Pros
Good work-life balance. Pays well for higher ed. Good benefits (pre-covid). Nice co-workers. Lots of events and free food. The response to COVID has been amazing. Senior leadership has been very transparent and has shown they are committed to prioritizing employee safety and well-being during this difficult time.
Cons
Even though every person I've worked with has been extremely nice, the micromanagement culture runs deep. Employees aren't trusted to make their own decisions or contributions. Department managers have to approve every single decision and will redo all your work to be in line with their own preferences. It creates a really demoralizing culture, because specialists aren't valued for their knowledge and expertise and aren't allowed to contribute to projects in a meaningful way. There's also a bit of cliquishness on certain teams. People who are BFFs with management are given the challenging and meaningful work, and their opinions get prioritized over the opinions of actual subject-matter experts. This is especially problematic when you realize that some cliques seem to form around lines of race, gender, and marital/parental status. This marginalizes employees who don't fit certain demographics, because while the clique members get all the good assignments, employees outside the clique are given low-level tasks that only very weakly relate to the job they were hired for, such as being hired for a technology role but then being asked to perform duties the administrative assistant would normally do merely because it involves using a website. If you're looking for an easy job where you just show up and do as you're told, then this is the place for you. If you're looking for career growth, advancement, and autonomy, look elsewhere, because you won't find it here.