American Red Cross reviews

Red Cross has all of the bureaucracy and byzantine dysfunction of a major corporation, as well as all of the annoyances, pitfalls, and limitations of a generic small non-profit. Briefly put, major structural changes in the last five years (which were necessary, as before that the organization was simply spending itself into bankruptcy) have been sloppily executed, and as a result major miscommunication and resentment exists where before it was simply a small annoyance. Massive layoffs, no job security, bloated grandfathered-in executive salaries, nonexistent HR, laughably bad IT, and an overall let's-just-wing-it-and-trust-that-our-famous-brand-keeps-us-afloat makes for a terrible, terrible employee and volunteer experience. Below are some of the main points: - no investment in volunteers' training, recruitment, or recognition - consequently, awful, frustrated, low-quality volunteers who are just as confused as the staff - unrealistic hours (60/week for $25k/year? NOPE) - department silo-ing and infighting for funds - no HR. seriously, every department is expected to manage all of their volunteers and employees with no guidance from a specific HR-trained employee - IT that rarely works; outdated computers; slow, slow, slow response from centralized support - budgeting? what budgeting? just spend money and hope that donations cover it, and if they don't, a hurricane will bring in massive windfall and cover up the debt from the year before! - grandfathered-in higher-ups who have contracted pay increases and bloated salaries, versus temporary contractors, AmeriCorps, and new hires who get by on minimum wage (or less, when calculating hours) - gross disregard of grant stipulations and "stewardship of the donor dollar" - and of course, despite being the oldest and largest non-profit in America, completely horrendous pay, even for social work; unless, of course, you're an executive. then you take home $100k+ / year for badly running an org that happens to have a really famous brand Honestly, while the power of the brand has kept them afloat during years of instability, reckless spending, and corrupt management, I cannot honestly say that I believe this non-profit will either disappear or vastly diminish in size if they continue as they have.

PROFESSIONALISM: There is none! My first day I arrived, I have a broken desk, broken chair, no computer, or anything. My boss lived out of state, was not there at all. It was like I was on an island by myself, and had to figure it all out on my own. No one trained me, or helped me with hardly anything. Not once did another IT employee or manager fly out to spend a week or any time at all with me. FORMER JOBS I HAD: All was read to go days BEFORE I arrived. And all in good working condition. If there was something I needed, I got. If something was broken (rarely) it was fixed right away. If I needed my desk adjusted, it happened withing 2-3 days. When I asked for any of this at Red Cross, they looked at me a laughed like I was crazy. IT STRUCTURE: IS A COMPLETE JOKE, people wise, and equipment wise. They don't want to spend the money to do anything right, but still expect you to make it work right. They want the IT Staff to cover all of their employees IT needs across multiple states, and the whole US with little to no IT staff. Literally they expect 1 person to do the job of 20 people, across multiple states. You're the "lone ranger" doing it all by yourself, supporting up to 500 users, and they still expect you to get it done in a fast timely manner. If something goes wrong in another city or state, they expect you (by yourself) to hop on a plane and go fix it. They will pay for the plane and hotel (surprisingly), BUT good luck eating; you have a limit of about $15 to feed yourself for the WHOLE day which is ridiculous, being most cities like DC, New York, etc, you can't spend less than $15 for one meal, even if you tried. And if you even go over a tiny bit for food, they will take it out of your paycheck. You are also not allowed to leave a tip on the company dime; you have to pay the tip yourself. If you pay a bill/ invoice late, they will charge YOU the late fee and take it out of your pay check. WHY is IT paying bills; isn't that FINANCES job?!?! ADDITIONAL PAY: NO bonuses, no additional pay, annual raise is 1-3% if your lucky and they like you. Do one thing wrong, and they will hold it over your head. SALARY: is a JOKE! They will pay you literally HALF of what you should be, or would be getting at another job/ company. I understand they are "non-profit" etc, but that's still not an excuse. You still need to pay and treat your employees fairly and what they are worth, or at least close to it. Constantly was told, "well were are non-profit, so we can't do this or we can't do that". Also, the second they find out what you were getting at your previous job, they will use that against you and hold it over your head, like they did to me "well you were getting this now, so we'll just give a 10% increase, that pretty nice don't you think?" When my former job had nothing to do with my Red Cross job. UPPER IT MANAGEMENT: is a JOKE, and most of the people running the organization (at least all the people I interacted with)! I cannot believe how many uneducated, and poor speaking (poor grammar, slang, made up words as they went, and sayings) people are either put in upper management, and or are an employee. It's like your in down "gang land" in LA, Compton, etc. They try to brain-wash you into all this "whoora go for it BS", that they don't even believe in themselves, they are just told to go along with it. They want you to think that once you work there, that is it for you, that you will not ever get anything better, "just be glad you have a job". While all along they will drop you like a fly for any reason they can, just to save some money. CONTRACTORS BEWARE: If you are looking for work, even if it's for 3-6 months, do NOT work there. They LIE LIE LIE. They tell you they will hire you after your term over and over. But they will NEVER HIRE you. In fact they did it twice to 2 contractors I knew. They work with recruiters where their term states you cannot be hired for 6 months AFTER you quit or let go (which they NEVER tell you until they let go as a reason). In addition, they will keep you up to 1 year (making you think you have a perm job), but then let you go, saying "legally we cannot keep you" for this and that reason. Her is their secret, that they don't want you to know. When you are getting paid $20 per hour for exampl, they are paying the recruiting company $30+ per hour. You are losing out on $10+ per hour. Now think about that...Red Cross want's to pay MORE, and waist MORE money, to use you on temp basis, rather than hire you on a perm basis. When it would be cheaper, more efficient not to have to keep retraining people, and better overall just to hire the person on perm. BUT they do this so they can kick you to the curb anytime they want, and not have to pay you benefits either.