Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – “the pros and cons of non-prof work”

Pros

The best reason to work for LLS is that you'll get a chance to work with wonderful patients and their families as well as amazing donors/fundraisers. I also loved most of my coworkers - we formed deep bonds from being in so many good and bad situations, and for LONG hours. In the end, I'm glad that I was able to make a difference in the lives of our patients.

Cons

Senior staff in the Bay Area offices are not at all connected with the Campaign Managers or anyone at a lower level, so they have absolutely no idea how much time and effort we put into our jobs. There were times when I worked 20-25 days in a row...then when I asked to take a day off, the answer was no.

But, by far, the worst part of working for LLS is losing patients to cancer...especially when those patients have become friends.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management in NY needs to pay closer attention to the feedback from the "on the ground" staff in the chapter offices. Unfortunately, the senior staff in a given chapter office are usually adept at "snowing" the senior management from the home office.