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American Cancer Society

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A Noble Organization Marred by Layoffs and Glass Ceiling - Anonymous employee American Cancer Society Employee Review

3.0
Sep 22, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

VERY generous PTO policy (and I'll explain why in the cons). As a first year employee, you can expect to receive around 23 days of PTO, most of the national holidays, two floating company holidays, AND two personal holidays (one of which is for your birthday since ACS is the national sponsor of birthdays). By year three, you get two additional days, and then additional days at year five or seven. And you can take your vacation days whenever you want; you don't have to accrue them and you don't have to come up with lame excuses to use them. In the two years that I worked there, I was never denied PTO or made to feel guilty about using it. Great work-to-life ratio. Once you leave for the day, you're done unless you're a higher-up. Excellent health benefits (with one exception). A very noble cause with very nice and dedicated coworkers passionate about said cause. Excellent work location in the middle of downtown Atlanta. There's no shortage of restaurants or sites to see. Quarterly monetary perks for completing health and wellness goals. Frequent employee appreciation events meant to boost morale, plus tenant appreciation events put together by the owners of the building.

Cons

Those great benefits come at the cost of a great salary until you break into the manager class, if you ever do. They're very stingy with merit increases and one year we didn't receive them at all (they gave us two extra company holidays as compensation). Despite having generally great health benefits, the sick leave policy is very restrictive. In order to utilize it as it's designed, you have to request it in 5-day increments and those days have to be consecutive workdays with no weekends or holidays in between. So basically, you have to get sick only on the weekends, make it to your doctor before the work week starts or early Monday morning, and then convince him or her to recommend at least five days of bed rest even if you really only need a day or two (good luck with that). The majority of cases in which people need sick leave don't require five consecutive days, so you're all but forced to use your PTO unless you're two, wobbly, precarious steps away from Death's door. A seemingly shatterproof glass ceiling, especially if you're on the darker end of the racial spectrum. They have no problem hiring minorities, but promoting them to high-ranking positions is another story entirely. Regardless of race, I've seen people who worked there for a decade or more be passed over for promotions and positions for barely legal Kens & Barbies fresh from some no-name college. The internal applicant process is a complete farce. I applied for numerous internal positions for which I was highly qualified and never even received an offer for an interview with the exception of one I received a full three months after I'd already left the company (and roughly eight months after I originally applied for the position). The HR office responsible for hiring in Atlanta, GA is located in Hershey, PA and they are more unresponsive than decayed roadkill. The company has been going through "transformation" for over 5 years now. What this means is random mass layoffs in an effort to stop the organization from "hemorrhaging millions of dollars of donor money," yet they hire VPs and department heads with $400k+ salaries like it's going out of style (oh, and a million+ dollar CEO...with no medical degree...). Entire sections of cubicles are basically ghost towns. It wasn't uncommon to come back from lunch or a mandatory company event and find your friends and coworkers missing, their desks cleared out. This caused a very pervasive sense of unease because you were never sure who was next or if you/your team were going to be the next victims of "transformation."

Explore other reviews about American Cancer Society

5.0
Feb 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits package is great: medical, dental, vision, 403B, plenty of PTO Leadership is very easy to speak to, direct supervisors are always available and accommodating Schedule changes and requesting time off is never an uphill battle, they try their best to accommodate your needs and if they're unable to, offer alternatives and keep you apprised of when they will be able to. GREAT work life balance

Cons

Pay could be higher No annual bonuses (although there are performance awards)

3.0
Jul 15, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mission-driven work so feels like you are helping the world, your core team can be very collaborative and supportive, flexible remote work, good PTO and work / life balance.

Cons

Management makes or breaks the culture, when I first started it was a great place to work, then the shift in management changed a lot over the years. Currently, I would not recommend anyone to work here. The pay does not keep up with the cost of living, and no matter how much you go above and beyond, you will not see any change or recognition (title change, pay bumps, nothing). It is a stagnant place to work. Leadership asks for our thoughts every quarter, knows what people are unhappy about, and doesn't do much or anything about it. Instead they are constantly restructuring the organization and there is no stability or consistency in processes or communication.

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