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      Year Up United

      Engaged Employer

      Year Up United reviews

      3.4

      61% would recommend to a friend

      (540 total reviews)
      avatar

      Susan Murray

      89% approve of CEO

      48% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.1

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.8

      Culture & values

      3.6

      Compensation and benefits

      2.9

      Senior management

      2.9

      Career opportunities

      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).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      540 reviews
      3.0
      Feb 3, 2021

      The Black experience

      Recruitment manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - Working w/ & empowering the young adults, whether accepted into the program or not, was the most rewarding aspect of working at Year Up. - I thoroughly enjoyed working w/ the majority of the local level employees. At the time, they offered a generous PD (Professional Development) funds that were beneficial in helping me to develop varied skillsets that served me well in my role. - Autonomy to make many decisions at the ground level. In my role, in a sense, I approached it as if it were my own start up. - Meeting various members of the community who share similar, common interests of improving the livelihood of the young adults within their locality. - Awesome mission.

      Cons

      Year Up is heavily dominated by a culture of elitism, veiled white supremacy, & blatantly obvious severe imbalances of power across the spectrum. When I first joined Year Up, I gravitated to the familial, open environment it attempts to foster. At the local level, there are everyday issues & disputes that can only be described as typical in any employer, yet tolerable. However, the main issues overwhelmingly stem from upper management, specifically at the NATL. level & their complete lack of reason, coupled w/ extreme disregard for employees of color at the local level. For me, frustration began to occur when ideas, suggestions, & solutions to the daily conundrums that would arise were discounted. Year Up wants you to spend hours at a time with members of the NATL. team who, quite frankly, were under qualified in varied areas & out of touch w/ the realities of the program at the local level. In many, if not every instance, the NATL. teams would hold frequent ZOOM & SKYPE meetings that were dressed up as collaborative efforts, however, it was nothing more than a share-out session where the Senior leaders of specific functions would glean information to nauseam from local level employees. The only thing upper management would bring to the table were corny warm up questions that, if you didn't buy into, would get you slighted from any sort of recognition for actual accomplishments. In addition, Year Up fails to hold many of its Caucasian Managers accountable for poor leadership, failed metrics, and unhappy employees under their guidance who've taken the necessary steps to report their disappointing experience. Also & unfortunately, I've seen numerous employees of color work in silence because they know that reporting actual thoughts and feelings to the majority, white management & decision makers may result in retaliation and an unpleasant work experience. Conversely, I've seen numerous employees of color conform to a culture that forces you into what Caucasians deem to be the standard of professionalism. That, more than anything, saddened me. Lastly, the pay for local level employees who are overworked can only be described as abysmal, especially in comparison to the salaries of members on the NATL. team & the frivolous spending the organization has done.

      avatar
      Year Up United Response
      5y
      Thank you for sharing your thoughtful views about Year Up’s strengths and growth areas. The insights you provided are important as we seek to understand how we can strengthen support for staff of color at Year Up and ensure that our values are reflected in the employee experience. We recognize the burden that may come with providing feedback regarding equity to white-identifying leadership in particular. It’s important for us to hear and read where expectations for high standards of work across organizational levels and identity groups do not feel aligned and ensure we focus on correcting that perception and gap. We’d like to understand more details and hear more about the series of events that has led to your lived experience with Year Up. We would appreciate the opportunity to further discuss this with you in with a way that makes you feel comfortable. To continue this conversation and share more insights, please do not hesitate to reach out directly to our Chief Operating Officer, John Bradley (jbradley@yearup.org), our Chief Human Resources Officer, Elaine Chow (echow@yearup.org), or to a member of our HR team (feedback@yearup.org). You have our commitment to follow up and work to ensure that others do not leave YU feeling the way you currently do. In the meantime, thank you for your candor and vulnerability.
      3.0
      Feb 27, 2019

      YUC

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      • Diverse work staff • Excellent benefits • WFH schedules • The students!

      Cons

      • Incredibly high expectations • Strict formal business attire dress code • Currently undergoing an "exciting" (read: turbulent) stage of growth with several growing pains • Work/life balance isn't so great • The feedback culture is almost exclusively focused on criticism, not praise.

      1.0
      Nov 20, 2018

      A Disgrace to Non-profits and Its Own Supposed Mission

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Some good students with much potential. I enjoyed getting to know them as well as experienced staff who worked at employers other than this one.

      Cons

      Poor hiring practices, bad work/life balance, low salary, drink the Kool-Aid culture, not true its mission. Much favoritism and discrimination. Easily one of the worst places I have ever worked and I have experience a few challenging work environments in my career. Many of the negative comments here are correct . Much discrimination and reverse discrimination in an organization that supposedly promotes the opposite. If you have ever worked for another non-profit, you will see what I big joke this one is. If you have worked in the non-profit sector before, don’t come here. You will be disappointed and told you are over qualified and cannot relate to the population. It will be the same if you have any sort of teaching experience and you are hired as an instructor. I had a 15 minute interview and was hired without much information. They expected me to start very quickly (usually a red flag for bad employers who cannot plan their staffing needs according and/or turnoff good candidates/employees with bad management behavior.) Another reason for much turn-over here. Also, one is expected to be a counselor/social worker to people in the program in addition the endless list of other staff duties. Given the underserved population of Year-up, if they want a social worker, they should hire them not expect instructors and other office staff to provide such skilled services with no training (all the while being scolded for their inability to do so.) You are also expected to participate in ALL team-building activities with the students…at the expense of your regular work. Such team building activities are essentially Summer Camp events in Wall Street attire since everyone must meet dress code all the time. This dress code is fine if they apply it to all staff as well as students or don’t expect you to be in nice clothes and crawling on the dirty stained floor or doing athletic maneuvers. Do not criticize students for inappropriate attire when a long-time staff member dresses like a street walker in Pioneer Square or pick on a staff member for wearing a plain T-shirt with a blazer and dress pants. Good benefits, but you are scorned if you use them. Very low salary and work/life balance. Stay away!

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      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.