Volunteers of America Reviews

Pros

Helping Communities & People
Fullfilling Work
Enjoyable to go to work

Cons

Strictly Non-Profit
No Negotiating Wages
Not a lot of Pay

Advice to Senior Management

Do not appear better or more intelligent than your other branches

Pros

Great project development opportunities and expansion

Cons

everything is consensus driven and decisions get put on a backburner

Advice to Senior Management

listen to staff

Pros

Volunteers of America ranges its services from assisting children, families in crisis to working with addicts to caring for the chronically ill elders.

Cons

The salary and hourly wages at non-profits unfortunately do not match the cost of living in most cities.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to evolve the Policies and Procedures manual to make it relevant to individual programs.

Pros

easy clients to work with.

Cons

bad management and the supervisor need to be more organized

Advice to Senior Management

get organize more

Pros

Pays OK compared to other VOA sites

Cons

Perceived preference for some staff over others depending on their level/seniority.
Sometimes condescending attitude towards floor staff

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the floor staff and their ideas.

Pros

interactions with a diverse group of people

Cons

miscomunications that occur between staff messages that have unintended consequences
among staff members. Sometimes not resovlved in a a timely manner or not resovlved at all

Pros

Some very good and caring lower level workers.

Cons

Upper level management shows very little appreciation for staff. Pay is low. Lower level nursing staff is mandated to stay double shifts even though there are several management nurses in the building. Apparently, they are "too good" to do actual patient care and prefer to keep exhausted, overworked LPNs on the floor for 16 hour shifts, passing medications.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a competent DON in this building. HR department is great.

Pros

The opportunity to help Veterans rebuild their lives. The conception is a good one: the monitoring and reporting the ILC is responsible for each month forces the ILC to develop a close relationship with Participants and to stay on top of their Life Plan goals. The staff I worked with at the local level were very professional, knowledgeable and caring.

Cons

There is very little training provided (to an ILC anyways) regarding particulars about job duties. I was expected to learn mostly from trial and error. When I did make mistakes, I worked with my (local) supervisor to correct them. However, when the report of those mistakes made their way to the corporate office, I was fired immediately. Corporate staff did not consider the changes I'd made to my treatment approach. After 7 months of giving my heart, finances and time to these Vets, I was asked to leave the day of my notice of termination--no chance for closure with the Vets I'd worked with. VOAF claimed the process had to happen like this "for the sake of the Participants". But it only alienated and infuriated them! The human resources manager does not seem to grasp the human side of the job.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice would be to put more trust in the local agency's management, and consider the weight of your decision before sending so many into upheaval!

Pros

The dedication of the employees to the mission and the strong unity that exists to help those most vunerable

Cons

Overwhelming amount of work with tough funding

Advice to Senior Management

Work together as a team and empower staff to do their jobs

Pros

Develop a strong sense of professional satisfaction and personal pride in assisting people and communities in need

Cons

Long hours and not always able to compensate at private industry standards

Advice to Senior Management

Better balance between work and home life