Working America Reviews

The nature of fundraising is at odds with political work. Additionally, door-to-door fundraising is not sustainable long term. Fundraising goals are based on national direction and have very little connection to realities of local communities - particularly given the need to organize in blue-collar and low income communities. Field Directors have little autonomy around hiring and firing - you are directed to hire almost everyone and if someone misses quota three weeks out of five, they have "cycled out - this model is intentional. Field Directors also have little say regarding campaigns being worked on. When Field Directors are recruited, they are often told that this is a way to begin to work on the "program" side - which is disingenuous at best. Additionally, all staff are encouraged to be "geo-flexible" - meaning you are expected to relocate - which is not always disclosed. This creates an environment where staff have little outside life that does not include canvass staff. Despite being told the position is about 45 hours a week, the realities of managing a constant cycling of staff means regularly working 60 or more hours per week. I was often discouraged from using my sick-time or vacation time.During my time, Field Directors were expected to re-apply for their position after every election. Finally, despite being a part of the labor movement, Field Directors do not have the benefit of being a part of a collective bargaining unit.

Working America lures you in with promises of a good, stable, union job, with great benefits. Once you get there, you quickly discover that almost nobody has been with the organization for long enough to actually get benefits. This is because they have the job rigged, so that everyone except management will quickly be fired for not reaching quotas. Employee voices are not considered, and the union contract affords you no actual protection. These are not simply the words of a disgruntled employee who could not handle the job -- it is literally true that NO ONE was able to stay with the organization, except for management. Honest managers even admit that this is indeed how their system works.