Sierra Club Reviews

3.0

42% would recommend to a friend

(231 total reviews)

Ben Jealous

15% approve of CEO

31% positive business outlook

Sierra Club has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 231 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Sierra Club employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Non-profit and NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

231 reviews
4.0
25 Feb 2015

Very rewarding, very intense.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You learn a tremendous amount and are empowered to think and execute outside the box. You're also unionized and work with really smart, passionate and fun people.

Cons

Despite the efforts of the unions (there are two and without them things would be much worse), the pay is seriously low. The benefits are good, but in San Francisco, where the Sierra Club is headquartered, the cost of living is so high and the wages do not compete.

1.0
17 Feb 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The staff, folks on the frontlines, organizers, and most of the middle managers and below are amazing, driven, and dedicated to their work. I left the org with a connection to some truly amazing talent who mostly don't work at SC any longer.

Cons

Please heed all the low reviews. An organization that doesn't do right by its staff deserves nothing but low reviews. Getting over the stress and burnout from working so hard in a chaotic organization has taken months of healing. If the organization continues in this direction, I don't see how it will be around in five years. The manner in which Ben Jealous came on board and made arbitrary and opaque decisions within the first two months was one of the worst leadership transitions I've ever encountered in my 20 years as a worker.

2.0
12 Oct 2023

Dumpster fire

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Union support, talented and knowledgeable colleagues, good benefits (including fertility and paid parental leave!), remote work, no micro-management, flexible schedules

Cons

If you want to understand why the Democratic party is so disorganized and ineffective, look no further than the Sierra Club. Even the most driven and dedicated liberals will quickly be beaten down by the futility of it all. Little to no work ever gets done because of the insane amount of bureaucracy that permeates throughout the organization. New leadership is trying to modernize operations (and correct a $40M budget shortfall) with a massive restructure that is at odds with the organization's "bottom up" organizing that is largely governed by old, white, retired volunteers who are stuck in the 1970s environmental movement and have zero boundaries or professionalism. HR seems to be non-existent. No one can apparently balance a checkbook. As an added bonus, some employees were just notified a former co-worker (presumably from HR) stole their social security numbers. If you want to be a part of real progressive change, or even just a minimally functional workplace, look somewhere else.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 231 Reviews

Glassdoor has 328 Sierra Club reviews submitted anonymously by Sierra Club employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sierra Club is right for you.