City of Palo Alto, CA Reviews

Former Employee – worked at City of Palo Alto, CA full-time

Pros – The pay and benefits were excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed working for the City of Palo Alto. The people were awesome and I made a lot of great friends.

Cons – The traffic in the surrounding area can be horrible and its next to impossible to afford rent or a mortgage in the city. Most people live in the East Bay or South Bay then commute. I've heard the Department has been going downhill. A lot of people are jumping ship for other departments.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at City of Palo Alto, CA part-time for more than 7 years

Pros – I was a lifeguard and swim instructors for every Summer from 2003-2008. Great pay, fun people, flexible hours, and great customer service experience.

Cons – Didn't give me any career experience for what I wanted to do but it's a great summer job for high school/college students.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at City of Palo Alto, CA

Pros – Great salary and benefits. Good people to work with.

Cons – Community of highly demanding. The press is all over anything that the city is doing. City is curently doing cost downs and downsizing.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at City of Palo Alto, CA

Pros – Progressive, highly educated community to serve.

Cons – 80 hour work weeks. Cliquish management complete with teachers' pets. Dishonest & unethical leadership AT THE TOP. Lots of litigation. Poor treatment of employees. .

Advice to Senior Management – Clean up the favoritism. Respect expertise and ethics. If you want professional staff, treat them like professionals. Listen to what they say. Tell the truth. Especially don't lie about not listening to gossip, prevarication and one-sided stories from staff. You said you didn't do that: it's clear that you do.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at City of Palo Alto, CA

Pros – Generous benefits- 9/80 work schedule, pension benefits

Vacation of three to five weeks for management and professionals

Very fair compensation

Co-workers are very respectful of each other

Cons – Political decisions aren't always rational

Late night public meetings- 11 p.m. is not the ideal time to be making critical decisions when everyone is tired

Lots of meetings; takes a long time to get things done

Advice to Senior Management – Don't make decisions haphazardly or for the sake of political convenience.

Current Employee – been working at City of Palo Alto, CA

Pros – For long time employees, great benefits. They are grandfathered in to fantastic retirement benefits including health care.

Cons – Newer employees' benefits are considerably less and take longer to earn.
Culture is one of highly personal politics and backstabbing.
Limited resources (people, finances) make it hard to accomplish significant advances.
"Old guard" very dug-in and resistant to newcomers.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a serious look around at the behaviors of management and high profile employees. Not a progressive culture, considering this is the heart of Silicon Valley.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at City of Palo Alto, CA

Pros – As with most public sector employers, the work/life balance is relatively decent. The benefits are relatively generous, although the City has recently started to rein in these costs.

Cons – Cross departmental collaboration can be lacking at times and the City operates in a hyper sensitive media and political environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Overall, the City is moving in a good direction. There is often a lot of talk of change and transformation, but little results.