The American Red Cross operates like a pyramid scheme – those on top get all the perks while those on the bottom get all the dross (low pay, crappy hours, etc.). If you work here your view may vary depending upon your position and department but it doesn’t hide the overall truth. The American Red Cross is in the middle of a massive downsizing that started in 2008 and is set to continue at least until 2017. Nearly all the grumbling you see stems from that simple fact.
Our CEO Gail McGovern’s favorite slogan is “One Red Cross.” This is either clever propaganda or wishful thinking. The American Red Cross has at least four diverse operations operating under its roof at all times – Service to the Armed Forces, blood services, disaster relief, and health and safety education. Each has their own goals and procedures. But whenever senior management wants to cut costs, they make sweeping changes that end up impacting each department detrimentally.
For instance: They cut staffing to the bone, close down local chapters left and right, then institute a new policy where only 10% of staff can be off any given day. In most offices that means only one person gets off. If you’re not that person, you are out of luck. You can’t use PTO; you can’t just take the day off without pay. You must come in or you will be disciplined. Essentially, they’ve created uniform top-down system that doesn’t factor in the needs of each individual office or employee. Now, translate that attitude to disaster relief or blood services and you can see why current employees are upset, client complaints are increasing, and there is more negative press about the organization as a whole (check out ProPublica’s series of exposes for yourself).
That may sound like a petty complaint, but it is just a small example of how everything is done here, and in the end all these “little things” add up. If you want another one, ask anyone about the newly instituted holiday policy. Instead of the usual 10 nationally recognized holidays we are given a miserly six with four “floating” holidays. We are told the company is just following industry standards but shouldn’t a national recognized non-profit be leading the charge for more and better benefits instead of joining the rush to the bottom?
My particular department is a complete mess. There is no communication from above. Literally, none. I have had a new director for a year and a half and have yet to receive one email from him. And that despite a massive program of changes that he has instituted. The communication is just as poorly handled the other way around. Not only does management never ask any questions before making decisions, but if any suggestion or complaint is sent through the chain of command it disappears into the ether never to be seen or heard from again. This is the very definition of dysfunctional.
And absolutely none of these changes are about actually improving service. They just make it look like we are improving service by manipulating the numbers. Unfortunately, what management forgets is that these “numbers” are actually individual clients with individual needs. In the end, they have taken a good idea and turned it into nothing but a con game. This has been the most disheartening job of my entire professional career. I thought I was joining a benevolent humanitarian organization and it just ended up being another greedy, poorly run corporation.
