Disaster Services - Lack of Support and Poor Behavior
Pros
Very Meaningful mission, a high level of responsibility and learning from the start, a number of good partners to work with, travel opportunities on national deployments, national recognition
Cons
Volunteers are allowed to treat chapter level staff terribly, and there are virtually no repercussions. I joined the ARC hoping to be in a team oriented environment with kind people, as I had experienced in prior volunteering. Volunteers are allowed to speak and treat staff in a demeaning and dehumazing manner, regularly criticizing and disrespecting people who are on call 24/7 and get little support (staff). Disaster chapter level staff are given a high level of responsibility but very little decision making power, as all decisions come from the National or Regional level and take a very long time. They also hold little to no accountability over their volunteers, but are told to provide "customer service" while meeting very demanding requirements. Staff are told to delegate, and when things aren't getting done, are told they have to do it themselves, but then get scolded for not engaging volunteers.
