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American Red Cross

Is this your company?

Varied experiences over 15 years, but overall negative due to utter disregard for employees' input. - Anonymous employee American Red Cross Employee Review

2.0
Dec 19, 2010
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It looks good on a resume. It feels good to know you are helping others. You get to work with many other wonderful people who are basically humanitarians at heart.

Cons

Management is 100% inflexible. There is a very strong "Good Ole' Boys (mostly gals) network which protects itself, and harasses people who question them or defend themselves against them. The Human Resources Department exists solely for the protection of the organization and is mean spirited, ruthless and dishonest to the employees. Even if you have had excellent job performance and multiple promotions, questioning the wrong person or the wrong policy will set you on a course which will in one way or another cause your employment to end. These are not nice people.

Explore other reviews about American Red Cross

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good work life balance, fair pay and great work environment

Cons

Not a lot of upward mobility unless you find a different role in the organization. It’s also hard to switch between departments

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.

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