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Canadian Cancer Society

Engaged Employer

Canadian Cancer Society reviews

3.7

77% would recommend to a friend

(247 total reviews)

Andrea Seale

97% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Canadian Cancer Society has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 247 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Canadian Cancer Society employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Non-profit and NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

247 reviews
1.0
Aug 6, 2016

Defeated Optimist

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent location. Could easily get to the office.

Cons

It was like a cult. A death cult. Everyone drank the same Kool-Aid. Lots of kids running around,not knowing what they were doing. Your basic cheer leaders. Few people with experience from outside. Certainly little life experience. Most of the staff was a combination of deadbeats and leaches. Those that did put in a days work saw little support or acknowledgement. Lots of sucking up and toady-ism. Management was lazy, and often incapable of doing anything but being reported to. They didn't do much on their own. Inept, and from what i could see oblivious and often ambivalent to the real world. Safe in cushy positions. Lazy. Mean and nervous. No professionalism at all. Condescending. Micro thinkers. A very constrictive environment. I met maybe 3, 4 or 5 capable souls. No new ideas. Passed off their responsibilities to already busy staff. Way too top heavy on management, that all left the building at dot 5, reaped generous benefits and basically did nothing all day. Lots of useless meetings. And pep rallies. And endless reports assigned, so they could not read them later. If you were looking for friendly people that so much as smile, you're in the wrong place. There was little sincerity in the area I was in. And they were crazy about email. Verbal communication, meetings, face to face...meant nothing compared to the email obsession. It was like a fetish. Quite a time waster reading, and scrolling, and replying...it was endless. So much more could have been accomplished if everyone just acted like people. The Upper Management was a mystery. Hidden. Quiet. Behind closed doors (when they were even about.) Clueless as to what was going on, or to what was happening. There seemed to be a pervasive apathy. Over paid and under utilized. No leadership at all. There was little respect, harmony or cohesion between ares of discipline. There seemed to be resentment and lack of trust, certainly lack of respect between disciplines there. You could taste it. And hear about it in the hallways. Contempt breeds gossip and there was plenty of whispering. My biggest take away was what an ENORMOUS amount of money was wasted. I lost sleep thinking about the useless spending. The money that I saw spent on capital expenditures, salaries and vendors was mind-blowing. Their rent alone, with a ton of wasted and un-used space must me an astronomical figure. I was so appalled at the waste of money there I felt sick. The cloud of "we're doing something good', while they weren't doing much more than spending and wasting money was too much for me so I quit.

2.0
Sep 1, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mission is top-notch, clear and transparent financials, always watching cost-to-raise a dollar to try to ensure the money goes to the mission not to admin.

Cons

Treat staff terribly. Worst moral I have ever encountered in the Development profession. Years of terrible leadership have taken a toll and we cannot retain a talented development workforce.

1.0
Jun 27, 2022

Good Cause, Disappointing Leadership

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Everyone there cares about the cause & wants the organization to succeed to help cancer patients and their families. Managers are approachable and they work hard to make employees feel connected whether in the same location or otherwise. Benefits are nice (health savings account, personal savings account, health insurance coverage). Moving to a work-from-home model is good for a COVID world.

Cons

Anyone who is above manager level seems to be disconnected from their teams and there is very little opportunity to give feedback (and if asked for feedback, you may be reprimanded for giving it). There are town halls, but they are not very interactive and harder questions tend to be ignored. Further, there are almost no expense funds. It is a non-profit, but there needs to be funds for supplies and proper salaries for all staff. No one goes into non-profit to be paid a lot, but other similar organizations have MUCH better pay/benefits for the same or less work. Since every department seems to be stretched thin/burned out, getting work done or support from other departments is near impossible. They are too busy and instead of offering more competitive pay and more rest, Upper management just lets people go and don't put a lot of effort into find more employees so the cycle continues with people getting even more work with less pay and rest. If you are someone who doesn't need the job for money and wants to be constantly working with little feedback but a good manager and other staff on your level, this is a great job. However, I feel like the people who would be OK with that are few and far between.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 247 Reviews

Glassdoor has 315 Canadian Cancer Society reviews submitted anonymously by Canadian Cancer Society employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Canadian Cancer Society is right for you.