Toxic Work Culture and Terrible Experience - Teaching Fellow Teach For India Employee Review

Before I write this section, I would like to give a Trigger Warning as it contains mentions of harassment I joined the fellowship last year (2022) but unfortunately, I had to leave the fellowship before completing one year because of the lack of support from the organization and their extremely insensitive behaviour. I was harassed within the school premises of the school I was placed in but no action was taken by the organization despite multiple complaints by me. I informed the respective authorities as soon as possible but not even once did anyone from the organization visited the school and addressed it with the authorities in person. Instead, I was made to recall the traumatic incident multiple times over Zoom meetings which triggered my mental health to the point I fell sick and had to take a career gap for months. Apart from this, we (me and other fellows) were disrespected and humiliated by the school authorities every single day and whenever we raised the issue, the organization replied that they will talk, and hold a meeting but it was all futile. Instead, the organization always sided with the school authorities and agreed to the unrealistic demands made by them (doing administrative work of non-TFI section as well in addition to the usual teaching and organization work) despite our complaints. My experience at Teach For India has been really terrible and I sincerely do not wish any other fellow in future to have the same experience that I had. Therefore, before you join the fellowship, I would suggest you talk to other fellows as well, know their experience, and then make your decision instead of just believing TFI’s “compassion, collaborative, communication’ narrative”. I wish you all the best in all your future endeavours and I hope you don’t make any decision that you regret later.