Canadian Cancer Society Reviews

Pros

excellent staff, exciting work in the community

Cons

unfortunately, had to close many regional office due to Covid.

Pros

Everyone there cares about the cause & wants the organization to succeed to help cancer patients and their families. Managers are approachable and they work hard to make employees feel connected whether in the same location or otherwise. Benefits are nice (health savings account, personal savings account, health insurance coverage). Moving to a work-from-home model is good for a COVID world.

Cons

Anyone who is above manager level seems to be disconnected from their teams and there is very little opportunity to give feedback (and if asked for feedback, you may be reprimanded for giving it). There are town halls, but they are not very interactive and harder questions tend to be ignored. Further, there are almost no expense funds. It is a non-profit, but there needs to be funds for supplies and proper salaries for all staff. No one goes into non-profit to be paid a lot, but other similar organizations have MUCH better pay/benefits for the same or less work. Since every department seems to be stretched thin/burned out, getting work done or support from other departments is near impossible. They are too busy and instead of offering more competitive pay and more rest, Upper management just lets people go and don't put a lot of effort into find more employees so the cycle continues with people getting even more work with less pay and rest. If you are someone who doesn't need the job for money and wants to be constantly working with little feedback but a good manager and other staff on your level, this is a great job. However, I feel like the people who would be OK with that are few and far between.

Pros

• A nice introduction to corporate life • Not an overbearing or high-stress job (depending on your role) • Understanding of other life commitments: staff understand if you need to step away so I didn't feel glued to the computer • Benefits are alright - not awful but could be better • "Me days" (random paid days off) • Little quirks like throwing money towards your office set-up • Frankly, having this on your resume looks good - nice branding

Cons

• Your salary is very likely well-below market rate • Advancement is near impossible: it is very, very slow. Not uncommon to see people in the same role for 5+ years. Stagnant. • Open management positions overwhelmingly go to new hires - I saw one person get promoted in my time there • In your first year, your performance will be graded "in development" (the second lowest grade) regardless of performance. This is so you don't qualify for a raise • Raises are small (1-5%) and competitive within your team (if even offered) • Teams within the company are siloed, but worse than that, they do not like to work with each other. Managers protect their "resources" (staff), which is good at a surface level, but difficult when you need to work with another team (often) • A number of staff have secret side-jobs or do freelancing to make up for the poor pay, but that is really troublesome when you need support • Talent (or the people who actually do the work) leave for better jobs, which is so disappointing, but leaves teams short-staffed and overworked • Felt disposable and undervalued like a cog in a machine. It's a big company and you feel like its the Amazon hiring model of, "we'll find someone else" • Company spirit is super pathetic - our christmas gift was a tote bag • You need to get things in writing (email only) otherwise what you agreed to can be openly questioned, which is really strange and kind-of toxic • HR is non-existent (but short-staffed so see above) • So many pointless meetings. You will have meetings about future meetings, and meetings about management patting themselves on the back for the work of their underlings • Managers talk in meetings - you smile and nod • Kind-of a weird dichotomy where you need to talk like you are an architect with your role goals, but in actuality, you are the construction worker: you dont really give input ever, you just do the work • A bit of an erosion of values over time in the pursuit of money, like asking people who donated on behalf of a deceased loved one to do it again

Pros

Money raised is for a good cause

Cons

Terrible communication. Management. Had to take to labour board for final pay. “ clerical error”. Terribly mismanaged. They just shake it up to keep management unaccountable

Pros

Great company to work for

Cons

Lots of competing priorities in progress