Pros
the mission-we literally save lives
Cons
60-70 hour workweek is not only common, but expected. Hospitals depend on blood supply, but is sometimes very hard to be empathetic when you have been standing in a store parking lot for 5 hours in the rain or the snow begging people to get on the bloodmobile and donate blood. Hospital needs supercede human needs of Red Cross employees and there is absolutely no work/life balance in the Donor Recruitment and Collections departments...we work weekends, all holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas, and lose vacation time (for which we are not paid) every year....altho office people have 40 hour work weeks, no weekends and can take two week vacations without worrying. The pressure is constant and employees regularly go WEEKS without one day off.