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