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The Salvation Army USA

The Salvation Army USA review: working for them is horrible 10

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8:47 am EDT
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The Salvation Army has cult like ways within its operations. Every "major" that I met while being employed with them is married to another "major." ...Curious to know just what the qualifications are when a spouse it is a spouse who promotes the other...Seems silly. There are no real checks and balances from what I have witnessed. Also, if an employee quits, the current employees are told that they cannot communicate with the now former employee. They will ban ex-employee from their stores when----just because the employee quit! They will use two high up people in an office to intimidate during what should be a one-on-one meeting and be abusive together...There is so much to tell. Working for this organization should never be viewed as long term. I have seen so many people get fired. They like to fire because they do not pay into unemployment taxes since they are non-profit. So therefore a person cannot collect unemployment benefits after working for them...and the list goes on and on..they operate like a cult behind closed doors . Very unprofessional. Bad working environment. You will come to view this organization as ugly and corrupt within.

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10 comments
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lookingforanotherjob13
, US
Oct 08, 2022 9:40 am EDT

Just witnessed it myself first hand.

Worked for them 7 months too long.

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TheRealFacts
, GB
Jun 20, 2016 7:00 am EDT

I live at the Salvation Army Hostel in Stoke on Trent, England and can agree with almost all of what has been written here. The ordinary secular staff and support workers (who are not Salvationists) are the real backbone of the organization and are the nicer people. They are regarded as "lesser" than the officers, managers and uniformed Salvationists when in reality the opposite is true and they are the people who do all the real work and are the most help in the difficult situations people find themselves in. The uniformed guys and managers tend to be somewhat arrogant and elitist and they are basically interested in money. They are paid at a much higher rate than non-religious support workers and do very little for it apart from strutting about looking and acting important, to be honest. They won't promote very capable non-religious staff internally and are quite haughty and unpleasant to deal with. By the way, money donated to the Salvation Army never sees the poor, it goes to the officers who are already very well paid anyway. We are charged for meals and accommodation, The Salvation Army gets £200 per week for a small basic room via Housing benefit and charges us an extra £28.00 per week on top for meals and communal cleaning, so for instance, the hostel I live at receives approximately £12, 000 per week for the sixty homeless people it accommodates via Housing Benefit, so they don't need your money donations because they get money from us (the homeless people they accommodate) in that way, and if you donate money to them we'll never see that. If you really want to donate the best thing to donate is unwanted clothes because the officers don't want those so we get them.

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jwt69
, US
Apr 28, 2016 11:41 pm EDT

the salvation army dismissed me on false allegations because the assistent manager at the thrift store i worked at was afraid i would take her job.i applied for unemployment and found out since salvation army is not a usa company they are exempt from paying unemployment. they are headquartered in england. there nothing more than a scam org.

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Appalled Former Admirer
, NZ
Feb 19, 2016 1:25 am EST
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For almost 2 years I worked for this organisation in an administration capacity and witnessed some very concerning managerial behaviour which resulted in quite a number of employees becoming emotionally distressed and, in many cases, resigning or being paid off to resign. I observed the money-hungry practices of this organisation's hierarchy which ensure the lining of their own pockets (e.g. officer benefits worth many thousands of dollars per year) and prey on their well-meaning workers by overloading them and paying them the bare minimum that they can get away with. As for donations, why would you give to an organisation that wastes so much money on covering their incompetent managerial practices, disadvantaging their staff and feathering their officers' nests? Perhaps those at the coalface are more genuinely compassionate towards the needy ... or are they? But the administration arm, which is populated with a plethora of untrained "managers", is a complete abomination. I pray that God will find a way to enlighten and to guide this wayward and non-Christian behaviour exhibiting cult.

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Betty Nolasco
, US
Jul 25, 2015 8:42 am EDT

Everything willam booth stood for is and has all been lost. This day in age it is all about the money. The salvation army isn"t what it used to be like. I was about people, but not any more. This day and time that its all gone. This younger generation of cpts and majors and so on. All they are interested is power and money. They pry on the weak and fire who ever they want. Even if your not even doing nothing. Just for the hell of it. Because they felt like it. I also noticed that alot of these so called captins. Who are married to these majors. There is alot of domestic violence involved. They can"t even give there own opinioin or they get rediculed. Now how sad is that. Its either his way or the highway. Well i know one thing god will always have the last word.

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Crazy Eddie
, US
Oct 23, 2014 5:38 pm EDT

I agree Sally. A dark side indeed.

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Sally slave
, US
Sep 17, 2014 7:05 pm EDT

It is true the Salvation Army is an evil organization that hides behind the guise of their "good deeds". I gave them two long hard years of work. I worked harder than I ever have at any job and was rewarded with being asked to do more. The SA does help some people but I know for fact that the store I worked in brought in over 3.5 million a year. Only five employees out of 60 made any more than minimum wage. When you ask for a raise after doing what's asked and then some you are told that you will get a 3% raise per year of employment. Employees are treated very poorly and fired whenever they don't meet store sales goals simply to satisfy the "upper" management that something has been done to change things in order to now meet their goals. I was fired simply for walking out of a management meeting after being asked what I was doing the day before while management was talking for three hours. During that time I was making sure all employees were working and doing what they are supposed to as well as handling all incoming trucks and making sure things were running smoothly. That is a huge stressful responsibility for one person to handle. When I was asked what I was doing during that time I couldn't believe they were implying that I wasn't doing what wi was supposed to.
The Salvation Army has a very dark side to how they treat people and an even darker side when it comes to their greed in handling the money they bring in from their donations. All managers steal. And people think they are doing good by donating. Well if paying hardworking people min wage and firing people whenever management makes mistakes is doing good then sure the Salvation Army is "doing the most good".

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Shempie
, US
Aug 29, 2014 11:04 am EDT

The Salvation Army church is a dying church within the Protestant denominations. They are stuck in a time warp in the 1800's. They claim to be a bible practicing church but they do not practice what the bible says to do. They do not believe in baptism, breaking of the bread or any sacraments whatsoever. They consider these things to be meaningless symbolism which has no bearing on salvation. I attended that church for 7 years before I smartened up. The one time that the Lord's Prayer was ever recited during a church service was when a guest speaker came in to fill in while the Majors were on vacation. Once you become an officer of the church, you not permitted to date or to marry anyone else unless they are a member of the church. To do so means immediate expulsion. While I was a church member, I tried to get our corps "modernized" by bringing in contemporary praise & worship both during the service and outside of the service. That idea was immediately shot down by the church elders and I was harshly criticised for even thinking of doing such a thing. They have a strangle hold on their church members and do not practice what they preach. Can you say "hypocrites"?

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Bobafooey
Philadelphia, US
Nov 19, 2013 12:07 pm EST
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The SA is an evil cult.

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mick foster
Toledo, US
Nov 18, 2013 6:00 pm EST

The major who is in charge of the arc in Toledo mistreats the guys who are in treatment there.She is overbearing and a control freak but yet she claims to be a compassionate christain.The major i'm speaking of is Mrs.Major Mclean.