Smart, but dysfunctional from the top down - Anonymous employee New America Employee Review

2.0
Apr 13, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working at New America is a great opportunity to work with driven, intelligent people. You'll be surrounded by writers, journalists, and researchers who would on a very wide range of topics, so you'll be exposed to more industries than you would just about anywhere else.

Cons

Let's start at the top and go down. New America has a history of distant CEOs, but the latest one wins the dubious distinction of being the most distant and absent. This creates power vacuums not unfamiliar within the organization, with people scrambling to bolster their "name" in the industry to grab the tastiest power, regardless of their ability to wield it. The scrambling usually takes the form of stepping on the heads of one's colleagues to rise to positions they will inevitably fail in. This creates major animosity between staffers, turning good employees into "ambitious" ones. One can actually witness this sort of culture being cultivated. The organization also doesn't practice what it preaches in terms of work/life balance or employee compensation (not always). Administration straddles a strange line of letting employees be heard about policies, and then ignoring them completely. People, if you want to set a standard and are going to do it anyway, just do it. At least employees and potential employees will know where they are. This is particularly frustrating for junior staff, who are often very loud, are told "we hear you" and are then shown that they are not. On the macro level, as others have said, New America is like so many other think tanks in DC. It's not a "think tank," it's a "name tank." The round robin of employment between similar organizations is often based on name alone, and those who are hired based on name know they can do no wrong. They are benefit to the organization based on their existence alone. This creates a rift between the workers and the Names in terms of organizational benefits.

Explore other reviews about New America

5.0
Oct 27, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Experience as an employee is very dependent on host program/lab. Org structure supports policy, advocacy, and academic writers. No major top-down limitations which allows for depth of work across program areas (education, technology, benefits, etc).

Cons

Not great support from central comms for crisis communications.

1
3.0
Feb 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people were good co-workers.

Cons

There were people I didn't care for.

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