CalOptima reviews

3.3

47% would recommend to a friend

(175 total reviews)

Richard Sanchez

65% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

CalOptima has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 175 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The CalOptima employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Government & Public Administration industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

175 reviews
1.0
Oct 26, 2023

Toxic IT Department Ruins Everything

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great mission and a lot of people are genuinely focused of helping Orange County’s most vulnerable people. The workday is very flexible, with 9/80s and remote work offered.

Cons

I loved my job for the first 8 years, but over the last 3 years changes in all levels of management have been for the negative. The IT department is especially toxic. There are bullies that have pushed themselves onto just about every project, derailing them and making employees miserable. They will scream at you in meetings, belittle you in front of groups, and go out of their way to make every moment miserable. There is technically an open door policy, but if you go to management about it you are either told “That person is mean to me, too. I’m too afraid to speak up.” Or “If you are here to complain about either of these people, just know I’d rather fire you than deal with trying to fire them.” Several key people, including project managers and QA/analysts, have literally walked out without having new jobs lined up, rather than continue working in such a toxic environment. The rest of us suck it up, hoping that eventually someone will realize what is going on and will deal with it. HR has been given formal complaints; they acknowledge the problems and say that department leadership refuses to make changes. It leaves everyone in a bad place. Work takes longer, no one feels comfortable speaking up about problems on projects, and projects end up with lackluster results.

3.0
Oct 16, 2023

Great Mission but questionable Culture

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Health benefits are great. If you get a good manager/Director you’ll have work life balance. There are hybrid, work from home and in office positions depending on the job and even preference. They also offer 9/80 schedule which is an awesome benefit.

Cons

It can be a toxic workplace. They enforce an open door policy which is comforting yet only a select few utilize this which creates one sided narratives. Gossiping is an actual issue. There is a retired IT manager known as the King of Gossip. He’d spill executive and HR gossip all the time. He no longer works for the company but claims to have executives wrapped around his finger and jokes he still works at the company as a consultant. That’s how deep the gossip issue runs and just one example. The narratives become influential in decision making. Another issue is compensation. Promotions take awhile and sometimes they don’t come with a high pay raise. I’ve known people to get a title change and be told their last merit increase was their raise. I know managers that are paid less than their staff. They gave executives 40 percent raises but defer all promotions/pay raises for employees.

2.0
Jul 12, 2022

too many leadership changes and too top heavy

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good benefits for health, PTO, and pension

Cons

way too top heavy and additional of many additional layers of leadership is not helping. new leaders keep changing things for the sake of changing just to keep busy, but no care to understand the processes and talk to people who do the work before making changes.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 175 Reviews

Glassdoor has 189 CalOptima reviews submitted anonymously by CalOptima employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if CalOptima is right for you.