SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West Reviews

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West

Pros – Membership is what keep me working here

Cons – Management does not care much for the way they treat staff

Advice to Senior Management – Be more respecfull to Staff

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West full-time

Pros – If you are a liberal and support progressive ideas and are willing to do what it takes to fight for the labor movement, then this place might be for you. The benefits are very good and the pay is about right as compared to other non-profits. The people here are nice, generally.

Cons – After reading some of the other reviews here, I agree that this is a bad place to work because management pushes you to work at an unreasonable rate. There is an unwritten rule that everyone should work many hours above a regular work week in order to be consistent with this company's core values. In other corporate environments, at least they tell you this if you are a salaried employee. Here, the culture seems to push the employees very hard and is unapologetic and it is all done through the chain of command. It is hard to tell who has separated from the company or are on PTO. It is not quite a revolving door but very close. A change in leadership happened a few years ago and some things have changed but the pressure on employees to work long hours has not and in some cases it has gotten worse especially in areas where managers rise to positions of power but lack the proper people skills to do that job.

The probation period here for some employees is very long and a lot of people don't make it through that . A lot of people quit because of the pressure to work long and hard hours. I would not recommend to work here.

Advice to Senior Management – I am convinced they don't care but here goes: If you are trying to lead a union organization, why is it that the people who run that organization are treated badly? You must know that people are quitting and the reasons why. Don't you know that every time someone leaves, a big hole needs to be filled in that position and time is wasted trying to fill that hole? How do you expect to be strong if the people who you are supposed to be counting on to run this company leave?

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 SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West full-time

Pros – The work can be very rewarding by giving you the opportunity to help workers have a voice on their job. The pay is good and the benefits are amazing.

Cons – There is very little opportunity for advancement. Management would rather recruit new people to burn through than provide training and work on retention. Work hours are long and workloads are often unreasonable.

Vacations are canceled after being approved with little or no recourse. There is an overall cultural expectation that management can make employees work any weekend without any compensation or recognition. There is an overall cultural inflexibility which does not account for the realities of a healthy work/life balance. I would recommend that anybody with children not accept employment here, as management is unwilling to work with the requirements of working parents.

Management acts in the exact way that the employers they fight do and take on the worst attributes of bosses.

It may be difficult to transfer to other positions within the labor movement because management may attempt to prevent you from leaving through back-channel communications to other labor organizations, especially other SEIU locals. Working for a labor union will close off other jobs due to employers fear of salts.

Advice to Senior Management – Currently, managers are not given the training required to successfully manage and as a result make many mistakes which lead to low moral and high turnover.

Upper management is more interested in maintaining power through fear than it is with maintaining moral.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West

Pros – Medical Benefits are great, especially if you go with Kaiser.
Child-friendly workplace.
Close to public transportation.
After working for a few years - get vested in pension.

Cons – A lot of internal politics.
Location isn't the safest.
A lot of turnover.
Labor movement is in trouble.
Long hours for exempt staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Engage with staff.
Some departments have complained of micromanagement.
Clearly implement policies and follow through on them.
Disconnect between divisions and departments.

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West

Pros – They pay is nice and the connections you make with the members

Cons – Horrible working environment. DONT EVER WORK HERE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY MAY TRY TO PERSUADE YOU!
You are constantly on edge about losing your job. If you are young, management uses that against you negatively. Be prepared for your fellow coworkers to be nice to you one moment and then stab you in the back the next in order to get ahead.

The most anti-union environment I have ever worked in. they treat their employees like crap!

Keep to yourself, Everyone snitches on each other. It's quite sad actually

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West

Pros – good benefits and communication at this place

Cons – listen more to ideas and work collaborativvely

Advice to Senior Management – listen more to ideas

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West

Pros – Great benefits
Decent hours for non-field staff
Very dynamic organization
Average opportunities for professional development

Cons – Limited advancement opportunity
Labor movement is going through hard times
Field staff get worked so much
Very political front-line middle management
Union tactics can be hard to stomach
Once you're in the labor movement, it can be hard to leave
We are at war with rival unions

Advice to Senior Management – Get your middle management in order. Just because someone was a good organizer does not mean they will make a good manager. Make sure this is continues to be a model workplace in terms of pay and benefits.