-Work-Life balance is non-existent. They will try to sell you on the flexible hours and ability to design your own schedule, what this really translates to is and expectation that you give up any personal time to work. Plan on working almost every night and weekend, and getting no comp time back in return. 70+ hour weeks are the norm. You will be expected to cancel family and personal events with very little notice to attend work functions. There is a general sense of treating employees like property.
-Pay is atrocious. If you are working in small rural council you may be able to afford to live on your salary, not the case in any area with a higher cost of living. My starting salary was set $100 over the benchmark to qualify for food stamps and low-income housing (intentionally) in the county I worked in. They try to sell you on opportunities for advancement, regardless of performance you won't be promoted for 2.5-3 years, and not unless you move to a different council. They will specifically avoid sending you to training required for promotions to avoid having to pay a higher rate.
-Workplace culture is toxic. Management is unengaged and tries to shift all of the work burden onto District Executives. Be prepared that you will see little reward for success but the blame for any failures (and with their archaic business model there are many) will be fully shifted onto you. Management is extremely well paid but does little work. I showed growth and success in my District for 3 years, and other than a small raise and some lip service was still routinely berated, received sub-standard reviews on goals (because we were required to set council-level goals rather than district-specific), and had to give up holidays because the council was not hitting numbers. If you're successful your reward will be covering other peoples work.
-Survival-based promotions. Over half of new executives leave in the first year, more than 90% leave in the first three. What's left is not the cream of the crop. It's an old boys club, and any actual advancement is based more on who you know within the organization (and which shoes you've licked), than actual performance or skill. Management does not see this high turnover as an issue, I literally had a scout executive sit me down in my first week and hand me a stack of business cards of DE's who had quit with the comment "These are all the people we've hired who couldn't hack it". The problem is always the DE and never the organization itself or management.
-Very short-sighted and reactionary business model and management structure. This ship is sinking. Membership is down nationwide and has been steadily declining. Decisions are not made based on actual data and a strategic response but on pie-in-the-sky hopes and dreams, and what someone says worked 50 years ago.
-Very conservative culture that discourages individuality or personal expression. Any individuality is strongly discouraged. Plan on being a good corporate drone. Any form of a life outside of Scouting is discouraged. You're expected to be super Boy Scout 24/7.
-Volunteers are great and very passionate, but there is an expectation that since you are paid and they are not you should be available to them 24/7 via phone, email, or in person.
TLDR: If you want to be treated like dirt and work extremely long hours for little pay become a District Executive.
