-inclusive practices. Transparency, which they tout as a core value, is non-existent. Communication within the organization is abysmal; no one communicates openly, and critical issues are swept under the rug. The Human Resources department is shockingly mediocre, staffed with individuals who lack merit but excel at favoritism. Meritocracy is dead, as hiring decisions are based on personal preferences rather than competence or qualifications<mark style="background-color: #fff5e4;">. The management’s expertise lies not in fostering growth or a healthy work culture but in faking it to corporate social responsibility (CSR) donors and funding agencies</mark>. They masterfully create an illusion of productivity and innovation while doing absolutely nothing of value within the organization itself. Their entire approach hinges on securing funds, as they believe funding alone equals organizational growth. Employee welfare is utterly neglected. Forget about fun activities or celebrations—even on your birthday, you’re expected to spend your own money. Festive occasions are ignored entirely, as the organization refuses to allocate any budget for team-building or morale-boosting activities. Incentives or benefits beyond work? Non-existent. The salary structure is another area rife with discrimination. There’s a deliberate policy of suppressing wages for talented employees while inflating paychecks for their favorites. This blatant exploitation and mismanagement reveal an organization not just flawed but fundamentally corrupt. It’s a place where mediocrity is rewarded, innovation is stifled, and the facade of integrity is all that keeps it afloat....Read More

Work Details

Work days: Monday to Saturday (Strict Timings)

Likes

TRI approach overlay idealistic and disconnected from the practical realities of development work. Transforming rural communities requires more than just passion and adventure it demand clear strategies, accountability and measurable result. The claim of a non-hierarchical, delibrative decision-making process may sound appealing, but in practice, such systems often leads to confusion, inefficiency and power struggles. Lofty ideals like "community-first sprit" and "absolute transparency" are meaning less without concrete mechanisms to ensure they translate into actionable impact. Professionals are not drawn by vague promises of independence or 'good packages'. they seek clarity, structure and tangible outcomes. The vision of TRI risks promoting chaos and frustration rather than delivering real changes....Read More

Dislikes

I would not recommend this organisation as a workplace. Leadership are full of biases, favouritism and mismanagement.

Work Details

Work days: Monday to Saturday (Strict Timings)

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within Country.

Likes

Unfortunately, my experience with the organisation was disappointing due to weak HR policies, poor administration, poor programmatic understanding, and a politically charged environment.

Dislikes

During my tenure with the organisation, I supported the PPIA but faced significant challenges due to poor leadership and lack of direction. The organisation lacked the strategic roadmap, clear pathways or defined health targets. to work towards. Recently, organisation has decided to foc us on "Neighbourhood of care" initiative. However, this initiative too lacks a clear roadmap or strategy for field intervention, even after a year of its introduction. There has been no clarity provided on how to operationalise this vision, and the suggestions from the team members have not been adequately considered or acknowledged. The leadership particularly the Health lead, has struggled to provide programatic direction or inspires the team effectively. unfortunately this has led a significant attrition of talented professionals, who found it challenging to work under such circumstances. these issues have severely hindered the organisation's ability to achieve the goals in the health domain. The Organisation's strategy document outlines health indicatiors that do not align with its interventions, raising questions about the purpose and coherence of the document. this misalingenment is not limited to health but extends to other domain as well. As a professional, it's disheartening to misuse of funders' resources on documentation of government initiatives and clerical tasks of government agencies, rather than driving meaningful impact....Read More

Work Details

Work days: Monday to Friday (Strict Timings)

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within Country.

Likes

Nothing is good with this organisation. I accidentally joined this organisation but very soon I realised that TRIF is not a place for true development professionals and I left the organisation.

Dislikes

TRIF running by two ex PRADANs Anish and Anirban who have good salesman skills to convince funders, but actually they increase TRIF corpus from funders money, not a single result seen is the field which is actually done by TRIF. they just tried to capture NRLM and Panchayat successful models a nd showcase these models with different lenses highlighted women leadership, community engagement in documents and making fool to Govt</mark>. and funders. in every workshops/meetings they parroting dialogs to some rural women and told them to speak in meetings but nothing is happening in actual. TRIF organisation in hijacked by some associate directors who always tried to manipulate the things and to save their position in organisation they always try that no other staff can stay here. Join TRIF is worst decision of my carrier. senior manager always told the new employees that TRIF is flat organisation but actually TRIF follow top to bottom approach....Read More

Work Details

Work days: Monday to Friday (Strict Timings)

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within Country.

Likes

People who leave are their best employees and they leave because their integrity and professionalism, these guys are wasting money of their funders and specially taking money for women and treating women like garbage, good place to work for men and no women should join this place.

Dislikes

I can go on and on about the worst ever culture and leadership I’ve been part of, they made me relocate giving a salary change of some 10% hike, but in reality you’ve to spend your own money for everything. They make you travel in bus and force to get bike to travel like sales job from here and there. Worst part is leadership, their Associate Directors and old employees like Ex-PRADAN are running the organization like this family business, no policy for performance so they just promote and support their favorite people. The company is full of insecure leadership at even state level, they don’t want people to come ahead and the organization keep promoting them as thought leaders but they just copy and paste different theories from other sources. I worked both in UP and MP, in UP they’ve a state lead who has no professional approach and talks to you threatening like do the job or seek new opportunity. His words, “If you don’t do it then be ready to see new opportunities”, even for leave he says I only take leave in Muharram and never, denying leave like it’s his personal property. Their government engagement is based on letter and giving clerical support, they just copy paste government data and show we did it to funders. Women are treated like shit, no sensitivity for gender needs, I was humiliated so often and words which were so unprofessional echo in my ears. Forced to transfer so many times, they also kept humiliating me for my identity. Very toxic place, people who are nice leave as soon as they get better opportunities. People who are sweet forget to speak here, very undemocratic place to work as they take decision and force you to follow it or you’ll have to leave. Their previous lead kept the fabric well but he was forced to national team and since then there is no lead or no conversation. They force you to travel to lucknow and do useless meetings, when asked for support from government lead then told that they do different work, personal staff members of bureaucrats using Bill and Melinda Gates Fund and their work and imapct is zero. In no CLF there’s any book and employees just and click pictures with government staff to show that they are working but it’s just fake marketing. In human way of conversation with youth and new employees as if all of us are subscribed to their personal and political views. Like lead glorifying Hamas terrorists and justifying violence. Same culture in MP also, I left UP because of toxic culture and same was there in MP. Here also my position was changed frequently and transferred randomly. Funding was taken back and they couldn't acquire new funds....Read More

Work Details

Work days: Monday to Saturday (Strict Timings)

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within City, Travel Within Country.

Likes

I like the people working here and the support they provide to each other emotionally and professionally

Dislikes

Leadership, it’s not at all good, they don’t promote people on basis of performance. There is no performance indicators. You can be judged anytime for anything even if it doesn’t suppose to be your job. So all in all, it’s bad work culture.

Likes

Nothing much, it is just a below average organisation. Not recommended.

Dislikes

Poor leadership, blame game by the supervisor. No clarity about job responsibilities.

Work Details

Work policy: 3 days/week from office

Work days: Monday to Friday (Flexible Timings)

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within Country.

Likes

There was a good opportunity to meet people and build personal relations with better opportunity to improve communication skill.

Dislikes

The work/project was not clear by the management and they were unable to provide anything to there members (Didi)

Work Details

Work timings: Flexible Timings

Work related travel: This job involves Travel Within City.