Goodwill reviews

3.2

46% would recommend to a friend

(9,237 total reviews)

Catherine Meloy

50% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Goodwill has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 9,237 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Goodwill 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

9K reviews
5.0
Apr 22, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company has a family feel to it. Everyone is VERY friendly and willing to talk, help, and just be a great teammate. Promotes mainly from within. For a non-profit the pay is very good (althow for-profit still pays better). Immediate management is kind, team oriented, willing to help train you and help you advance int the company. And more often then not your intimidate manager did your job at one point so they know very well how difficult your job is and is willing to help as needed.

Cons

Not a heck of a lot of management positions, so promotions beyond a supervisor level are rare and in high demand. But the biggest downside is that the Directors and VPs are more pencil pushers not social workers. Each came from accounting or business backgrounds rather then rise from the ranks of the non-profit workers they command. They seem to have little concept of what its like on the front lines. They tend to make strategy plans that sound great on paper but are completely impractical in real life. The result is department are handed a plan of action and when the plan fails its the departments fault. No thought is ever given that the plan could have been at fault... But i suppose this is true of most corporate environments.

1.0
Apr 13, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great employees with strong work ethic in the store. Decent pay and benefits for not requiring a college degree. Sometimes fun to work in the production area, and on a store-by-store basis supervisors can have freedom to work on their own projects (I say that with reservation...check out the store you're applying for first!) Workshops and other escapes from the daily grind were also pretty fun.

Cons

The company seems to promote mediocrity and punish those who try to make things better. I saw way too many incompetent managers last months, even years, while countless individuals who made small mistakes were immediately terminated. Employees were afraid to speak their minds (even when they would offer helpful suggestions) for fear of punishment. Store manager ruled the place with an iron fist with some of the most unintentionally hilarious rules, all of which held the manager to a different standard than all other employees at the store. Supervisors were regularly held to the same production standards as line employees and were written up if they did not match the full-time production workers' standards (even when they spent the entire day busy with supervisory work). At the same time, when employees at my store attempted to reach out to upper-level management, they were continually ignored. Most of the "troublemakers" who found the store manager's rules to be unfair were fired before they could get their cases heard at HR. It's a huge gamble where you get hired on as to what your working conditions will be like. Many of the store managers (and a few Regional Directors) are great and will gladly listen to employees' concerns, but one never really knows until they get hired, where they're going to be. Many good managers at the company are weighed down by the incompetent people above them. If you're looking for a guaranteed good experience in management, you'll want to do more research before you apply here.

4.0
Apr 1, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the stuff you see. Management pays well. est. company.

Cons

disorganized. Rules and regulations changing weekly.

Viewing 9196 - 9198 of 9,237 Reviews

Glassdoor has 9,739 Goodwill reviews submitted anonymously by Goodwill employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Goodwill is right for you.