community organizer

canvasser

program director

senior program director

program coordinator

Working America

It was one of the best jobs I was ever going to have in my life, the organizers, kept saying to us! And it was so true! I have never had a more fun, more interesting job I WAS PAID FOR, in my entire existence. As a child, some similar activities, maybe like Field Day, which was a fun sporting event at the end of a school year, for an entire day, were basically quite similar, with all kinds of obstacles, and hurdles...But...this was...different. We were actually kinda, you could say, paid to exercise and fraternize, with the community!!! Nothing like it on earth! Only in America I would say. 

But it was like, also, like a local Peace Corps, it was, a lot of talking to people, at, you know, kind of a grass-roots level, and just, sussing out their opinions, their beliefs, and trying to melt those down, from what everybody in our gang or "group, gathered," and translate those into statistics. For, what, or for whom, you may ask? We were often asked, what benefit this would have, or what group we were supporting. To this day, I still believe that it was a completely (I have no way of knowing about the inner workings, but I TRUST it was an honest and completely neutral organization!!!) impartial group that was just dedicated, well, it was more Marxist than anything, it wasn't impartial it was working on behalf of workers' salaries, everywhere, so, in theory, if you "work" then Working America is "for" you. But it has a political agenda, that everyone might not be on board with, or gung ho about. 

It raised a lot of ire, let me tell you. Talking radical revolutionary politics with people around one of the corniest elections in American history, man, it really raised a lot of anger and old, unearthed a lot of latent anger. Maybe that was a good thing. We did it with good intentions in mind, we allowed people to voice their opinions through a safe venue, us. I felt like we were risking our safety and comfort to be able to reach into the hearts and minds of others, who may have been too scared or cowardly, to share their ideas or opinions, with anyone else. Or such people may have been loners, with no one to listen to them, nor, care for, their opinions. We provoked a lot of people. But, I can say that I had fun doing it! I learned and socialized so much. It was worth it. :)

The job itself, talking with people door to door, is actually somewhat fun and depending on the area, can even feel fulfilling. However, management is absolutely horrible, and for a workers' rights organization (supposedly), they offer extremely poor job security with rather ridiculous quotas to meet and unchanging expectations regardless of the region being canvassed.

The pay was way above average (base $20/h with extra $5/h per canvassing shifts, which is basically everyday), but the high quota expectations, high benefits cost, chaotic and disorganized management, lack of safety and accommodations on field and other internal struggles makes for a very unstable work environment with insanely high turnover. People came and went every single day there. The Pittsburgh office is currently in mutiny partly over my firing and most canvassers are refusing to work due to these poor conditions.

If you are fine with a "workers' rights" organization that resembles more a mass data collection firm in favor of the Democratic party, I guess you can give this place a try. I'd recommend having prior canvassing experience. The people who work the job are largely fantastic people: the office is very diverse in terms of demographics and I've developed quite a few friendships with some coworkers. But DEAR GOD THE MANAGEMENT. The organization is deceptive with what it is.

I worked for the Minneapolis, MN, office of Working America during the 2006 state of Minnesota election season. We canvassed the suburbs and towns surrounding Minneapolis with palm pilots prompting us to gather information from registered voters on topics like the war in Iraq, median union wages, and the candidates up for election in the state of Minnesota.

I learned that I loved being on my feet and having a job that involves physical activity. I learned salesmanship techniques and personal communication methods and techniques to make querying people I had no previous contact with easier. I learned more about the government of Minnesota, the election process, worker's unions, and about events that were shaping the political landscape of Minnesota at that time.

My co-workers and managers were mostly young liberal college students who were enthusiastic about activism and naturally outgoing. We all came to the office happy to see each other and eager to coach each other.

Learning to avoid taking rejection personally from the voters we were querying was difficult. Walking into some of the neighborhoods we were canvassing after dark was difficult as well.

Getting to see some of the great towns in Minnesota, like Stillwater, MN, was wonderful. Talking to the voters who were receptive to our canvassing was great fun as well.

I worked on three different campaigns with Working America. Each campaign's premise started as something I firmly believed in (such as getting the PRO Act passed) and then after a couple of weeks became something completely different, usually focusing on collecting emails to add people to Working America's newsletter.

There is very little job security. At any time, Working America may decide to institute a quota that can cause good canvassers to get "cycled out" (which means they're let go from that particular campaign. Working America leadership justified this by saying "they aren't getting fired, they will be invited to future campaigns" which isn't any consolation for the people trying to keep a roof over their heads). Alternatively, the campaign that you were told would last months could just suddenly end for no clear reason.

That is a consistent issue with Working America as well. There is no transparency anywhere. Changes to campaigns just happen with no reason and attempts to ask clarifying questions are shot down. For example, I saw one person who protested an email collection quota with the factual statement "Not everyone has emails and this will keep us from reaching a lot of people." The field director replied to them with "Well, even my grandmother has a twitter, so just get the emails"

Overall, despite claiming to represent the interests of working people, they don't treat their own workers very well.

I was an assistant field director at the organization. Sadly, they had to cut off huge chunks of their employees. Within 70%-80% of the people I worked and mentored with, they cared about the job because of good pay and their great canvassing resources. The organization's fund became very limited after the Democratic party lost election of 2024 for whom we worked and supported their causes for the last few months before the election after staying bipartisan when I joined. Also, I had the opportunity to travel and accommoded within the states by getting a bonus with theregular compensation. Though, the canvassing experience can be different based on places  and it's demographic, the field directors I had pleasure working with were very supportive. The organization has always provided the necessary things needed for a full day of field works. I had gained good public speaking skills from talking to normal civilians to law enforcement handling situations abided by the laws and permits. In addition, engaging with many kinds demographic using the voter conduct data and organizations resources have improved my communicational skills vastly. The organization also appreciates people that do good field work utilizing the available resources. 

The pay is okay and the job is pretty easy. After working there for a while and doing well I was promoted to supervisor so went from getting paid $15 to $16 an hour. But for a company that is supposedly trying to help with workers rights they do not care about their own workers and they practice the same terrible business practices that they are preaching to change. I worked for them on 2 different campaigns. The first campaign was at the end of 2020 and the project was supposed to end in January. We had paid days off for Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Years but 3 days before Christmas they fired EVERYBODY so they wouldn’t have to give us holiday pay. Then this year they called me for another campaign and I was working for a few months and promoted to supervisor. I ended up getting sick and being in the hospital for a week. I submitted my FMLA and hospital paperwork and when I got out of the hospital and was ready to work again they said that they didn’t need me anymore. Most of the supervisors were great but the higher up management doesn’t care at all about their employees. 

For a workers union, this organization is very unfair to its own employees and their families. The local chapter of Working America East Point is holding out of state employees past the length of time they’re supposed to. They recruited out of state workers under false pretenses of an 8 week training and forced canvassers to either relocate from Phoenix to Atlanta with only 2 days notice or lose their jobs. Now that 8 weeks has ended they are refusing to fly the Phoenix employees back home and refusing to comment on why they are being denied return flights home. They have extended the time away without any clear communication or consulting the employees affected in any way. This workers union has no respect for the lives and families they put on hold just to get some people to panhandle neighborhoods for them. On top of this, employees were also told they can visit home during the 8 weeks yet all visiting requests have been denied. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working for Working America is the daily training and engagement from teachers and co-workers.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The constant fear of loosing your job because of contract termination.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment and culture are fantastic!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day at the job is getting there and being one hour or so training by well educated and nice managers. Prepare for the day by helping each other to get in the vans and go into neighborhoods and make a difference. Before we start knocking on doors, our van, with typically 6-7 people pick a place to stop to have lunch before we go knocking on doors. Around 8:30 or so we get ready to go back to the office and prepare things for the next day.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working in teams. There was a great sense of camaraderie with lower management. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There is a quota that needs to be met each day. If not met weekly you can cycle out and lose you job

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The workplace culture is hierarchical and is not conducive to an open door policy with upper level management. You must not contact or speak to upper level management without the consent of your immediate supervisors. You can be disciplined for doing so

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Zoom meetings with supervisors and teammates for 1 hour, 1 hour staff meetings with immediate teammates and 7 hours on the phones canvassing. Debriefing for 1 hour. Total 11 hour work day with 1 hour lunch and no breaks

The job itself isn’t too hard depending on what campaign you take. I started with the fight for higher wages campaign and later did two more campaigns with them. The pay is great! But as far as job security, there is no telling when you’re going to be let go for some unknown reason. They once told everyone in the Atlanta office, that we HAD to fly out to another state for a political campaign for about a month, in order to keep our job. They claimed they were training assistant field directors and that the promotion would secure our position. But ultimately that was a lie. As another decision to downsize the office by almost 75 percent was made without us knowing. They’ll fire you whenever they want .. they lie to achieve their agenda. It’s good to work temporarily but if you want to make a career in this company you have to do your special favors … if you know what I mean. In total the job is unprofessional a lot but pays great 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Community organizer 36 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Canvasser 11 salaries reported	$21.95 per hour
Program director 5 salaries reported	$66,235 per year
Senior program director 5 salaries reported	$70,331 per year
Program coordinator 5 salaries reported	$54,483 per year

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