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Golden 1 Credit Union

Engaged Employer

Golden 1 Credit Union reviews

3.0

41% would recommend to a friend

(512 total reviews)
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Donna Bland

49% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Golden 1 Credit Union has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 512 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Golden 1 Credit Union employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

512 reviews
1.0
Feb 19, 2015

Woefully nonprogressive workplace

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's-Its in the vending machine.

Cons

When you enter Golden 1 headquarters, you regress to a bygone era where days are governed by a rigid—and stifling—workplace hierarchy that snuffs out good ideas. You will be subjected to micromanagement, outdated recruiting and retention methods, irresponsible policies on employee health and welfare, and physical works spaces that spread germs and fear and hamper productivity. In my professional career I have primarily worked for employers that recruited and valued smart, capable and willing employees. When it came to creating a product, titles didn’t really matter much in the end. All employees on a team were encouraged to bring their ideas to the table and all ideas were met with similar if not equal consideration. But, that’s what's missing at Golden 1: trust. It's missing from the top down. Heck, employees can’t even be trusted to wash their hands in the employee restrooms; they must be reminded to do so by a robotic voice that’s synced with the opening of the restroom door. Sometimes, if you’re unlucky, you’ll hear the reminder three, four, even five times before you’ve finished your bathroom business! What you do not encounter at Golden 1: the free flow of ideas and conversations between the individuals who are most responsible for executing the ideas. Those conversations happen clandestinely between other people in other meetings. By the time a “concept” trickles down to the team directly responsible for executing it, it’s so poorly understood and translated (and translated differently depending on who you talk to) that it is all but doomed to fail. Nevertheless, be expected to intuit correctly what it is the “client” wants. Oh, wait, nobody knows who the client is at Golden 1. It's a term that is understood in most companies that serve clients, but it's a very vague concept at Golden 1. Creatives: Stay away. This is not a place to stretch and utilize your creative talents. Finally, I need to talk about the potlucks. The place is fixated on them. Expect to receive an all-staff email about best practices during flu season followed by an email strongly encouraging employees to participate in the next potluck. And binge eating contests (really, there are timed contests to see who can shovel down the most food) followed by “biggest loser” challenges? Good grief. Irresponsible, unhealthy and laughably out of sync with the times. Bizarre and woefully unprogressive atmosphere that runs on fearful energy. Avoid.

1.0
Jun 4, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The starting pay is 21.50 with a .50 cent incentive every 3, 6, 12, 15, and 18 months they offer as a part of their program, but get detailed information on this; if you get a write-up, you are no longer a part of the program.

Cons

40 hours of sick leave for the year you cannot accrue anymore once it's gone. It's gone, and it's only provided because the state of CA mandates it. They do not accept doctor's notes if you are out and do not have sick time. Vacation time: If you work full time, you get 3 hours of check, but time is seldom available to request time off. They use ASPECT to indicate vacation time, but it's never updated. It will say 23 hours available to take time off but will decline your request, and when you reach out to WFM, they will give you a robot answer. "It's not updated. There is no time available." If you are working remotely, they tell you performative lies to get you to agree to work with them. "if you ever need to work in the office due to a power outage or internet outage, we will reimburse you mileage," but after training was over. I asked about this, and everyone suddenly became not sure what I was talking about. Call volumes are high; There is never a day where a system is not working for members, and since we cater to "Vintage" retired state employees who did not grow up with technology, you get many disgruntled retirees calling because their cards are declining. There is no time for compliance time, but you will get written up if you do not complete mandated compliance time. They go over their structure for write-ups, coaching, and warnings, but they never follow it; if you tell a member to stop swearing at you, in a stern voice, they will write you up unless you remind them of the policy, and all of a sudden, it's just a verbal warning. Also never hang up on a customer that will get you terminated immediately, but you have 14 times to compromise someone's account and money before you are let go. Attendance policy is not in your favor. If you have an internet or power outage, you must come to the office; if you live 50 miles or more from their HQ and CAN'T come in, it goes unprotected, and you get a write-up depending on how many hours of unprotected time you have. If you get a write-up, it takes 6 months to fall off, and in that 6 months, you cannot move out of your role, and you do not get that .50 pay raise til it falls off. Golden 1 is very much about being involved in their community, but in the two years I have been employed and am remote, they have never provided volunteer services and only mentioned that they are rebuilding Del Paso but have not offered anyone any opportunity to get involved. They say they are inclusive; gender, race, etc but for Februrary, they just sent out weekly google copy and paste emails about famous African Americans, APPI month same thing as well, they basically just give emails to their staff and consider that being inclusive but like I mentioned you can find everything on google. They do offer mental health services, but only if it doesn't conflict with you being available to work and answer the phone, and you can't tell them it's your job stressing you out because they are not obligated to keep it confidential. Golden 1 does not go above and beyond for its staff; it tells you daily to provide golden services to its members, but it refuses to do that with its staff. The only reason people stay is that Golden 1 has to have 80% of its staff remote, and most people like remote work. The pay is decent for California, but that is it. The environment is very toxic, and it's a revolving door of people. No one is on the same page about policies and procedures, and the vice president would much rather talk about her time in Hawaii and her dogs than listen to employees' concerns but don't worry 2025 they are going to QA all of our calls with a special system to make sure we give great customer service, if your tone raises in the slightest the call will be flagged to management so they can figure out why you had to tell a vintage member to stop calling you a slur because they are unable to get into their online banking account. Work Life balance is non existenant; you get 8 hours a month protected to be apart of family events but once again its a STATE MANDATE golden one is providing anything more to its employees other than what they have to give them. Do not be fooled by the mandatory vacation time either, it comes out of your Vacation time, you HAVE to take it off regardless and if you do not accrue enough vacation time it will just go unpaid, but once again this is a law from 1933 that Golden 1 has to enforce, but won't pay you for.

2.0
Aug 25, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are some really wonderful people at Golden 1. Employee culture is strong. Unfortunately, it starts to break down at the leadership level.

Cons

The climate of "Stronger Together" exists but it is mostly found among peers and first-level leaders. The motto starts to break down when you get to VP and above. The better leaders often fear making decisions without CEO approval. This weakens innovation, credibility, confidence, trust, and more. Many employees don't feel trusted as even the smallest mistakes must find someone to blame. An emphasis is needed to develop mature and modern leaders - at ALL levels, and allow them to challenge the status quo. The CEO either doesn't get it or doesn't want to know. Engagement surveys don't ask the right questions, and many employees are not fully truthful in order to avoid the attention.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 512 Reviews

Glassdoor has 538 Golden 1 Credit Union reviews submitted anonymously by Golden 1 Credit Union employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Golden 1 Credit Union is right for you.