Optum reviews

3.4

56% would recommend to a friend

(15,507 total reviews)

Patrick Conway

46% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Optum has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 15,507 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Optum employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Healthcare industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

16K reviews
2.0
Jan 27, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There have been some really great people I’ve met and projects I’ve been on. That’s why I gave 2 stars.

Cons

This is not a place for development or growth if you’re on the wrong team, and quite frankly it isn’t worth the risk of being on a “good” team. I am a younger person (gen-z) in my role, and joined the company through the TDP program, which was a dumpster fire in and of itself (PS: you won’t get a grade level or salary increase after the program that is facilitated by the program like it has been in years past; you also have to stay in the company for 2 years otherwise you have to pay back the signing bonus, stock doesn’t vest for 3-4 yrs based on their vesting schedule so consider that money fake, and 401k matching doesn’t begin until 1 year at the company), and I am now in my final placement role as a data analyst on one of the worst teams imaginable and with no help from TDP (you are left to fend for yourself after the program). The thing is, they have little roles and too many associates to place after the program, so they lower their "high quality" standards to get everyone placed at your expense. Managers don't understand that you are exiting the program with only 1 year of experience (and sometimes not even because you may be entering a new role completely different from your 2 rotations) so they think you know everything in the world about the role and when you try to express your dissatisfaction and confusion, they just look at you with that lead paint stare. And don’t get me started on the manager switcharoo! You’ll chat with one manager and like them enough to say you want to join the team and then boom! You’re screwed because you’re now being managed by someone completely different on the team with little people skills and who expects you to deliver like a robot and not ask questions. In addition, salary is a big issue at this company. There is no salary transparency, and you will most likely get 2-3% raises and an abysmal bonus at most unless you jump grade levels, which is still disappointing and not up to industry rates, and it is hard because they don’t discuss promotions openly either, they just say “I’ll get back to you” and then never do. Ok. This is all after discussing record profits btw! Super neat! Work life balance. Gee where do I start? How about we start with managers who work constantly at all hours because everything is an “emergency” and “urgent” and they need you to work “at a fast pace” and “under pressure” because they need to meet deadlines. Karen (who is a fictional character), it is not my responsibility to overwork myself for corporate overlords and shareholders, just simply hire more people. I don’t even get a good raise to be doing all those crazy work hours! I will continue logging on at 9 am and logging off at 5 pm. But God is it annoying to have to hear your manager say “I have no plans this weekend, I will just be working haha” and continuously being online even during PTO, or whilst sick and can’t even lead a meeting that you’ve set up but the show must go on? oh brother. like I am so sorry your life is consumed by work. Seek therapy that is not normal! Your health should come first, and for me it does, but geez these people act like work is their entire life! Real life conversation had: “Hey are you feeling better?” “Yeah! *proceeds to cough up crazy amounts of mucus on MS teams*” One last part, this place hires one minute and does layoffs the next like no tomorrow! Everyone is always on edge wondering when the next layoff is because they will layoff people who have been at the company loyally for 20+ or someone who just started yesterday. And the worst part is wondering: are we doing well with record profits or are we not? Hard to tell when people are hired on Monday and fired by Friday! Crazy thing is, this is something that was told to me a year before I graduated from college. A professor said those exact words! “People will be joining a team on Monday, and you’ll see someone packing up their cubical on Friday, that place is a revolving door!” How terribly sad. In addition, even my own doctor! DOCTOR! knows how terrible the company is. I went in for an appointment and she asked how my job was going and she said yeah I have a friend there looking for a new job (medical) because of all the wacky stuff happening. I say all that to say, if you are Gen Z or any generation looking for respect and support from managers and colleagues as you learn and onboard/express concerns, salary increases that outpace inflation, a great work life balance, people who care about your wellbeing and their own, put life first and not work first, a place that doesn’t lay off teams every single quarter leaving you wondering when you will be next, and a place that you will feel sad to leave upon going to your next company, choose anywhere but here for the love of God! Heed this warning, I am telling you, anywhere is a better place to work than here. I thought the warnings I got from other recruiters in the industry and former workers was not that serious and boy was I wrong! It is not worth the chance that you will end up on a good team, because even good teams have bad apples that can make you miserable here!

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Optum Response
2y
Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Please know that your comments will help us to assess our processes and make any necessary adjustments for improvement.
1.0
Jan 9, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Access to technology. Employees are hard working and knowledgeable. Workload is diverse, fast paced, and challenging.

Cons

I was let go the day before I was to start my paternity leave. After working in the Care Delivery accounting/finance team - I was devastated to hear that I was being let go for a "change in business requirements". No other explanation was given, despite pushing numerous times. In my 7-8 year career at Optum I only had 4s and 5s on all my performance reviews and escalated from a grade level 27-29. In NUMEROUS years of working there i had forfeited 20+ hours of PTO (not including the 40 that you can roll over) in EVERY year. I wanted to be successful and I wanted to work extremely hard to reach my career goals. I always told people "I wanted to spend my entire career with Optum"... I was an instrumental piece of my team working with Optum Quality to build an internally developed software solution for creating automation and reporting synergies for the accounting and finance teams. This was a tool that I built literally from the ground up from architecture to table structure and so forth. I am very confident that my being let go would cause the implementation of this tool to take longer, cost the company more, and be less effective as a tool. My wife (who also works for Optum) and I had been trying to have children for about 3-4 years and my managers were all aware of our infertility problems and how difficult it had been for us. We were thrilled and our company, peers, and leadership seemed so happy for us when we announced the birth of our daughter. Earlier in the 2021 year we had also just finished the new build of our home. Near the end of 2021 I had emphasized with my direct manager that I had been dealing with significant burn out and depression. Coming off of 2 years of the 'work from home' COVID dynamic was especially difficult for me to 'get back to normal'. Throw in the new home and new baby - life was extremely difficult. I find it ridiculous that the 'rhetoric' in all of Q3-Q4 2021 was "dont get burnt out" or "make sure to use your PTO" etc. Work life balance for my initial 5 years was non existant. 55 hours a week. Multiple weekends in the office. We were completely blindsided and simply could not believe they would or could do something like that to our family. I had seen numerous peers all have their new babies celebrated and take their time off work on maternity/paternity leaves without issue. We couldn’t believe a company of this size would be okay with completely crippling us financially with our brand new house and brand new baby girl. In addition to this - despite working for the entirety of 2021, i was no longer eligible for my year end bonus because I was being let go prior to RRP distributions. I was told numerous times that I am "still in good standing" with the company but their actions feel abundantly apparent that is not the case. Since being let go I have applied for over 150+ other accounting and finance positions of which I feel I am VASTLY overqualified for as far as requirements and work experiences, yet I get no traction what so ever on any job requisitions. I even HR Direct and Employee Relations and was simply told there was nothing they could see that was preventing me from working there again. Meanwhile... my wife and I find it absolutely disgusting that people can be let go for budgetary reasons - yet have Summits and TownHalls that costs MILLIONS in travel, catering, and other expenses. She is an Admin at optum and supports high level execs who fly private, get towncars to/from airports, and have meetings around the country that regularly cost 50-100k in travel expenses alone. Yet cant afford a $100k salary for a high performing employee with a brand new baby girl. Disgusting.

2.0
Jul 2, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good WLB, work can start at ~9 and ends ~5 - Large impacting work and learn the "corporate talk" - Join if you want a cushy and "safe" (dependent on dept.) job

Cons

- As a Sr. PM, you are an order taker.. The % in which YOU can affect YOUR teams roadmap is only about 10%. - No good product framework for focusing on REAL USER ISSUES. Corporate loves to talk about NPS as data points but it's so generic. - All the product management principles, mindset, and design-think go out the window... Not used here because no one cares. Just take orders, do this project, and that's it - So much red tape and budget requirements for projects it's exhausting - A Sr. PM is a glorified proJECT manager - Mile-long email threads when you're looking for someone responsible for something else you're not responsible for. Everyone passes the potato and no one knows anything, ever. - Below average pay for a Sr. PM position compared to market, I'd say below about $40k what others are paying. - Benefits aren't even all that, honestly - Areas are so large that it's too big to fail. You can take forever doing something and no one will notice and no one says anything. Meaning that many departments do JUST ENOUGH to scrape by, because they can - It's laughable the mental gymnastics the "diversity and inclusion" group goes through when talking about government policy yet they don't even give Juneteenth as a holiday (and I'm a conservative)

Viewing 37 - 39 of 15,507 Reviews

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