Oppressive work environment where micromanaging abounds and subversive management style is the norm.
Pros
- Benefits; - Able to take classes and receive 16 credits per semester waived after working there for 5 years, if your supervisor allows it; - Great library and resources and the library staff are superb; and, - Within walking distance to the Museum of the Rockies, should you want to visit at lunchtime.
Cons
- Very cold and austere community. - Training consists of sophomoric professional development seminars like, "How to Work with Difficult People." Obviously those do not help, since so many employees at MSU are difficult to work with. - Office culture is that if you weren't born in Montana, you'll have a hard time making new friends. - Campus culture is so polarized that rarely do faculty fraternize with staff and rarely, unless one is in the "clique," do staff engage with other staff. Not welcoming to new incoming employees. - Career advancement opportunities are non-existent unless you "know" someone and are able to secure a higher-level, better paying position before it is made public. One is unable to advance within the department they work. One must continually jockey around campus finding new jobs to receive higher pay and advancement. - Company values? Oxymoron. Most employees keep their heads down and say nothing for fear of being reprimanded for expounding on something creative and different or out of the realm of anything the faculty propose, most of which have never worked in private sector. - Successful managers embrace creative environments; MSU views that as a threat. As a result, one is constantly striving for excellence in mediocrity. - Poor manners and lack of etiquette, despite the fact that faculty and upper admin believe they are to-the-manor-born.
