It's possibly the worst time in the company's history to seek employment at the American Red Cross (Biomedical).
Pros
Many positions are set at hourly wages: you are paid for your overtime. You are providing a valuable service to humanity. Co-workers and supervisors are generally amiable and helpful individuals. Employer matches 401K contributions up to 4% with an additional annual contribution.
Cons
The organization has been plagued by years of ongoing layoffs and cost-saving re-engineering programs. The (once generous) benefits are consistently being rolled back and/or discontinued: the pension was discontinued; health insurance costs nearly doubled in the last year and management is clearly attempting to steer employees into high-deductible, high-coinsurance, high out-of pocket plans; through a conveniently labeled "standardization" of national PTO policy, most employees recently lost 3, 6 or more days of PTO per year. It is increasingly difficult to advance in a company that is either laying employees off or discontinuing positions through attrition. Resolving pay-related discrepancies is notoriously difficult due to unresponsive HR, Payroll and ADP (third party contractor) staff.
