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American Red Cross

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Blood Services: hardest, most frustrating job I have ever had - Area Manager American Red Cross Employee Review

1.0
17 Nov 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The mission: we help save lives. Most of the people I work with are like family-a very disfunctional family, but family.

Cons

ARC is floundering-instead of addressing root cause of our problem, which is poor customer service to our donors and sponsors and no ongoing recruitment of new donors (or appreciation of existing ones), they consolidate call centers (so there is no personal touch), have no field management of Collection staff, so there are a lot who are lazy, inept and uncaring and prefer to do Facebook on their phone than interact with our donors. Drives begin late, supplies aren't taken, there are no programs to entice NEW donors, so we harass our existing ones. The latest bone-headed move is to allow more appointments to be made than we have staff able to process. So potentially (10) donors could all come in when there are only (5) appointment slots at a blood drive. Way to value and thank our donors, Red Cross! We already can't process donors in the time we are supposed to, so let's DOUBLE that amount!! Collections, Donor Recruitment and Hospital Services work HORRENDOUS hours-there IS no balance. People DREAD each day and turnover is ongoing.

Explore other reviews about American Red Cross

5.0
30 June 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great humanitarian mission, non profit

Cons

None, great place to work

1
1.0
6 July 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- decent health insurance - helping people feels good. - depending on your chapter you can get good, flexible time - some volunteers are legit saints

Cons

- everyone on the inside doesn’t think things will meaningfully change, it’s systemic. - leadership is often out of touch in expectations and demands, while provide verbal support (at best), chronic understaffing, and focusing on what looks good (to media, PR, etc.). - turnover is extreme - on call is 24/7, volunteer capacity is dwindling especially in rural areas, we have to fill in the gaps, as a result you will be trapped in your area and cannot be good at your actual job. - the non-saint volunteers will treat you horribly, god forbid if you are a woman in this position, there’s a de-facto no firing policy on volunteers - pay is so bad is borders on funny, they gave me a raise this year for ‘merit,’ it was $750…for the year. My boss even laughed when telling me. - it’s a culture of management not leadership, so do not expect either honesty or accountability

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