The lack of consistency in pay and job titles. Staff in other regions with less responsibilities than me were paid $5,000+ more than myself and had fancy titles such as "Director", "Manager", "Senior Director", while they did not have any paid staff reporting to them nor were they employed with the Red Cross longer than I.
Lack of appreciation for hard work. 40 hour work week was unheard of. Expected to staff the building even if it meant having to skip meetings with local military leadership, just so there was a body in the building. Worked most weekends throughout the year as many military events happen on weekends and most volunteers did not want to give up their free time on the weekends. "Comp time" is not part of the organizations policy although some staff members are occasionally awarded it.
Lack of focus on SAF program. While the Red Cross started because of Clara Barton's commitment to the troops, the organization seems to have long forgotten that. While that line of service is going through "restructuring" it seems they have just added additional staff to report up into, NHQ has completely overlooked the fact that more support is needed in the field on the Regional level to deliver direct services. On a NHQ level- the organization is far more focused on the services that produce funds (such a biomedical which the Talent Acquisition reps on here keep commenting about). While most regions were informed there was no more room for additional staffing to be added for international services, SAF, or disaster, many have found a way to add staff to their Development Departments, which is an extremely overpaid department to begin with. While I understand that the organization needs funding to deliver services, if we don't have the staff to deliver the services people won't donate. We've seen it time and time again. Not to mention, most people don't even know that the Red Cross has a military/veterans program. Communications/marketing for our services with SAF is AWFUL at best and misleading at worst when they actually do put out articles/commercials.
Also, if you do into the Red Cross hoping to be a "lifer", don't go into International Services or Service to the Armed Forces. There is ZERO room for growth unless you plan on moving to DC for a NHQ job, but most of the people there haven't spent time in the field so they're completely out of touch.
As someone who once donated to this org, after working here I now put my money towards USO and Blue Star Families after seeing how inappropriately money is spent. We had a donor give a sizeable donation to our local SAF program a few years back and our COO put it towards getting pins to give out to everyone she came across. It makes me sick to think how those funds could've assisted in providing direct services rather than being used on giveaways. Actions like this made me lose faith in where I was working.
With the announcement of the 2017 plan this past spring before I left, it's clear that the CEO's plan is to further cut staffing and *hope* that volunteers will suddenly want to commit 20+ hours a week to cover the responsibilities of the staff members that will let go. Since I started, our region alone has turnover of 86% of the staff...that's a lot in 3 &1/2 years. Morale among employees is at an all time low and I honestly don't know how the Red Cross plans to turn things around. I will say that they do give employees a chance to voice their dissatisfaction through a survey, there is a very high level of fear of that information somehow getting back to leadership and leading to termination. This may be unrealistic but most Red Cross employees across the country that I know are all walking on eggshells right now if they haven't already jumped ship this year.
