Political but not Professional (for little or no money.) - Anonymous employee Goodwill Employee Review

1.0
Jun 17, 2011
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Clients Size Locations Mission Cafeteria on Main Campus Employee Assistance Program and Counselors, you'll need them Access to Austin Nonprofit Community (be nice, they don't take GW folks too seriously, which will come in handy later. See the Cons section below) Lots of training opportunities you can use in future work life---take em, dont expect to use them.

Cons

-Regularly late on annual reviews, raise request, vacation approvals. -Poor organizational skills by supervisors and managers was the norm. The further you go up the chain, the worse it got. Meetings were often cancelled or outright forgotten. Unapproved time cards led to repeated shorted or no check. Their answer? "We'll put it on the next one." They pay every two weeks. -Expensive Benefits. -High turn-over, not uncommon for social work, but, its because of how people were treated, not how they did their job, see below. -Cannot expect to be honestly reviewed for your performance fulfilling your title---an actual quote from a supervisor "I should have lied on your review.". Actual. Quote. - Lots of drama and intrigue. Sometimes quite toxic to getting things done. -Everyone in actual leadership post have been there for ages. New ideas fall on deaf ears, huge disconnect between staff and management. -Ran by a majority of business people, not social workers.

Explore other reviews about Goodwill

5.0
Mar 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Tuition reimbursement Fairly flexible schedule

Cons

Inequity Low pay Lots of miscommunication

3.0
Apr 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I enjoyed my customer service work - helping people as a part of a larger mission to help the community. I found it rewarding to advance to supervisor and pick up new skills and responsibilities such as safety auditing and supply management. And of course it was always interesting to sort all the interesting and unique donated goods.

Cons

A change in management over the past year+ has been very difficult for me. I found my work more heavily scrutinized and criticized in ways that felt unclear and unfair. The new manager had a clear bias towards certain employees, gossiped openly and loudly and often with explicit HIPAA violations, and made it literally impossible for me to keep track of inventory supplies as a part of my responsibilities. Communication between management and associates - and even between management and supervisors is very poor. Workplace culture has seemed to shift from being very flexible and people-oriented to more stringent on policy and focused on revenue. Trust in upper management is strained. Day to day if you stick to your task and focus on production, you'll probably do well. But for me it isn't what it used to be.

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