Global Affairs Canada

Overall, working at Global Affairs Canada is good. The pay is decent, benefits are available, vacation days, and there are teleworking opportunities (the HQ office is set to switch to a hybrid model soon). The work is also interesting and relates to a lot of the things you'll see on the news, which makes it feel important.

This is not the place for you if you crave a fast-paced environment. To be fair, this is dependent on the team, but even on the busier teams I've been on there is not that much to do. All work has to go through many levels of approval before it can be finalized, which can be annoying when you're just reproducing pre-approved lines from a separate document your team already put together.

I also find that in terms of diversity, GAC hires a diverse set of employees but they are mostly employed in casual and shorter term contracts. The vast majority of management and senior officials do not reflect an international department, and if you are racialized (or simply not ignorant) you will likely cringe at a lot of ministry-wide events and trainings. This isn't really different than most other work environments, but it goes to say if you expected more of the federal government don't hold your breath.

It is also not a great place for you if you are looking to advance in your career at a steady rate. Competitions for jobs garner a lot of interest, and your opportunities often limited by your job classification (e.g., EC-01, FS-02, CO-03...) -- pay attention to this when applying. You can check the salary range for any classification online as it is public information. Pay is capped for each classification, so to make more money you need to either move up or move to a different classification. This is limited by available opportunities, and usually you will need to enter a competition. 

You may run into problems with your pay as well -- I have for every contract I have had. Last year the pay department realized they had forgotten to tax me for almost a whole year, and then started those payments suddenly without any communication. It was a whole mess, and all I got was an "I'm sorry." 

The contracts are also not ideal. You may need to be in the department for a while before you get an indeterminate contract. Otherwise, you are stuck with casual contracts (which limit you to 90 working days per calendar year) or term contracts (which can have longer ranges up to 4 years). I do find that whenever your contract is coming to a close, colleagues tend to be very willing to help you secure another one in any way they can.

This was a difficult place to work. There were smart and capable people, and the work itself could be interesting, but the day-to-day environment was not healthy in my experience.

Workplace behaviour issues were a major concern. Concerns about harassment, disrespectful treatment, and poor workplace dynamics did not seem to be handled in a strong or effective way. It often felt like employees were expected to tolerate the situation and continue delivering the work.

Workload was also an issue. Long hours were treated as part of the job, and unpaid overtime felt normalized. For anyone considering a role here, I would pay close attention to the team, management culture, workload expectations, and how employee concerns are actually handled.

Prestigious department with good benefits (pension, paid leave, insurance) and generally flexible for parents. The work is interesting, diverse, and you can work with some really smart people. Your colleagues first and foremost make or break your enjoyment, with your manager being second. However, despite being supposedly based on meritocracy, there is much nepotism.  Jobs, promotions and advancement can be fairly politicised, despite official processes.  Diversity is lacking, and managers can really suck and not much is done but shuffling them around unless there is SERIOUS misconduct. I've witnessed harassment multiple times. 

Global Affairs Canada is like many government departments, it has it's good and bad points. 

THE GOOD
- Stable work environment
- Striving to help employees with work/life balance
- Good salary and benefits

THE BAD
- Bureaucracy (red tape, approval process) can be limiting 
- Workplace is in transition to more a flexible environment (teleworking, alternative work arrangements) but still has far to go
- Often have staffing issues that make for a heavy/stressful work load

I love working at Global Affairs, every one was very helpful in welcoming and helping me to get familiarize with everyone and I was offer help if I needed it. Every one was very helpful my manager and super I went above and beyond to help me feel like part of the team

A typical day at work is very productive since people interact frequently. The has been a lot to learn in this workplace since the system is very big. It has a diverse work culture. Even though some challenges may be included in understanding system applications flowing though and well as problem solving in an ordinary way, learning and applying new knowledge and experiences can be the most enjoyable part of the job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part is you work with respectable 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
If you have a daily responsibility's about your family and you have to  travel

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They are friendsly  in the work and flexible time 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working from morning until afternoon

Poor management culture, lack of fairness in hiring processes, corupted culture compared to other federal departments and agencies.  Would not recommend

What is the best part of working at the company?
Nothing. No best or good parts of working there

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The "management", unorganized and unprofessional

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Terrible. Management doesn't know what they are doing

Where working remote from a foreign country is not a problem. Hours can be flexible and arrangements can be made, as long as you do your hours. Overall good working conditions and working in international development you feel like you're working towards helping people. It's a good feeling.

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