Year Up United reviews

3.4

61% would recommend to a friend

(540 total reviews)
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Susan Murray

89% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

Year Up United has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 540 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Year Up United employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Nonprofit & NGO industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

540 reviews
1.0
Nov 2, 2021

STAY FAR AWAY!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will work along side a small group of VERY hardworking employees and motivated students who want to succeed.

Cons

STAY FAR AWAY! If you are looking to work for an organization with poor culture, underqualified “leaders” and a toxic work environment, this is the place for you! Year Up has an alarmingly high turnover rate which directly stems from underpaid, overworked and undervalued employees. Local site staff report to Regional “Leaders” in each department, most Regional Directors lack competence around strategy and management, they often take a ‘1 size-fits-all approach’ and look for employees to buy into the theatrics. There is a MAJOR lack of accountability for Directors, when metrics are not met the burden and blame falls on local, ground-level staff with a total lack of acknowledgement for the unestablished strategy from the beginning of each project. In addition to the lack of accountability, Year Up does not hold their “leaders” to their own Core Values that they pride themselves upon. How can students be held to a standard that is not embodied by their own “Leaders”? Year Up has A LOT of work to do, hopefully they can put some action into the change that they talk about so often.

2.0
Oct 3, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing young people who are extremely intelligent, eager, and capable. Alumni who work for the organization truly are gems for the current students. People of color working for the organization are the most culturally competent and work diligently to have that knowledge pervade the staff at every level.

Cons

Alumni who transition into employment are treated poorly. Senior management placates lower level staff through arbitrary "development" around cultural competency. Students and alumni often face micro aggressions around race and culture daily, making their experience disappointing to horrific. Alumni who work for the organization hit a professional ceiling, aren't taken seriously as staff, and are treated with disrespect when missing professional marks that they haven't been properly trained to hit. Ultimately, Year Up provides cheap labor to corporations under the guise of helping poor kids of color make more money than they would in retail. It accomplishes both the former and the latter sometimes, but many times, alumni end up back in retail. Figures around average salary are more a result of a few alumni making extremely high salaries while the rest make less than their degreed counterparts for doing the same work.

3.0
Jul 15, 2016

Great principles, poor application

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The mission of the organization is thoughtful and compelling. People who work here are smart, driven, and genuinely care abut the young adults the organization serves. The young adults themselves are a joy, and interacting with them is one of the perks of the job.

Cons

The organization sets aggressive goals and hires the minimum number of people/invests the minimum resources needed to achieve them. As a result, there seems to be an expiration date on how long staff can last in this organization, as people can be quickly burnt out by the emotionally and physically demanding nature of their jobs. This expiration date also seems to approach more rapidly for staff of color. Wellness has been identified as a growth area for the organization, but as of now there are no structural solutions in place. Since the expectation is still for staff to produce high volume, high quality results with their existing teams and pools of resources, there is no real change or felt impact in the area of wellness. Individual managers are often good about advocating for staff to take steps towards maintaining their wellness, but this seems to happen in spite of organizational structures, not because of them.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 540 Reviews

Glassdoor has 747 Year Up United reviews submitted anonymously by Year Up United employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Year Up United is right for you.