What's the company culture at American Red Cross?

Every business has it's own style. What is the office environment and culture like at American Red Cross?

Are people dressed in business casual, jeans and t-shirts, or full-on suits? Do folks get together for Friday happy hours and friendly get-togethers?

What is a typical day in the life of an employee at American Red Cross?

The American Red Cross is a great organization with a fantasic mission. Unfortunately it has never been marketed corectly as it can only raise substantial dollars during a major disaster..."diaster responsive." On the local levels the boards are generally built from the bottom up rather than the top down... thy give their time not there moneyand often willnot solicit others to do the same as they believe it is a staff responsibility.

If you are the type of person who is looking for security within an organization that maintains the satus quo and offers an incredible benefits program... this place is for you. If you are creative, inventive, and a risk taker look elsewhere as you will be bored to death.

I'm going to have to disagree with Craig, having worked at the Cross for nearly 10 years and having been laid off twice. The Red Cross is the most "layoff-happy" company I've ever been acquanted with. Most of my friends have been laid off at one time or another. Now, that doesn't mean YOU will be laid off but with the new President, Mark Everson, it's going to be a bumpy ride as he charts his course. Layoffs are inevitable.

However, I agree that the environment is laidback and collegial. It's definitely not a backstabbing, run over your grandmother to get ahead type of place. As of last summer, the dress code has been eradicated and I wear jeans about 3X a week.

Again, I can only speak for their national HQ in downtown Washington.

My experience with the Red Cross is limited,but I have personal knowledge of the San Diego,Ca branch. They director stole of a million dollars and was ALLOWED to get away with it. As former Law Enforcement in SD, I was outraged. All this comes for the fire in SD a couple years ago. The Red Cross got 2.75mm and the director there bought a new car, paid his house off and then when the money was needed there was none......
The line personal at R/C are usually great people. In SD mostly retired, or close to it. There is little fellowship that I witnessed, but in all fairness, I was not an employee.

I too worked at the red cross for about three years. The local chapter was horrible and the CEO worthless. They are layoff happy, unconcerned with the employees or the community, upper managements key concerns are to protect their behinds by keeping a management staff who will keep the skeletons in the closet and the keys hidden. During my time with the company they turned over several critical management positions as many as three to four times a year.

The ARC recruits anyone with a heartbeat to donate instead of just contacting the necessary ABO types (O+ & O-) for donations. Anyone with A+, AB+ or B+ has probably wasted their time by donating because their blood was destroyed. Most months, I saw between 500 and 1000 units of blood destroyed and that is only at the local chapter. They ship blood types from one facility to another to confuse the numbers of units collected and destroyed in any given area.

If the general public knew that they were unnecessarily subjected to the invasive procedures of blood donations they would be appalled. There are ways to correct this process, but the local red cross is unwilling to make the simple changes to ensure that there is ample blood in the necessary ABO types when it is needed. If a person is not an O type of blood, it is more than likely that every donation they have made has been destroyed.

The red cross looses money on a free product donated by a very generous public, they conduct invasive and potentially dangerous procedures without regard to medical supply and demand and they regularly loose money. Since voluntarily leaving the red cross, I have heard from dozens of people that they will never donate anything to the red cross again.

In closing, if I or any family member is ever in need of blood and it is not available I will do everything in my power to unveil the skeletons. The ARC needs to be accountable for its negligence, abuse of the public and unwillingness to make simple changes to c

I am really sorry that Janet in Charlotte, Michigan is so bitter over her time at the ARC. As a manager in another Region in the midwest, I do have a few questions. Since you claim to have worked at the Red Cross for three years, you should realize that a "Chapter" does not collect blood. The "Chapter" is the disaster relief half of the ARC and a "Blood Region" collects the blood. A legitiamate employee would not make that mistake.

Secondly you would also know that over half of the recruitment postcards and calls made every month by a region are to blood type specific donors to fill immediate needs. The fact is that there are never enough ABO type donors and there will always be a shortage of those types.

The other donations are not necessarily wasted as the blood can be broken down into components and the components that are needed can be used. While there is always some waste due to the short life of the blood, your description does not take into consideration the rest of the picture. Our region collects an average of over 60,000 units per month. If we only discard 500 to 1,000 units, that is a very minor rate (1.6%) compared to most industries.

Take the chip on your shoulder and stop bashing an organization that is doing the best that it can. Secondly, stop posing as an employee if you are just a disgruntled human being.

Craig said: The American Red Cross is a great organization with a fantasic mission. Unfortunately it has never been marketed corectly as it can only raise substantial dollars during a major disaster..."diaster responsive." On the local levels the boards are generally built from the bottom up rather than the top down... thy give their time not there moneyand often willnot solicit others to do the same as they believe it is a staff responsibility.

If you are the type of person who is looking for security within an organization that maintains the satus quo and offers an incredible benefits program... this place is for you. If you are creative, inventive, and a risk taker look elsewhere as you will be bored to death.

I don't know how a person could disagree with this. Craig speaks exactly as most of us feel who work at ARC (I call it the Red Plus). Everyone has grown up with ARC advertising and have become immune to it. Marketing NEEDS change badly. And the benefits are amazing, but yes, it's a boring job. The thought police are roaming the organization and honestly, the only people I see happy there are tired, comfortable nurses who demand structure. If you're young and want to see the world, surprisingly the organization that takes you there locks you in place for the entire ride.

I have always and an affection for the
Red Cross; I can remember as far back as
1969 as a teen in southern Ms. during Hurricane
Camille; don't know how we would have
survived without them. Have left since that
time, but still have relatives there who
endured Katrina, and again, the Red Cross was
there. I would like to see one in Israel where
it is much-needed too.

Rick
www.londonstimes.us

Rick, Israel has the Magen David Adom (MDA)which is part of the Red Cross Community for about two years thanks in a large part to the efforts of the ARC. Since the founding of Israel in 1948 the Moslem nations successfully pressured the world powers not to recognize Israel's MDA which was represented by a Red Star of David. They said that it was not a recognized symbol like the Red Cross and The Red Crescent. The truth of the matter was that recognizing the Red Star of David was equivalent to recognizing Israel and once again the International Red Cross stuck there heads in the ground as they did in the forties when they knew about the concentration camps and either said nothing or described them as places that you would want to send your children for the summer. The ARC did nothing during this period of time for a number of reasons... among them the fear that American POW's would be mistreated and not get much needed supplies if they acknowledged that an extermination process of Jews was taking place... 2 million children and 4 million adults.

ARC (I may be incorrect) woke up under the the leadership of Elizabeth Dole insisting that the MDA be recognized. ARC's solution was to deny paying dues to the International body. It wasn't until 2005 or 57 years after the founding of the State of Israel that the Magen David Adom was recognized by the international community... through the efforts of the ARC and Jordon... an Arab nation that was seen as a turncoat.

Why did ARC wait more than 40 years to act when Israel hospitals, ambulances, and medical vehicles bearing the Red Star of David were considered legitimate military targets to its enemies because they displayed a non recognized Red Star of David rather than a Red Cross or Red Crescent... the only symbols recognized by both the International Red Cross? Oh, the caveat... Israel can only use the Red Star of David within their own boarders and not when participating in international relief efforts.

Craig

Thanks Craig,

I was not aware of that update, but, for me, the Red Cross is forgiven. I am certain there have been some tough internal decisions (it always confused me why they were available to enemy forces (Palestinians) but not Israel. Glad to know they are now. I consider it a black mark, but I still support the Red Cross (no person or charity is perfect) and as long as they have made strides, which obviously they have, even if it took pressure, they are doing the right thing. Israel, like America is a democracy under attack (and much more often than we are). I am usually optomistic, but I am afraid the terrorists are not finished with us either, and it is comforting to know the Red Cross is here (am sure any Israeli would say the same).

Sincerely,

Rick
www.ricklondoncollection.com

I'm not quite as bitter as Janet, but I'm getting there. I'm getting laid off after 17 years. No severance. No thanks for the hard work over the years. No anything.

They're laying off 40 of us from the lab. And Janet is right about the non-O blood types. Many times we DON'T use what we collect, especially if you're an A or a B pos.

Laurie Brown in Lansing, Michigan said: I'm not quite as bitter as Janet, but I'm getting there. I'm getting laid off after 17 years. No severance. No thanks for the hard work over the years. No anything.

They're laying off 40 of us from the lab. And Janet is right about the non-O blood types. Many times we DON'T use what we collect, especially if you're an A or a B pos.

Laurie,

I was saddened to read that you were laid off after so many years without severance or thanks or anything! At our chapter, we just had layoffs but got a little severance time and "thanks" (frankly, I could use the money much more than the "thanks"). Not that it makes it much better, though! I had been with the chapter for a while too, but not nearly as long as you had been with blood services. I hope that you have found another job that you are very happy with!

I think that Red Cross is a wonderful organization with great volunteers and a caring staff for the most part, but I think that our CEO was a phony who should have been replaced with someone else...that certainly would have helped our budget, and fewer positions would have been cut. There was no logic to the positions that were cut, either. Seemed pretty random.

Sounds like there are many folks on here who have worked for the Red Cross so I will interject this question on this discussion (I'm new to this site so hope this is OK since I can't figure out how to start a new discussion). My partner and I are full time RV'ers, having retired from our careers in nursing and food service management. We've always thought that a dream "job" would be to work for the Red Cross, responding to disasters...leaving at a moments notice to go and set up shelters, emergency supply networks, etc. Our backgrounds in healthcare and mgmt/supervision of 100+ employees/crisis mgmt. would make us very suitable for this type of work and helping others is what we really enjoy. We have taken many of the Red Cross classes on shelter set-up, disaster assessment, etc. that they offer but I haven't been able to find out what or if jobs like the one I describe exist.I've been to the Red Cross site and the job listings have very "technical" classifications/descriptions and I haven't been able to sift through them to find the type of work we want (total travel)We don't want to work out of any one location....we want to move from one disaster to another and with our 5th wheel we have the capability to exist for weeks without power or need for water (due to our battery set-up and holding tanks). Can anyone advise on how or if a job like this exists with the Red Cross ? We're not looking to make a huge salary doing this...it's just something we've really wanted to do for a long time now. Any advice would be appreciated.