Vantaggi
The mission is a good one. coworkers are unique and wonderful, even the ones that you might not be that thrilled about at first.
Svantaggi
This place is a like a bomb waiting to explode. DO NOT...I REPEAT... DO NOT WORK HERE!!! Unless you want to lose your favorable impression of this organization in less than 12 weeks. I am pretty sure the top level consists of none other than Satan. When you work for the American Red Cross you are working for an employer who hates you and wishes you would just die already. The only caveat is that they hope you lapse on your life insurance before you kick the bucket so they don't have to pay it out to you grief ridden family. There is absolutely no support for management when there are problems in the field. The person who makes your schedule is vindictive and will assign you to the very worst blood drives as far away from your home as possible if you have the nerve to upset him by calling off because you are half dead and contagious. You will put thousands of miles on your car and spend thousands more in gas without a hint of compensation. The organization is a complete disaster. You are forced to work short staffed and often without the necessary supplies or equipment. Then, just when you go above and beyond to make things happen and you feel proud of the lemonade that you made from the moldy and rotten lemons that they gave you, they flip the script and scold you for not doing better or for not following some ridiculous regulation that has no effect on blood safety or anything else. It is a daily struggle to exist in such a demoralizing environment. You can do no right and all you do is never enough. But management makes big time mistakes on a daily basis and nothing is ever said. Please understand this is just my humble opinion and I have the highest regard for the majority of my coworkers but I have never ever seen a more poorly run organization. LET ME BE 100% CLEAR. The Red Cross at its most upper level DOESNT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO BLOOD DONORS. Donors are Dollar signs. If you happen to be O- then you are an extremely valuable cash cow to keep on milking. Just look at how many phone calls you get when your 56 days are up? But at least they have the vaguest regard for your life because you can keep bringing home the bacon. If you really knew how they treated the people who come to work everyday, year after year, giving all they have got to this organization only to be told they still aren't good enough, and to be treated with such disrespect, you would stop donating your blood to American Red Cross. If your nurse or tech seems less than enthusiastic, it not because he/she doesn't like you. It is because he/she has no work/life balance and is tired and discouraged and waiting for the next reprimand or scolding despite the most sincere of efforts. Something has to change here. The public image of this organization and the reality for its workers are polar opposites. Don't take a job here now. It's not worth the suffering.