Pros
Location in Washington DC is nice. The people inthe chapter organisations are highly motivated and it is fun and worthwhile to engage them. As a volunteer organization, the Red Cross does an excellent job of keeping the chapter volunteers engaged. These people really provide the true public face of the organization. The Red Cross also has reasonable benefits compared with other non-profit volunteer organizations. The Red Cross also provides a higher pay rate for IT professionals (although this does not always translate into recruiting better candidates). The Red Cross also has some great events such as the annual chapter conference.
Cons
Performance goes unrewarded while incompetence is overlooked. Management has a lot of C and D players that tend to recruit other C and D players. Several key exectutives are grossly unqualified and lack basic management and leadership skills. There is a lot of nepotism and favoritism to go around. Employee morale is very low when I left, but has only become worse since then as the organization was forcewd to lay off 30 per cent ot headquarters staff. Unfortunately, even this opportunity did not clean house of the those individuals that should have been let go as too much dead wood is still afloat within the irganization.