American Cancer Society Reviews

Pros

The people you work with are passionate about the mission. Most departments are more than willing to help one another out on their projects and care about what each department is doing to work toward mission goals.

Cons

There is some lack of communication between interstate staff which leads to confusion with administrative tasks. It can be difficult to get one solid answer on best practice questions.

Pros

Good People, good benefits and work balance.

Cons

Poor Leadership, no direction, middle management poor performance.

Pros

Good time off available, good benefits, good pay.

Cons

Poor work/life balance, insane fundraising goals and fear of being fired if you don't make them, constant staff turnover.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on making staff happy and utilizing their talents instead of seeing them as replaceable and firing them. Focus on maintaining relationships with staff.

Pros

Great benefits, areas to explore different titles/opportunities, respected organization, others all care about mission (clear overarching mission) and offer a great deal of support

Cons

Because it's a not for profit, level of pay is low and no bonuses were available in my position (tough to live off the salary)

Advice to Senior Management

I was thankful that they responded to personal needs and were supportive and sympathetic during times of crisis at the call center

Pros

Sense of making a difference in the world. Good vacation and benefits

Cons

No room for growth unless oyu are willing to move to other states and cities. LOOOONG hours and very little recognition for achievements. No raises or bonuses due to economy.

Advice to Senior Management

Please start recognizing your employees for the amount of time they put in over 40 hours a week. We need to be compensated with Comp time if we can't get overtime or bonuses.

Pros

Fantastic mission and fun events. Work day can be flexible with option to work out of the office or from home if necessary within a day's activities.

Cons

Lots of night and evening commitments and depending on the areas you're expected to cover, there can be a lot of driving to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Work harder to promote a better work/life balance. Employees can get burned out quickly with the amount of work they're expected to do without the encouragement to keep a good balance.

Pros

Very fulfilling; feel good when you go home at night

Cons

too Low of Pay; long hours and not high enough reimbursement for travel costs

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the incentives for employers.

Pros

great people, realistic expectations, clear goals, good work-life balance, good benefits, and I get to feel like I'm making a difference.

Cons

technology is outdated, so that makes some work harder than it needs to be (though this is changing finally). Organization is so big, there's not a lot of coordination between departments - it results in a lot of redundancy and waste. There seems to be a lack of documented business processes: unless you've been there a long time (and many people have), you won't know who to go to for anything outside of your small work group. You just have to ask around and get shifted from department to department (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). Some work is so specialized, there's no room to move up - frustrating!

Advice to Senior Management

better documented business practices, better communication between groups, better technology, and clearer career paths are needed.

Pros

You only work 7 hours a day

Cons

The pay is very low.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't bad mouth your team members to other team members

Pros

good benefits
proud of what you do

Cons

If volunteers do not come through with their committments it leaves you with extra work or unmet goals. Lots of instructions from various departments to field staff, no one sees how much requirements there are. They don't realize the hours. LOTS of hours, evenings, and weekends. I specifically asked how many evenings and weekends you work because I was leaving a higher paying job to get out of those. I was lied to . Lower management in my experience is not good, lies to her supervisors. The company takes advantage of salaried personnal this much. Management gives you a seminar on work life balance every couple of years. The last one was by a manager that told us how her phone is off at 5pm everyday and she never takes her laptop home. The people in the room work 50+ hours a week, several evenings a week and that might get you a fair evaluation. Their policy is that NOONE gets the top level evaluation because there is always more potential.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend a week in your field staff shoes. Not just one day.