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American Red Cross

Is this your company?

Disheartening experience. - Account Manager American Red Cross Employee Review

2.0
26 Dec 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Helping others through education and increasing blood donations. The ARC has many different divisions SAF (Service of Armed Forces, Biomedical, Disaster Relief, etc). The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

Cons

There is no 40 hour work week. It is 60+ hours, if you're lucky. Account Managers are the only employees held financially accountable for achieving goals. You can work 70 hours and receive only 40 hours pay and bust your butt, but if the collections staff doesn't like you (which they won't due to poor management) you will NEVER achieve your goals. Collections staff can shut down blood drives, defer your donors, all the while getting paid to make your life miserable. There should be some type of personality testing to "weed" out the negative people who thrive on hurting others. Some of the people in charge here only want to see others fail. Kind of crazy considering what a great organization the ARC is and how many different ways the ARC impacts people globally. Very sad and disheartening knowing that upper level management wants to blame one side (donor recruitment) and praise the other (collections). Absolutely bewildering!!! You give and give and give, and they take and take and take.

Explore other reviews about American Red Cross

5.0
14 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly people and good work

Cons

No cons for this company

2.0
15 Mar 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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