9: Department of Home Affairs - Australian Government Employee Reviews

I learned a lot about how past and current government policies affect migration to Australia and the benefits that migrants bring to Australia. Daily work at the Department of Home Affairs is boring yet busy work with plenty of deadlines and time pressures bit little advancement opportunities.

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There are better places to work

Workplace Health and Safety Manager (Former Employee) - Canberra ACT - 7 August 2022

Employment opportunities could be so interesting & exciting however the ongoing bullying & disrespect of staff & their efforts is disgraceful. Bad managers were promoted. More experienced staff, with corporate knowledge, were disregarded. Poor performers were rewarded. No respect or consideration for vulnerable staff, ie disabled, older staff, ethnic backgrounds etc.

Pros

None

Cons

Long hours, no thanks or acknowledgement of exceptional efforts, discarding older workers

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Competitive and everyone unhappy

Assistant Manager (Former Employee) - Belconnen ACT - 3 July 2022

This place is affected by a authoritarian bad management style which is demanding. Everyone is unhappy and desperate to move. There is little chance of progress and comparatively low pay with the rest of the APS

Pros

Everyone is sympathetic

Cons

Demanding bosses

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Can't wait to leave

Program Manager (Current Employee) - Canberra ACT - 10 February 2022

Wouldn't recommend, low pay, extensive hours, no recognition and difficult to progress. Huge amount of red tape to get anything done and difficult to get clear advice on processes (conflicting advice from different teams).

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Productive and enjoyable environment

Project Manager Assistant (Current Employee) - Belconnen ACT - 9 April 2020

Working at Home Affairs offers many challenges with a broad exposure to Government based services. It is a large department with a lot of opportunities.

Pros

Friendly environment

Cons

nil

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As per last review. Organisation is going backwards in qaulity of people and working conditions and standards.

Marine (Former Employee) - Various - 2 February 2020

The department is like beast our of control. People above making their own determinations on your workplace agreement. little support. Very fast to stop allowances at the first opportunity. One needs to network with key people to get anywhere. They do not care if you leave after spending spent tens of thousands training

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Productive and engaging place to work

Senior Public Affairs Officer (Former Employee) - Canberra, Australia - 4 November 2019

The Department of Home Affairs is an interesting Department to work for. It is a serious culture that impacts on society. You get a sense of pride working for the Department.

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used to be fun place to work, but since merge with Customs the place has turned upside down.

Senior Application Developer (EL1), full-time (Former Employee) - Canberra ACT - 8 October 2019

After merging with Customs, all initial senior management staff had been pushed away and they had been replaced by people from Customs and Defence. Since then the senior management has been taking a hardline approach towards staff with staff cutting and salary freeze, which has resulted in a huge loss of quality staff and lowest salary for most APS classifications. Basically they ask staff to work twice as hard as they used to but with less reward in comparison with other agencies.

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Hardest part of the job

Fingerprint Officer (Current Employee) - Fingerprint Officer - 5 December 2012

The hardest part of my job is to always verify that i have approved an appropriate fingerprint for id applications. Making a mistake with this might put someone's life in debts or even more harm. This can even put myself in danger of loosing my job. But i always do my best.

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