My resignation

My resignation from the CEO position was driven by frustration that had been building up for 2 years due to the Board’s lack of response to my requests regarding a proper employment contract. My resignation was my final cry for justice, for a bit of respect to be shown to me.

And most importantly: I was ready within 30 days of submitting my resignation to sit down and talk, to come to an agreement together and return to work.
However, the Board members showed no goodwill to resolve the situation for the best interest of the organization.

How was it in the beginning?

My first pay for work as the CEO was received in 2018, and it was modest money considering the amount of work. I was not satisfied with this contract because it was a service contract and both the number of hours and the hourly rate were very low compared to other positions in different organizations, considering the scope of tasks I had, which I expressed multiple times during discussions with the Board. I accepted this contract proposed by the Board on the condition that when there are more funds available in the organization, I would receive a normal contract respecting my knowledge, skills, and the actual time dedicated to work.

Furthermore, I had a second contract solely for addiction counselling (I am a qualified addiction counsellor with a diploma) for 10 hours per week, which was funded by external funders initially from HSE, and later from the Gambling Awareness Trust from 2019 to 2023. Under this contract, I conducted individual and group therapy sessions in Polish language.

It should be noted that from 2015 to 2018, as a Company Director, I did not receive any salary except for travel expenses reimbursement because there were no funds in the organization, and I fully accepted it because I cared about the organization’s development and the people.

Throughout all these years, I sat and wrote grant applications during the nights, and I secured funding for the organization’s activities, built relationships with funders, and secured partners for projects. This is how we managed to carry out the first European project and obtain funds for employing staff. I did everything according to the principle of putting the organization and the people first, and myself last.

I taught this to my Board, who was pleased that everything was working well, and the organization was growing.

My contract – ongoing requests

In 2020, for the first time during a board meeting, I brought to the attention of the Board that I would like to revise the terms of my work and receive a normal contract – my request was left unanswered.
I repeated my requests on various occasions, but without any result.

I asked again for a contract revision from 2021, and then from November 2021, I formally included these issues in my regular monthly CEO reports, where I pointed out to the Board my situation and requested it to be addressed.

Below is the content of the email (sensitive data unrelated to the topic has been redacted):

I wanted to work as a contractor for delivery of counselling  like most therapists in Ireland, and have a normal contract of employment as the leader and CEO of the organization for fair compensation with limited scope of duties and hours. I didn’t have extravagant financial expectations – I just wanted my work to be respected.

I must emphasize that as the CEO, I had a service contract for 20 hours per week, and unfortunately, the scope of duties and number of responsibilities was immense.

I worked the duties of five people:

1. HR specialist – managing personnel, leaves, payroll preparation, development, education, and training for staff
2. PR specialist – acting as a spokesperson, managing all social media and website in multiple languages, conducting interviews and providing materials to radio and press
3. IT specialist – I had to handle website issues, prepare registration forms, manage the CRM system and customer databases
4. Project management specialist and main fundraiser – I had to prepare budgets, monitor them, submit new grant applications, and ensure their accountability
5. Finally, as the CEO of the organization

And all of this in 20 hours per week for €20 per hour, without any social security coverage such as contributions, paid leave, or sick leave.

Isn’t it humiliating?

In reality, I worked around 80 hours per week for years, often overnight and on weekends. I meticulously recorded all overtime hours. To this day, I have not been paid for overtime worth almost €6000, and even after resigning, I have not been able to take those hours as days off.

For example, here are the average CEO rates in the non-profit sector for full-time positions:

So the average hourly rate in Ireland for my role should be at least €41.

As a rule, the main role of every CEO in organizations in Ireland is to act as a leader and focus solely on that – motivating people, promoting the organization, and overseeing its operations.

I raised this issue with the Board – I should be dealing with completely different matters as the CEO. This was clearly indicated by an independent consultant hired by Rethink Ireland, who prepared a report at the end of 2022.

I should have been relieved of duties and focused on promoting the organization at the national level.

In my monthly reports to the Board, I monitored issues regarding my contract and workload. I expressed the need for additional human resources: an Operations Manager and a dedicated Finance officer. The Board remained passive to my requests. Additionally, issues regarding contracts for other individuals in the organization and decisions by the Board were also neglected, and many people were not receiving contracts.

I’ve had enough

The Board ignored my requests – they took advantage of the fact that I was emotionally attached to the organization and that for years I had been running it for free or in exchange for inadequate compensation for the amount of work I put in. When in December 2022, I already threatened that I had had enough and would leave the job after a very difficult year, during which I developed new projects for Ukraine, the Board took superficial actions and very slow negotiations. Email from December 6 below (personal and sensitive data redacted):

I was already at the end of my rope. Exhausted from the workload, overwhelmed by the lack of support, it was then, with the advice of my counselling  supervisor, that I seriously considered quitting.
Earlier, one of the most renowned coaches and mentors in Ireland, who had led major NGOs such as Trocaire, as part of a coaching program I participated in, clearly told me that I was not respected by my Board, that I was excessively burdened with work, and that I should seriously consider leaving my job.

At this point, I was burnt out, but I still had hope because I loved the people involved in the organization and the work itself.
I sat down for discussions with the Chairman of the Board, and we tentatively outlined the contract terms amidst great difficulties. He kept canceling meetings, all my proposals and suggestions seemed to vanish into thin air, and documents sent from one director to another went missing. Overall, as usual, there was procrastination, a lack of time.

The final cry of desperation

In March, I wrote an email to all members of the Board, in which, in despair, I was ready to resign. I had truly had enough of such treatment.

I worked hard, fought for employees and their contracts, did everything I could to ensure the organization’s growth, but no one supported me, no one stood behind me, and ironically, no one cared about my contract.

Email below.

“It wasn’t me who was blocking your contract.”

The two long-serving directors of Irish origin seemed very concerned about the situation and kept repeating that they were ashamed of how long I had been waiting, that they were sorry, that they were with me, and they patted me on the back. They said the contract would come, just be patient – all these words, as it turned out later, were pure hypocrisy. They shifted the blame onto the Chairman of the Board, who was not re-elected to the Board during the Annual General Meeting in April 2023.
During the Annual General Meeting in April 2023, he said significant words in front of all organization members: “It wasn’t me, Wojtek, who stood in the way of finalizing your contract.”

The truth soon came out.

It is worth mentioning that finally, after my requests since August 2022, the Board only agreed in February 2023 to start the recruitment process for a Finance Officer and an Operations Manager. Of course, I had to prepare the job advertisements and job descriptions myself without any support – as it had been all along – everything was on my shoulders.

In March 2023, Together-Razem managed to find an accountant through the recommendation of one of the Board members, and I was very pleased. She was an acquaintance of one of the directors – an Irish woman. It should be noted that I prepared the scope of duties for the accountant and the tasks she would be responsible for, mainly assisting us, and the Board set the financial terms for the service.

In April, I also received approval from the Board to publish a job advertisement for an operations manager, who would relieve me of a lot of duties – which also made me happy, and the search began.

At the Board meeting in April, right after the AGM, after the removal of the old Chairman of the Board, changes occurred, and the role of Chairman was given to a completely new person, Mrs. Joanna, whom I was supposed to introduce to the tasks and activities of the organization from the management side.

At this meeting, when I asked if, since there was no longer an official person who was allegedly blocking my contract, would I finally get it finalized since it was supposedly already completed and ready for signing. The Irish director said unfortunately, I still have to wait because there are financial doubts.

I asked what’s the issue? I got a reply that the new accountant needs to familiarize herself and look into the finances. Knowing that these were again made-up reasons to not give me the contract, I was devastated.

It was too much.

Feeling disappointed, deceived, tired, and above all, disillusioned, I lost trust in the Board members and resigned from the CEO role, giving a 30-day notice.

Here is the content of the letter.

In the meantime, during the notice period, I had a phone conversation with the new Chairperson, who revealed to me that the Irish part of the directors had doubts about my contract because the accountant needed to review the finances. This was because, while working with Company Secretary, who had been handling the finances until then, along with an office receptionist, in March 2023, over €1000 was found in a locked safe for petty cash, which had not been deposited into the organization’s account. Additionally, the Secretary generally conveyed derogatory information about me to the Board.

I explained in writing that the receptionist and a senior staff Ms. Ewa Ikwanty knew about that money, and simply due to the lack of staff and workload in the office, the individuals with access to the account did not have time to go to the bank and deposit the money into the bank account. I emphasized that the source of these funds was properly described and documented and that the money would be deposited into the account soon. Furthermore, I clearly pointed out that I was not involved in finances, and there was a dedicated person, the Finance Manager, responsible for that with access to the account.

The true intentions of the Board

It is important to note that my resignation only covered the CEO role, and my second contract for conducting therapy was still valid. I did not resign from it because conducting addiction therapy is my passion. During my notice period and after the date when the resignation was accepted, I continued to deliver addiction counselling and prepared evaluations of therapeutic services for one of the funders.

This did not sit well with one of the Irish directors, who unequivocally stated that by my letter, I had completely resigned from working for Together-Razem. I then sent a special email clarifying that there were no doubts: I had resigned from managing the organization, but not from conducting therapy.

Then, by mistake, I received an email intended for the new Chairperson, which was forwarded to me. This email revealed the true intentions of the Board, which saddened me deeply.

I replied to that email.

The accountant – the power behind the scenes

The Irish accountant appeared in the organization in March 2023, as I had been pointing out for many months that we needed a dedicated person for accounting. We needed someone to support the organization and assist with finances.

The accountant was supposed to work only once a week in the office and a few hours from home. She spoke with me in March, and I provided her with access to the accounting software so she could have insight into everything and was given full access to the office and documents. I only pointed out to the Board that the accountant did not have an officially signed contract or a GDPR document for access to all personal data in accordance with the data protection policy. As usual, this was ignored by the Board.

Financial doubts

The accountant prepared an observation report for the Board, and I responded to everything in it.

In the report, the accountant pointed out two issues:

a. Holding a higher amount of cash in the “Petty Cash” safe than was originally planned – it was supposed to contain around €250, but at one point, there was €1000 in it due to the fact that, due to the workload, we didn’t have time to deposit this money into the bank.

b. Bank withdrawals and cash payments – all such withdrawals were supported by documentation confirming these transactions.

Additionally, the accountant sent an email requesting clarification on several transactions, and I responded to her, although I didn’t have to, as I emphasized in the email to her that it wasn’t my role to handle financial matters, but the Finance Manager’s, Ms. Agnieszka. However, all transactions she inquired about were explained in the email and were also promptly recorded in the Xero accounting system.

After my resignation and during my planned leave, I found out that the accountant began to act on her own, completely deviating from her competencies. According to one of the organization’s employees: she felt like a HR Manager and wielded power over the migrants. She started personal conversations with employees from Poland and Ukraine regarding their work, tasks, what they were doing, and typical HR issues. 

The accountant managed to influence one of the Board members.
At that point, I had already submitted my resignation and was in the process of serving my notice, so I had no influence over what was happening, but outraged employees, especially from Ukraine, called me. They felt simply terrified. I asked them to report everything to the current Board, and they did.

Did the Board react? Unfortunately, no.

However, what crossed all norms was when, in June 2023, during my leave, the accountant began to pressure a senior staff Ms. Ewa to sign blank cheques. It is worth noting that according to the Board’s decision from 2018, Ms. Ewa Ikwanty was the person nominated to access the bank account, make deposits and withdrawals, and sign cheques. Ms. Ewa suffered a nervous breakdown, even though she was willing to go to the bank with the Board and make changes so that the new accountant could have the right to sign cheques.

This showed the true face of this person, all with the silent consent of the Board.

Lost Board

On May 15th, the Board officially accepted my resignation via email and even prepared a Thank You card. However, no one had the courage to come to say goodbye and have a conversation with me.

Waiting for those 30 days, I fulfilled my duties as CEO and was ready for discussions to re-connect and to come back to normality. I clearly expressed my willingness to return to work, but unfortunately, THEY no longer wanted me.

On the eve of my last day at work, I prepared a 6-page document called a Handover List in which I provided important information for the organization, presented the budget, and made suggestions for the coming months on what to focus on. I handed this document over personally to one of the Board members, Brendan, who appeared along with the grey eminence, the Accountant, on the last day. He didn’t say a word to me – I was very sorry because I always promoted his person, encouraged him to give public speeches, and saw him as a sincere and wise individual. Unfortunately, he changed, as he was surrounded by bad advisors.

After my departure, the Board became even more lost, although according to the words of other volunteers, they showed great overactivity. They came to the headquarters several times a week to demonstrate their full commitment, despite their age and illnesses that previously prevented them from attending organization events.
Unfortunately, there was no clear communication, employees felt isolated, and they didn’t know who to report to or what would happen next.

That’s what I regret the most, and I feel very sorry for all those people. I said goodbye to everyone, but the erosion process of the organization has just begun and will continue until the financial resources I obtained eventually run out.

NO BOARD SHOULD ALLOW ALL OF THIS TO HAPPEN – it’s negligence and years of inaction in a situation that requires action.

Charity Regulator

In the face of this chaos, the Charity Regulator has been informed of everything, and an investigation is currently underway. I believe that the institution will conduct a thorough review in terms of governance, revealing the truth. We will see what the effects will be.