American Cancer Society Reviews in Oakland, CA

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Very nice people, great mission, coworkers and supervisors are supportive. Also good company benefits. Office location is close to public transportation and nice restaurants.

Cons – Company is undergoing major transformation, there's a lot of uncertainly among staffs. Not much work life balance, most ppl feel that they are overworked and underappreciated.

Advice to Senior Management – if there's a communication plan about transformation, please communicate with staffs.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – Good cause, responsible with donor dollar, good entry level job and long term job if you are the right person. Great co-workers for the most part.

Cons – No work/life balance possible
Low pay and no rewards for top performers
No room for growth - upper level management has said they don't expect people to stay more than a year or two as most jobs are entry level.
Living in the stone age in relation to IT and Software
Lots of red tape and micromanagement from upper management.
Mid level managers are puppets

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your field staff. If you want to grow you need to give us the resources to grow. We can't manage our jobs without places to put our stuff. Much of our work could be centralized to give field staff more time doing their job. If you want to transform the company - make everyone responsible for income development and mission services.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – Great mission. the end result is very rewarding.

Cons – Leadership continues to execute poorly. Trust for leadership is limited. The organization is going through a transformation process. However, from past experience leadership has no credibility in getting it right this time. It would behoove the organization if a whole new leadership regime was put in place. The old guard must go.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – Great cause, great opportunity to work with incredible and motivating staff and volunteers. Benefits are great, especially if you are starting a family. Fundraising work in geneal requiresw a lot of long hours, weekend and evening work - but that is the name of the game. A lot of opportunities for growth, training, and travel.

Cons – A lot of internal politics, as would be the case for any organization of a comparable size. Learn to play the game, or you will have a hard time. Also, as is the case in "internal" politics heavy organizations, sometimes less competant, but better known management staff get promoted. Managing staff should be skilled at mentoring their employees. If not, you are breeding an issue with discon

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more attention to employee satisfaction. Disgruntled employees bring down the morale of all.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – You're working at a place that strives to help all those affected by cancer - not only the patient, but the family members and friends. There are some services that we do provide that are helpful. Pay is better than many non-profits. We do get many paid holidays.

Cons – Your workload is ever increasing and you're getting paid half what you would receive in the for-profit industries. Your job description and responsibilities change daily. Even though they say they support work/life balance, they really don't. The turnover is high. They support the incompetent and do not support the competent. Instead the competent are expected to cover or do the work for the incompetent. Communication between all levels and departments is inconsistent. Too many meetings and not enough time to do your job, yet your are expected to complete all your job duties/responsibilities. They think micro-managing will generate more income, but all it does is create more stress.

Too many times the corporate offices advertise that ACS provides this or that service when in actuality, we provide a very limited number of services depending on your market.

Advice to Senior Management – Get out of the clouds and get a real sense of what it is to work with the community, in the field. The goals you set are unrealistic especially when you look at the the constituents and make up of the local community and the workload you pile on us.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – The American Cancer Society is very devoted to their mission to relieve suffering and find a cure for cancer.

Cons – The Society is stuck in mid-century management techniques. They are slow to adapt to current strategies for managing a modern workforce, slow to exploit current technology to keep pace with a highly competitive non-profit sector and staff top management with people who have for the most part worked their entire careers at the Society and do not bring a modern approach to the organization. This is a very hierarchical culture where facilitative leadership is discouraged and teams do not own their work.

Advice to Senior Management – Bring in new top management. People with state-of-the-art experience in the non-profit and for profit sectors.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Cancer Society

Pros – I really enjoy my job and the people I work with are wonderful and supportive...also the benefits are good

Cons – there aren't any d
ownsides that I can think of

Advice to Senior Management – your communication and support is very good. Training and IT support is great

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend