Goodwill reviews

As a cashier/sales associate at Goodwill, you will deal with some very lovely people, very rarely. Most of the time, however, you will deal with extremely difficult customers, and when I say extremely difficult customers, I mean it sincerely. The pay is appalling. My ending salary was $8.50, but that's only because the state of New Jersey increased the minimum wage. There is literally no opportunity for advancement or pay increases, and management essentially sees you as expendable. There are monthly bonuses - if the store reaches a certain amount of money by the end of the month - but for a part-time employee working about 40 hours each week, my bonus was never more than $11. Further, you don't qualify for the bonuses unless you've been with the company for 3 months. There is very little direction from the management, and whenever there is any type of mistake, they're always there to breathe down your neck. Security is a huge issue, too: They have cameras everywhere in the store that are operated from Goodwill's HQ in NY, but instead of paying attention to the customers, they focus on watching the employees and making sure that they're doing their work, which is ludicrous, because management should be overseeing the employees, and security should be watching the customers. The store is incredibly messy. Always. A cleaning crew comes in to clean it once every 2 weeks, but it's a fruitless effort, because the store gets completely trashed before the night is over. The store is essentially disorganized - at least this is true for the location where I worked. Everything is Do-It-Yourself, and to be brutally honest, you'd be better off working retail somewhere else - for a company where employees are treated well and where there is the potential for growth.

What comes to mind when you think about working for a non-profit? -That the work for and with the organization would make you feel good, right? -It's because you'd want to feel like you're making a difference, yes? -And since Goodwill is a HUGE name, one would think it'd be AWESOME to work there and you'd be making a difference, right? . That's what I thought & that was my experience when I worked there. Until 2013. * From the date of incorporation of Goodwill Industries of Orange County Ca., 1932 until 2012, it wasn't 'all about the money'. Money coming in of course was important, but our raison d'etre WE were working at Goodwill was everything associated with serving the <mostly> disabled people we called 'clients' who were working, getting trained, getting placed in jobs at the org. That was our Mission, to "provide people with disabilities and other barriers the opportunity to achieve their highest levels of personal and economic independence", & by God we did a GREAT job. They were our clients, WE worked for THEM. It was quality vs quantity and we were a quality org. Every day, you could see the reason. Every single frickin' day. We had a common goal, a common focus, a common need to fill. We got all sorts of caring, 'warm fuzzy' feelings about what we were doing. And it was good. CON: before I was let go, the vision changed; from " "Goodwill of Orange County envisions a world where all individuals with disabilities and other barriers will have the opportunity to participate in a full range of life's experiences, including competitive employment. In support of this vision, we will maintain leadership in creating and providing quality education, training, and employment services to empower individuals to be productive and independent, based on their abilities and interest." to "Over the next five years we intend to double the number of people we serve by providing services that are innovative and driven by the needs of the community." Read those two again. Perhaps it would be clearer to say 'innovative and driven by the needs of the media'. Translation: Quantity vs quality. A revolving door philosophy of 'get 'em in, count 'em, give some service that might help them, then they're outta here.'. CON: The employees organization-wide are now being choked by fear and apprehension. This is partly due to management's obsession with suspicion and mistrust. In the last 2 years, state-of-the art security and video systems have been put in place everywhere except in the bathrooms and IT. NOW, when you talk to someone about anything, you look over your shoulder to see if anyone's around; you talk in an office so the cameras won't see you; you wonder who you can trust (answer: NO ONE). When it gets so bad that an ex-employee who was let go attempts to send an email the next day to their coworkers, management finds out about it, quickly tells IT to block and eliminate those emails, even erasing them off staff emails whether they're opened or not, including any 'sent' emails to that ex-coworker, well, are they that afraid of a stupid goodbye email? Programs are being cut, long-term employees are being fired/let go, the upper management and HR rule by fear. It's not feeling remotely like a non-profit organization should feel. When you open up a can of root beer, you expect root beer and not tap water, yes? When 5 people are let go/position eliminated/reduction in force from the same department right when they walk into work, within 3 business days (one person was let go the day they got back from their honeymoon), that doesn't really seem like something a caring, 'warm fuzzy' organization like Goodwill would do, does it? No, it doesn't. They're gone, to the Goodwill Gulag. Along with appx 30+ people, from January-June 2014.