Pros
Generally, the folks who do the work are amazing, driven, smart, talented people. The insurance and PTO benefits are actually very good. It's easy to convince yourself to stay through all the chaos and poor management when your colleagues become your friends. The work that we did in our department really is top of the line, award winning work and it was great being a part of that team.
Cons
Leadership is unfortunately tone deaf, unhelpful, condescending, distrustful, and treats employees more like children than professional adults. I have countless stories I could share, but quite frankly I gave everything to my department trying to make it better, get a solid process in place, and create a decent work environment to no avail. No matter how many times myself and others brought up issues, asked for a process to be implemented, or tried to incite change, it was always glazed over or ignored by upper management. Some of us even went so far as to raise issues to HR who simply stated they couldn't get involved in departmental affairs. Everyone is aware of the issues, from group managers to the VP of the department and yet somehow they're still ok with watching amazing employees walk out the door instead of doing everything they can to have them stay. When I left there was essentially a full new team from when I started five years earlier because the turnover is so aggressive. There was no effort made for retention, many of the people who left would have stayed if offered pay raises, promotions, or the issues of the job were addressed. Pay is below average. The only reason I ever got a raise outside of the yearly 2-3% "merit" raise is because I had been offered a job elsewhere and was going to take it unless BU could match the offer monetarily. Also, the only reason why work from home was even a consideration was because of the pandemic. Most employees live outside of the city and even though BU is flexible, this seems to be a pain point that can't be properly addressed at a University level. By the time I left I was burnt out. I lost my passion for my craft and I felt drained by BU. The hardest part was leaving my colleagues who became my friends.