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American Cancer Society

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American Cancer Society reviews

3.5

55% would recommend to a friend

(1,930 total reviews)
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Karen E. Knudsen

60% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

American Cancer Society has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 1,930 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The American Cancer Society employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Nonprofit & NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Jul 29, 2018

STAY AWAY AND LOOK ELSEWHERE

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Passionate team members who care about fighting cancer.

Cons

Donor dollars are going to greedy executives who make way too much money while they continue to cut people at the grassroots level. I worked here for NINE YEARS and wish I would have seen how backwards this place was earlier in my career. When you have a passion for fighting cancer, a job at ACS seems like the best thing. Unfortunately, internal politics and horrible leadership are driving this incredible non-profit into the ground.

3.0
Jun 19, 2018

Noble Mission, Horrible Loyalty to Employees

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Amazing PTO (around 25 days your first year, plus birthdays and floating holidays. 2. Beautiful building in a great location downtown. Ample dining and shopping in the immediate area. 3. Frequent employee appreciation events (too bad the sentiment is mostly hollow).

Cons

1. Horrible sick leave policy. You can only take sick leave if your doctor prescribes at least 5 consecutive days in a row, not including weekends. So you basically have to get sick on a Saturday, see your doctor on a Sunday, and convince him or her to recommend you for sick leave Monday through Friday (no matter the severity of your condition). Otherwise, you will be met with the canned phrase, "That's why we have such a generous PTO policy!" 3. Absolutely terrible waste of in-house talent. They consistently snub highly qualified and loyal internal candidates for external candidates. And while they have no problem hiring certain POC, they definitely have a huge problem promoting certain POC to leadership roles. The corporate leadership is startlingly white, which wouldn't be such a big deal if the organization weren't headquartered in Atlanta, a city where being highly melanated isn't supposed to be disadvantageous. 4. Below average pay and an unwillingness to promote professional development. If you were hired as a peon, you'll likely stay a peon until you find opportunities elsewhere or until you get fired. 5. TRANSFORMATION, aka frequent mass layoffs of the most loyal employees, regardless of the many years of work they've done. Every two or three years they layoff large numbers of employees because donations are dropping year after year, yet they still somehow manage to pay millions of dollars to the CEO and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the directors with donor money.

2.0
Mar 28, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing mission. The organization has done so much to help cancer patients. Most staff are heavily invested in the mission and want to do the best job possible. Generous vacation/sick time if you can take it (I never had a problem getting time off, but many staff do- it's completely dependent on your vertical/manager). Certain managers are flexible with work hours/remote options.

Cons

The work environment is the most oppressive I have ever seen. Constant restructuring/firing leaves everyone in a fearful state. Leadership often makes decisions that do not seem thought out- firing an entire team that provides a service, for example- without a new structure in place. Extra work is often heaped on those lucky enough to survive cuts (without additional compensation). Morale is very low. All technology is woefully out of date. Many new executives were brought in from Coca Cola and they seem more concerned with revenue and prestige than mission.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 1,930 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,097 American Cancer Society reviews submitted anonymously by American Cancer Society employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if American Cancer Society is right for you.