1) Pay Scale and COLAs - They tout during orientation that they retooled the employee pay scale...in the early 2000s. It is clear that it has not been adjusted since then as entry-level BA/BS-required positions pay around $15,000-$20,000 less than comparable jobs (e.g. a friend at 2U started at $56,000 versus $37,000 for a similar position with AU). During my time there, we also were not given any cost of living adjustments. That meant that we were often barely beating inflation with our performance "raises". One year, the performance increases were so low (capped at 0.9%) that raises were beaten by inflation. This leads to...
2) Inability to Use Benefits - A benefit isn't really a benefit if you can't make use of it. DC and it's metro area are expensive. With pay starting that low, it's difficult to make use of the 401k match (2:1 up to 5% of your pay) while also taking a vacation. You're definitely going to struggle to afford having children, much less sending them to college. Which leads to...
3) High Turnover - The university churns through employees. In my relatively short time there, several departments changed heads multiple times. My department had three in as many years. A side effect of this is that employees are routinely saddled with greater responsibilities than they should, and those often become permanent additions. This high turnover combined with point 5) below led to...
4) Out of Touch, Unresponsive Management - During a yearly performance review, one of my bosses commented that I didn't take any vacation days. After I explained that my salary was too low to afford a vacation, their response was that I should take a staycation. When I brought up the disconnect between my responsibilities at work on the one hand and my job title and pay on the other to another boss, they promised to secure those for me. Needless to say, that did not happen. Every time I checked in with them, they deflected. When it was not even brought up by them at my performance review two months later, I knew that it had only been lip service.
5) Lack of Professional Advancement and Accountability - Unless an employee is in their probationary period, they are not fired for committing grave errors. Moreover, they are usually not placed on any form of improvement plan. This is likely because there is no formal system for professional development. No mentorship program, no trainings outside of those critical to minimum compliance (such as FERPA training). Even when training is available, it is so low value as to be of no use. For example, the training to be allowed to handle Social Security numbers can be completed in 30 minutes at most. Plus, HR's tracking system is so poor that they recommended that we print out completion certificates because their database regularly failed to properly register it. Bosses are not expected to understand or receive training on their subordinates' work. This is problematic if they are hired for credentials which have little to no bearing on the work of the office they head as is the case for the college of law; they prefer to hire people with JDs even for administrative roles.
