American Red Cross Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

The mission of the Red Cross is noble and many of the people who work there do so because they value the mission and several have received services in one form or another. The company does allow for a good work life balance but that depends on the position.

Cons

The Red Cross is so large and so disparate it is hard to have a handle on what is happening within the organization or how to operate. My first week was awful. The orientation was simply a background on Red Cross and a packet to figure out how to activate benefits and a computer and cell phone that I had to figure out how to set up on my own. If you are not willing to ask questions or not a self starter, Red Cross isn't for you. When starting on a team, there was no welcome to Red Cross meal to make me feel good about joining the team and there was no real guidance on priorities, what to tackle, or resources available. The cubicle environment is depressing and there is no real sense of collaboration there. The home office (or hq) was trying to serve as a resource for the chapters (providing marketing materials, fundraising materials, membership info, etc) but the chapters didn't really know how to utilize those resources and basically did their own thing. HR doesn't really exist. The lousy benefits are all through some 1-800 number and the HR people are not helpful if you are dealing with an issue. They don't even do an exit interview when you leave! The health care benefits are outrageously expensive and the company does PTO rather than vacation and sick days. Management seem diconnected from their teams and do not serve as great mentors or managers.

Pros

The organization has a fantastic mission, and most employees are dedicated to it. There's a great sense of teamwork on the local level. It's nice to work for a brand that's so well-respected and well-known. Somewhat flexible in work/life balance when there's no disaster.

Cons

The pay is terrible unless you work in fundraising. They're currently going through a restructuring--second one in two years--that has resulted in massive staff cuts. It's justified by relying on volunteers, but I think the cuts have been too deep and too much is being put on the volunteers.

Pros

Help share the knowledge about helping others save lives by blood donation.

Cons

Not able to have a good work and life balance. A lot of turnover for this position

Pros

Great money lots of overtime

Cons

Work and home life balance not great

Pros

Exposure to Emergency Management in Mass Care focus. Develop skills in Volunteer Management and building of community relations.

Cons

Long hours difficulty to have a work/life balance as in a constant need of work.

Pros

Red Cross provides great opportunities for advancement if you have succes.

Cons

work life balance is not easily attained with the amount of travel and long hours.

Pros

Helping people was very rewarding and working with hospitals to provide blood product as needed was also rewarding

Cons

High expectations from upper Management. Very difficult to balance work and life with ongoing schedule changes. Difficult to advance out of the current role.

Pros

The mission allows you to help people in their time of need. You also have an amazing opportunity to work with volunteers from all walks of life. The organization is massively diverse and you will learn A LOT in your time with the company.

Cons

The work life balance is difficult to achieve as there is always more work that can and needs to be done. Trying to learn all of the programs, processes, procedures and guidelines can be really overwhelming at first as the onboarding can't help you to internalize the massive amount of information. In times of disaster response you have to be ready to deploy and commit to the 12 hour days. Very rewarding but very challenging.

Pros

the work that they do for the community during a disaster

Cons

horrible work/life balance...during a disaster (even if you are not part of the disaster team) you will work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, for two to three weeks with no overtime, and the only compensation is one day off for every week worked

Pros

Seeing and hearing from the people who have benefited from receiving blood products.

Cons

Everything else. Insane working hours (I once went an entire month without a single day off; regularly worked nights, too). No work/life balance (it's required that you still check and respond to emails while on PTO). Absolutely no management support. The Red Cross wants you to think it's a noble organization, but the blood services side is completely based off sales (the Red Cross makes money off of blood donations!). No consistency when it comes to company practices; local offices operate under the 'don't ask for permission now rather forgiveness later' mentality. Completely resistant to change; no one like new ideas so no room to grow. Sales reps (Donor Recruitment reps) are bullies and get away with everything because they pass it off that they need to make goal. Of course, they are commission-based so it's not about helping others, it's about helping themselves.