Habitat for Humanity Albany Reviews

Pros

Family Oriented and mission driven

Cons

Federated Structure can sometimes be difficult in regards to collaborated fundraising.

Pros

Improve my human skills in daily life

Cons

Out in the sun all day

Pros

[NOTE: This review is based on experience at the Americus, GA office] Opportunity to contribute to worthy mission and life changing work being done around the world; very mission-focused, attracts quality people and fosters congenial work relationships; hours tend to be flexible (office opens at 8 am but many people arrive closer to 9, families with children can usually flex time around school schedules); casual workplace, jeans and polo shirts are common; in addition to vacation time, organization offers "mission time"--paid leave time to volunteer with a local Habitat affiliate

Cons

[NOTE: This review is based on experience at the Americus, GA office] Remote location in rural Georgia, telecommuting policy is inconsistently enforced; not much opportunity for advancement, though lateral transfers are very common; senior leadership tends to micromanage project roll-outs rather than set strategy and "pet projects" are common; struggles with internal communications (departments operate in silos, hard to funnel feedback up the chain to leadership); recently went through two rounds of layoffs due to budgetary cutbacks

Pros

Most of Senior Management is very supportive of career advancement. Great place for people who like to openly communicate their religious beliefs... If you're Christian. Friendly work environment and lots of co-worker fellowship activities. Leave work every day feeling like you personally privided a safe, affordable home to another 800 people. This place is closed on all major Holidays. So you don't need to use PTO to get them off.

Cons

I'm almost 100% positive salaries here are significantly lower than those at similar nonprofits, regardless of job title. You have to drive an hour to go anywhere desirable. Regardless of what some may tell you, the health care benefits are not that great. Co-payments are incredibly high and you'll need to drive an hour to see a knowledgeable Doctor.

Pros

The people that are attracted to working at Habitat in the non-executive area are extremely warm, caring and lovely people. I made friends with people of all ages, from many parts of the country, of different faiths. People I never would have even encountered in my former life in academia. Pretty good benefits, although matching of 401K was dropped while I was there. Relaxed atmosphere, not too many rules, and genuine caring about staff and their personal lives. I personally loved my job there, but I carefully chose something I love to do and made sure I worked with a manager I liked.

Cons

Low pay for the original staff members and staff in Americus. Huge discrepancy between salaries of management in Atlanta and staff hired from outside. Americus, unless you are from there, is a really dismal place to live. When you really examine the financials, the organization is not particularly effective. It has very good name recognition (I was often told its value was equal to Federal Express), and the organization sort of rests on that. Extreme lack of transparency in terms of numbers and financial reporting. What's on the web, annual reports, etc., does not jibe with the numbers in the field. Horrendous human resources department: slow, rude. Georgia is a "right to work" state, and I heard many horror stories of people (many long-timers) getting fired due to age, being disliked by a new manager, not fitting in, or for no reason at all.

Pros

I met wonderful men and women in the New Orleans area. We worked together to rebuild homes for Hurricane Katrina families. Habitat for Humanity provided a friendly work environment.

Cons

I wish that Habitat for Humanity would have provided some was for the volunteers.