Completely clueless management and disregard for mission - Advisor AARP Employee Review

1.0
Aug 3, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mission "could" be very powerful - AARP Foundation targets a rapidly growing demographic and fills a huge hole in helping low-income seniors. Some colleagues were pretty sharp and the office location (Chinatown) was good.

Cons

- Upper management was completely and deliberately insulated from taking feedback or even interacting with anyone. They're also completely clueless on how to run an organization, vet ideas or even basic business concepts - Mission is constantly thrown around, but few people actually care about serving seniors -- AARP is just a massive money-making scheme to take money from seniors and waste it on expensive gatherings, office space, and overpaid (incompetent) senior managers - Many of the main decision makers had very questionable ethics and regularly lied about both big and small things to all layers of the organization - There is no movement at all - laterally or vertically - for anyone (you can't rotate to other positions -- politics are toxic internally) - Facetime matters more than actually doing anything - Horrific politics from all levels -- the senior managers that last are the ones that play the game (keep head down, throw others under the bus, and agree to asinine ideas from clueless leaders)

Explore other reviews about AARP

5.0
May 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great benefits even for interns like free lunch, reimbursed parking, hybrid work. good opportunities to network, hone your skills, and potentially get a permanent role within the organization.

Cons

long onboarding. lots of hr training.

2.0
Apr 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

benefits are strong - pension, vacation, sick, caregiving work life balance is generally good

Cons

AARP suffers from a serious toxic work culture, particularly in the IT and Digital Transformation departments. Leadership is atrocious. People leading the 2 key technology functions for the business are incompetent and ego maniacs. Both departments are extremely toxic with burned out employees and contractors. Money gets wasted in the extreme due to these factors. Constant signal switching on projects and priorities. Everyone you work with is unhappy. Bullying and retaliation are common. Avoid these departments in particular, but the whole organization is top heavy, with terrible leadership all around. Still there are some great and talented people, but it's not the norm, and senior leadership is wrought with incompetence and arrogance. The organization flails around endlessly, and blows money with no discipline or rigor to their work and methods. Think someone is juicing the Glassdoor numbers with people saying the place is great. No opportunity for growth. The organization tries to do good work, and does in many ways, but it's so poorly run that it severely hampers its potential.

4
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