I wish there were a nicer way to say all of this, but there isn’t: NU is a poorly run organization. It’s true specifically for the marketing/enrollment department, but also the broader organization as a whole. The people in charge insist on referring to themselves as “leadership” despite the fact that nobody in this organization possesses even a trace of actual leadership qualities.
I’ve tried to cut them a lot of slack, because NU has been pursuing some really ambitious goals over the past couple years. Unfortunately, everything about this transformation process has been a dumpster fire due to a complete lack of planning and critical thinking ability at the “leadership” level. Shiny-object syndrome runs rampant here – every half-baked idea gets green-lit, everything gets fast-tracked, everything gets given “high priority”. Everything gets given a deadline that is both wildly aggressive, and completely arbitrary. Despite the fact that this company loves to waste everyone’s time with meetings that could have just been an email, projects will commonly launch with major flaws that were painfully obvious to anyone not at the leadership level. Any attempts to get leadership to listen to concerns or suggestions get shrugged off.
This would all be fine if the compensation were there, but it isn’t. NU pays below-market wages to begin with, and then this past year they waited until June to tell us that nobody was going to get the annual cost-of-living raise that normally happens in July. We’ve also been told that all promotions are on hold due to budget shortfalls – but somehow the marketing leadership team is able to find juuust enough budget to still promote themselves and their friends. All of this while still demanding that everyone else continues to work harder and faster on poorly thought-out projects that create negligible value.
