Amnesty International’s 'toxic culture' of bullying

Written by David Fletcher 28 Feb 2019
Amnesty International’s 'toxic culture' of bullying

A review was launched into working practices at Amnesty International after two staff members, Gaetan Mootoo and Rosalind McGregor, committed suicide last year. The review found that ‘organisational culture and management failures’ were the root cause of deep staff unhappiness in Amnesty’s ‘toxic culture’ of workplace bullying. Their efforts to address its problems were described as ‘ad hoc, reactive, and inconsistent’, and the senior leadership team was described as out-of-touch, incompetent and callous. There was bullying, harassment, sexism, racism, and poor management. Decentralising the organisation from its global headquarters in London had caused unnecessary turmoil and compounded job pressures. Seven management team members acknowledged that there was a climate of tension and mistrust, and have offered to resign.

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