Wayne State Reviews

Pros – The benefits are excellent, and working on a university campus is especially fun.

Cons – There is no vision. The politics between divisions and colleges is insane. Too many people are too concerned about getting their piece of the pie and not attempting to make everything work together. It is, in the end, a very toxic environment with management that has no clue how to handle its employees.

Advice to Senior Management – It's time to value your employees.

Pros – Very good 401K and vacation time.

Cons – There is a strange culture of ignorance. Nepotism is VERY common. Most people seemed to be promoted or hired because they are friends or family of the hiring manager. A weak union does little to stop the odd hiring process. The union rules are openly ignored in an apparent tacit collusion between management and the union.

There is little room to grow or advance. There is little training, mentoring, or employee development. The management will frequently hire someone’s relative or friend and mentor/train them. However, present union employees are seldom trained for new advanced jobs (UNLESS you are a relative or friend with the hiring manager). Again, the union will not involve itself. In short, most IT jobs are dead-end jobs at WSU.

Many departments are adversarial. There is frequently no design or development process offered for “getting things done.” There is frequently no connection to the outside IT departments or the “outside world.” Some department managers use an offensive, intimidating atmosphere as a management style. Actually, this seems often to be used as a method of making an employee quit so they may hire friends and family (I’ve seen that done to very good employees). Many good people are let go or resign.

Pros – Good medical benefits and vacation time.

Cons – Management encourages intimidation:
1. Managers are remote from employees
2. The intimidator is part of management “club”
3. Management seems to deal with the intimidator/s
4. Intimidation is rewarded
5. Effort to appease a workplace intimidator

Intimidating and manipulative behavior by management and (higher ranking workers) is the norm rather than the exception. Dysfunctional relationships among employees is the norm.
 Gossip and criticism are the standard, where cliques lead to favoritism and feuding. Hiring is done by a network of cronyism and nepotism. There are no clear objectives in many functions, so it can be tough to determine what’s important and what isn’t

Incompetent or or powerless human resource department:
Human resource (“HR”) managers are either unable or unwilling to deal with rampant workplace intimidation, rule violations, or poor hiring practices.

Advice to Senior Management – Fire half of the middle/upper management, make opportunities for employees to grow (not just friends/family of the managers or other employees), take a HONEST assessment of HR procedures.

Pros – Good benefits
100% tuition payment
Good health insurance
Variety of work environments from college to college
Gain invaluable insights

Cons – Poor counseling and job placement assistance

Advice to Senior Management – Promote from the ranks.

Pros – Benefits are good. Health, dental, vision. Can take classes for free. About 75% of staff is pleasant to work with.

Cons – Must pay for parking. Bathroom facilities are not kept well. Not uncommon for tenured faculty to treat staff poorly. Pay is not competitive- You will always start at the "lowest pay" in the job description. Upward mobility is based on who you know, not on performance. Staff do not receive the budgetary support they need while faculty are provided nearly limitless amounts of money (regardless of whether or not they intend to be responsible with it).

Advice to Senior Management – Offer a clear path for staff to move upwards. Encourage fiscal responsibility. Treat staff with equal regard as faculty.

Pros – The pay is good and if you are full time you get tuition benefits.

Cons – There are many cliques. Many times, getting and keeping a job at at WSU is more dependent on who you know or who you are connected to rather than your ability or even qualifications.

Many in senior management are more concerned with solidifying their power bases by stacking their staff with friends and relatives. The search for quality and excellence is subjugated to the desire for control of personal fiefdoms.

There are a lot of internecine battles between senior staff members and junior staff, if they are not careful, can find themselves in the middle of it, to their detriment.

I have seen several good people leave Wayne because of this culture.

Advice to Senior Management – Make it more difficult to hire relatives. Do more employee satisfaction surveys, they will be an eye opener.

Pros – Very stable place to work. Free tuition and good benefits

Cons – Wayne State offers little grown opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – Wayne State University needs to develop a path for career development for advancement.

Pros – Very good medical benefits. Nice office furniture.

Cons – The environment is highly unprofessional among the staff. The work environment allows "cliques" to form and lead others to feel ostracized. Most managers started at WSU and have never left. There is little training of managers and many are openly abusive to staff. If managers consider themselves “trained,” it is because they took classes AT WSU toward a business degree (but have worked at no other "business."

There is no plan or outline for employee advancement or growth. You will find that nepotism is very obvious. Someone always seems to be someone’s brother or sister, best friend or mother. It’s a very inbred environment. Managers seldom assist in helping their subordinates to grow or move into higher positions at the University (unless refer to nepotism critique).

Advice to Senior Management – Review the maturity level of people you have hired. Implement a better HR department. Require stricter conduct codes. Offer ALL employees growth and development paths.

Pros – It's a large, urban university with a lot of clout in the city of Detroit. It's also centrally located near downtown.

Cons – The negative vibe among the staff -- from the top to the bottom -- is palpable. It's hard to get anything done, particularly when you're trying to work with other departments. Turf wars are a fact of life here.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote a culture of mutual respect and teamwork among staff across campus. Get rid of dead weight. Train managers in time management, customer service, and project management.

Pros – This is a good group of people to work with for the most part. Very competent and friendly coworkers. Enjoyable to work with them.

Cons – Very little job security if you're not tenured. There have been major cutbacks recently during the current economic crisis in the state.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more open about hiring/firing policies and what the current situation is to avoid speculation from employees whose jobs are not protected.