Culture at Department of Industry, Science and Resources

Socialising is highly encouraged from the senior leadership downwards. The department has a dedicated social club, with multiple subcommittees, as well as departmental sports teams. There is a Happy Hour event every fortnight where alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are available. There is a definite hierarchy to the department, though there is some work being attempted to flatten some of the structures.

Almost everyone is friendly and easy to get along with, even the SES make time to say hello and ask how we are going, with genuine care. There are many opportunities presented for bonding and development. The Happy Hour is often quite a fun success that I enjoy immensely.

Its better than most, very open to diverse people including LGBTQ+ people and indigenous people. There is an unhealthy overworking culture though, people working on weekend and past 7:00 pm, some people working an extra four hours a day some times

While there are places that I know have worse culture, my first two rotations were in teams with an emphasis on work life balance, cooperation, honesty and genuine care. These two teams were very accommodating and pleasant to work with.

The culture of the teams that I have been placed with has been positive and well structured for my second and third rotations. My first rotation was quite a toxic culture. For the grad program, the culture and cooperation between the grads has been excellent, however there was no external structure from Employment Programs, which lead to very opaque mechanics for reporting problematic working conditions during placements or any other issues with the grad program.

Supportive, inclusive, and encouraging of work/life balance

Overall, the culture of the department is fantastic but there is an unfortunate few people that can change that experience quickly.

The department has a friendly culture with opportunities to engage with colleagues outside of work hours and develop meaningful relationships outside of a work context.

Very positive, lots of WFH opportunities, lots of support and opportunities.

There is no overarching culture in DISR, it varies from team to team/ branch/div which is very confusing and makes it difficult to move. There is clearly no guidance to SES on inclusion and how to engage with diverse staff. I love the social club but it is only recognised as an important part of culture by a minority of staff.

The Department isn't very silo'ed, which is good, he social club is great.

Really good at socialising and whilst there is definitely a hierarchy most teams are happy to hear from everyone. The environment is supportive allowing for professional development and engagement with industry and other departments.

Everyone is very friendly and eager to bond with the team. It is also a very understanding environment.

NMI has a strong in office hours culture with a friendly environment, as colleagues often do not spend time with each other after hours. The hierarchy is like any other APS system, where all colleagues know each other's positions and respect the authority communication. Being a graduate, I have a strong network with the rest of the graduates. As I do not work in the same city as the rest of my graduate colleagues, connecting online via Teams has been greatly beneficial and everyone has been accommodating. Being part of the graduate major project has been wonderful as well as I've been able to build closer relationships with my graduate colleague, as well as build new professional relationships with the managers in the department. However, the support provided by the employment programs team to the graduates started lacking towards the middle of the program, where the graduates started feeling like there was minimal to no support from the program leaders with regard to news, updates and communication.