Working at the ATO you are automatically despised by 90% of the clients you need to talk to, as you're auditing their tax returns, collecting debt, and generally giving them bad news. As a result, you're treated like dirt day in and day out by the public and it really starts to wear you down.It can also be frustrating that there's so much government red tape and bureaucracy that things move very slowly, in terms of productivity, technology and innovation, and also with career advancement.However, on the plus side, the leadership and people you work with are fantastic and you develop a real sense of belonging and comfortable security in the organisation.The pay is a fair bit lower than comparable roles in the private sector, however you do get more benefits such as study leave and grants, purchased leave, flexible work arrangements, paid expenses, and lots more.The biggest drawback is that with the high security and strict adherence to doing everything by the book, they are very unforgiving if you make mistakes. One bad day or slip up could see you lose your job without any room for compassion or understanding of the circumstances. You also can get a bit isolated from how the real world lives and works because they have their own special processes and procedures to make sure no one from outside can access any important information.The organisation can be stuffy and neurotic, but if you don't rock the boat you could find yourself in a workplace where you don't even need to try and you're generally taken care of with a positive atmosphere in a nice kind of bubble.

Pros

Entitlements, culture, people, atmosphere, leadership, work-life-balance.

Cons

Unproductive, wasteful, inefficient, bureaucratic, slow to no career advancement, intensely paranoid security measures and unforgiving of mistakes, low tolerance of error but too much tolerance for underperforming.

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Never recommend this workplace

Debt Collector (Former Employee) - Melbourne - 31 January 2023

I have worked in ATO over a year. This workplace is full of toxic people, the team leaders will think they are the best and they are on top of you. You will get bullied all the time.My advice is if you don't want to be in depression don't work at this place

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Australian Taxation Office insights

Based on 3 survey responses

What people like

General feeling of work happiness
Supportive environment
Ability to learn new things

Areas for improvement

Time and location flexibility
Overall satisfaction
Sense of belonging

Great work life balance

Operations Officer (Current Employee) - Melbourne VIC - 30 September 2022

This is the best place I have worked so far and here it’s all about great work life balance. My Current Team manager and upper management is very helpful. They support a lot for further study and career progression. Only thing is your luck when you are in the merit pool and do not get picked

Pros

Great work life balance

Cons

Rostered environment

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Ato is inefficiently run and devoid of ethics

Prosecutor (Former Employee) - Melbourne VIC - 4 July 2022

ATO uses redundant software for its work that makes small tasks labour intensive. When I arrived I found a flaw in one of its practises and approached management with a solution. They accepted my proposal which was relatively easy to fix and would halve the workload. However, in the 18 months that I was there, despite my applying reminders about the change which other states had adopted, the change never happened. When I queried this I was told repeatedly that the ATO is resistant to change.

Pros

Some of the people

Cons

Inefficient labour intensive workplace.

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Fun place andinterestingplace to work

Switchboard Operstor (Former Employee) - Canberra City ACT - 26 June 2022

I worked there for 3 years I enjoyed my experience there really nice staff and helpful also.Lovely office. Would of liked to be a permanent position. Did courses online so there was training although being a contractor through an agency to have performance reviews was stressful. I was a Switchboard Operator and enjoyed working in a call centre environment had to answer a high volume of calls spoke to some interesting people.

Pros

Morning teas once a nonth

Cons

Long hours having t o work 12-8

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Not very great

Administration Assistant (Former Employee) - Sydney NSW - 26 May 2022

Competitive environment, nepotism is rife within the agency. Unable to progress unless you are great friends with a supervisor or anyone higher than that.

Pros

Work life balance

Cons

Long hours bad management

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Team Excellence

Workplace Services Officer and Covid-19 Ambassador (Former Employee) - Traralgon VIC - 3 May 2022

Various job officers with great team bonding to assist one another and forward thinking outlookGreat job in Workplace Services OfficerPeople person liaising with contractors staff and managers professionally.

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Not a good place to work

Tax Auditor (Former Employee) - Penrith NSW - 3 May 2022

If you love following meaningless direction that requires you abandon common sense and that is presented in what barely passes as English by managers who got promoted due to their ethnicity rather than capabilities, then this is the role for you. You may be left scratching your head trying to work out job expectations after being inducted and provided with the icare acronym, however you shouldn't be concerned, as the higher your position is, the less anyone is expected to act according to the values and ideals the acronym represents. Expect to be told to: "Do as I say now I'm in a position higher than you, not as I did, when I was in your position."

Pros

Job security. You don't need any skills. Rewarded for doing what you are told, without thinking or considering outcomes

Cons

Poor succession planning and incompetent leadership selection. Rampant politics & favoritism.

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Awful workplace culture and unreasonable overtime expectations

Service Delivery Officer (Former Employee) - North Richmond VIC - 12 April 2022

The opportunity offered a lot of learning yet lacked any workplace culture. Most of the team are unhelpful and unwilling to compromise. The expectations from management regarding overtime are extreme and I wouldn’t recommend ever working for the Australian Taxation Office. Whether it be direct employment with them or through a Business providing services to the ATO.

Pros

Knowledge of taxation system

Cons

Lack of development, extreme overtime, terrible workplace culture

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Wouldn't Recommend

Service Delivery Officer (Former Employee) - Box Hill VIC - 16 March 2022

Working at ATO is soul destroying.When I applied for a Service Delivery role, the job advertisement never mentioned being a call center job.Was put into the role with a misleading job title and got next to no training but pushed into the deep end. Training is appalling, expected to know advanced technical tax rules and legislation with next to no training.

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Variety

Manager (Current Employee) - Melbourne Australia - 18 February 2022

On the whole a good place to work. Limited career progression once you reach certain levels. Well remunerated, particularly superannuation at 15.4% which is attractive.

Pros

Flexibility and variety.

Cons

Career progression.

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S h I t company to work for

Debt Collections Officer (Current Employee) - Penrith NSW - 13 July 2021

bosses won't to know everything about you especially if you have an illness - then they share with other bosses - You boss can change on a yearly basis

Pros

Nothing

Cons

Nothing

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Not too bad

Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) - Queensland - 16 June 2021

GREAT TO REPRESENT. GREAT CULTURAL VALUES. 5/5. Low pay for INTENSE WORKLOAD. THE WORK WILL affect your health in all aspects – VERY HIGH CLIENT ABUSE. Poor management; not engaged with the reality of the stress related to the job vs the extremely low salary. Management did not care that agents were making mistakes on people’s tax accounts. Tasks like payment plan negotiations and delegating remissions - if I should grant / approve are very important to get right for all customers. The workplace culture is bad due to the constant complaints, and people are in a bad mood a lot. Unrealistic KPI’s, extremely low salary for the workload. KPI's, micro managed, care about the dollar, not the service. Stressful targets impossible to maintain, extremely low pay for high stress. Management are horrific, they pay painfully low for the stress you go through daily as you get abused daily from customers with no support and Management watch you constantly for any tiny reason to punish you and not pay the pitiful incentive. No value of the government contract they are lucky to have. Stressful targets impossible to maintain. Low wages, HIGH pressure.

Pros

Great team mates

Cons

Stressful KPi's need higher pay

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Great culture and very supportive team leader

Service Delivery Officer (Current Employee) - Perth WA - 19 March 2021

Would recommend working at the ATO for the experience within a call centre. Really enjoy the team spirit and work ethic of the department. Training is intense but trainers make it enjoyable.

Pros

Fun place to work

Cons

Casual and not guaranteed hours

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Call Centre Casual

Service Delivery Officer (Former Employee) - Chermside QLD - 23 November 2020

Answering phone calls for the ATO. Assisting taxpayers with their inquiries. Roster hours - Loved working with taxpayers. Manager treated casual badly.

Cons

They treat casuals like they are nothing. If the manager likes you, you get hours. If not, you get nothing. I got a contract to Nov 2021, but havent had any work - ZERO since July 2020 . The manager ignores my emails.

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Easy to join Australian native work in life style.

Admin (Former Employee) - Penrith NSW - 16 September 2020

There is few work pattern in casual, full time, part time and contract. In casual, there are different assigns during the day to start with minimum 3 hours for everyone to join in. Depend to workload, work hours will varies and promoting align with centrelink payment and work culture. Management always train staff for learning and development and I have learned all the course of service delivery and debt management of SMART and return of tax file client. I have legal rights and affidavies is hardest part of the decision making and I am selfless of my own and I enjoy multiculture .

Pros

I work at night time and 4 hours with no lunch

Cons

I have long hours in one saturday so I most earned of it.

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Productive and helpful teams

Procurement Officer (Former Employee) - Docklands VIC - 13 September 2020

It was bad timing I started during COVID and people were working from home but staff and managers were always happy to help and assist me. Team members have great work ethics.

Pros

Nice workplace culture

Cons

There are no cons in my mind

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A workplace that is fair

Debt service consultant (Current Employee) - Gosford NSW - 9 August 2020

There is no bias in selecting jobseekers and a very fair workplace.A fair wage is paid for the appropriate work type with the opportunities available to improve oppositions and pay. Management listens to provide the optimum conditions for a productive environment. Everyone is treated equally.

Pros

Beautiful working environment and lots of support.

Cons

Full time work is only available occasionally

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I found It to be not nice

Debt Collecting Officer (Former Employee) - Perth Central Business District WA - 30 July 2020

I worked in Debt Collection on the phones.People were very slack were as I thought, well I am getting paid much better then the dole, so put in. Bad move, Management told me to slow down and stop using my initiative, which is why they hired me, as I had run my own business. Any, I found it to be a hostile workplace if you didn't fit into any clique there, which I didn't. Ended up off the phones and stuffing envelops with Further Action Letters. After 3 months and no end, I resigned to keep my sanity.

Pros

Good Super and Extra Week Leave at Xmas

Cons

Staff, very Clique and hard to break into if you are an individual.

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sad when you are suffering from mental stress

call centrre SERVICE DELIVERY (Former Employee) - Melbourne City Centre VIC - 6 July 2020

senior management need to RESPECT staff and not kick them when they are DOWN after all some of them gained their jobs through political connections. Will do anything to climb ladder

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Worked for 13 companies. This is my best.

iT Consultant. (Former Employee) - Brisbane QLD - 20 June 2020

I joined in 2012 with the Brisbane Office. Worked on a number of interesting projects. At all times I was engaged and challenged. There is no room for time wasters and poor attitude at this organisation. Work is professional and delivered on time and within budget. I found people there extremely honest and very trusting people. After 2 years in the Brisbane Office I joined the Adelaide Office. Once again the same culture and loved it.