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American Red Cross

Is this your company?

Dedicated employees but ARC only cares about $$$ - Instructor American Red Cross Employee Review

2.0
Jun 15, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Never met such a dedicated and caring group of employees and volunteers - all dedicated to the mission of the Red Cross. - name recognition looks great on a resume - before the various restructuring (especially the worst of it, being merger to national), we had a voice and ability to create change, make a fun and rewarding work environment - comraderie amongst staff and employees (ie: parties, gatherings for special occassions)

Cons

Morale through the whole organization (from office staff to managers) is at a new low. More changes, less pay, more layoffs and more work for who's left. As someone wrote in their review a few weeks ago, what isn't a con? Ever since merger to NHQ, they made us feel like we're conning them for $ and yet, *we* the employees are being nickeled and dined every which way. It made for a fun job to just being treated like a "widget" making $$$$ for them. - constant turnover since NHQ merger - many "lifers" left - no raises in over 7 years, despite customers paying up to $130 per class - constantly evolving policies with no input from the instructors affected - management that has no idea what instructors go through and yet continue to set unreasonable policies and expectations (many that contradict) - less support, management quickly angered by any feedback provided or when asked for help - they demand more, want to pay for less ~ (ie: they cut mileage and pay to classes DESPITE being forced to recently start delivering supplies to classes - nothing like having a long start to the day before you even see a single student) - constant cuts in class time w/ more material to teach and increasing class size - no actual breaks for instructors because of shortened class times and barely any videos, so we lecture most of class with no downtime. - customer comes first - god forbid you fail someone, need a rest break when customer wants none or better yet an instructor got in trouble because a student in class was dripping snot and clearly sick and had to be told by instructor several times to reschedule. Clearly instructors' safety is not a concern. - instructors sent to unsafe neighborhoods or have contracted classes that don't have enough space and forced to teach anyway leaving risk for injuries

Explore other reviews about American Red Cross

5.0
Jun 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Friendly people and good work

Cons

No cons for this company

2.0
Mar 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You feel connected to a larger mission, and go to bed knowing you did good work. Most of the volunteers are amazing people. The job is a good stepping stone to other disaster management jobs elsewhere. PTO policy is generous and Healthcare is decent.

Cons

You are INCREDIBLY overworked and GROSSLY underpaid. You get zero work-life balance. Even when you're not on call, you'll still get tons of calls from volunteers with questions and concerns. If a volunteer is unavailable to respond to a fire call or tend to any other responsibility day or night, you're on deck. You're salaried, so there's no overtime pay. Your pay barely covers the basic cost of living in today's economy ($40k-$50k). Diversity is bottom heavy, meaning there are lots of employees of color in entry level or lower management roles, but beyond that there's a steep drop off. Most of the volunteers are great, but the Red Cross is so desperate to keep them, that poor behavior and language (racist/sexist/phobic) is not properly disciplined or responded to, if at all. Employee retention is poor, especially in the Disaster Specialist role, because they burn you out so quickly without decent pay.

2
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