Pros
I liked my time at Goodwill. Their progressive discipline is something that all companies should learn from. So once you are fired, there is no way for those who are gone to get unemployment. By the time the employee is gone, there are at least 4 writeups in their file. Our Director was no-nonsense but you could talk to them once you got over the initial hard-nose attitude. And it was understandable, they pushed their stores to be great. I loved the ability to work with the disabled and work toward the mission of "Putting people to work". Yea it is hard work, but it pushed the mission, and that made me happy.Also my management team was awesome and were great mentors!
Kontras
People that had achieved consistent results for years and got passed over on leadership positions repeatedly. That led me to believe that maybe it was personal. Then the assistant to one of the leaders in corporate office is extremely unprofessional. Also, customers get really cut-throat over items. It makes you wonder if you are babysitting during your shift, but it's better entertainmnent than any reality show. It takes the edge off a not-so-ideal work environment (dust, random insects jumping out of donation boxes, hourly attitudes, having to go out in the cold, etc). But the thing that really made me want to leave was having to work 6 day work weeks. Goodwill had a decent benefits package, Kaiser for insurance, PTO/Vacation days, but having to work 6 day work weeks for unspecified reasons other than we had to was the first and last straw. A lot of managers tried to contact HR and even question its legality but HR already had it covered. As long as our hours didn't fall below the salary minimum by the state, we were stuck. Four days off a month was completely unacceptable. Then I was told it has happened before! I immediately went looking for jobs the same day. A lot of the managers were childish and tried to throw others under the bus to look better. Brown nosing never works. Luckily, my team wasn't like that , but those manager meetings will make you happy to be at your location.