University of Queensland Reviews

Pros – Great work environment, very supportive bosses

Cons – Not really any downsides, apart from most immediate coworkers being fellow university students with irregular availability.

Pros – None beside the standard Government perks such as Super and Flexi. But flexi is controlled so your "manager" may force you to work certain hours anyway removing any point to the existence of the flexi system.

Cons – Plenty.

Management are clueless and unsupportive.

Academics seem to have a license to act as they please.

Human Resources are unsupportive and would really rather you didnt contact them about anything at all, unless of course they want to call you in for a quick "chat" to try and silence you.

It seems people without the correct skills and experience have wormed their way in to senior management positions and are now making a mess of the entire workforce. They are achieving this by employing like minded incompetent staff. Doing so has enabled UQ to reclassify/reduce the payscales for many of its roles, forcing existing good staff out due to large pay cuts and making them reapply for their own jobs.

There is absolutely no career progression. You'll be stuck in the same role you are in now forever, if of course you are lucky enough to get a continuing contract.

UQ wants to pay the least amount of money for staff but hemorrhages money in other areas such as purchasing and the employment of outside contractors when they have talented staff already on site. UQ isnt interested in developing its existing staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Start looking after the existing good staff you have left and stop working them in to an early grave.

Staff are leaving like rats from a sinking ship. Someone high up needs to get rid of a lot of dead wood before this place becomes a decent employer again.

Why are staff constantly made to justify their existence but management seem to have no one reviewing them?

Why is it that the performance review gives the manager the right to say whatever they like about the staff member but the staff member never gets the chance to review their "managers" performance?

Pros – My summer research project was fast paced, challenging, but really fun and rewarding at the same time.

Cons – Supervisors are generally pretty busy so it's often hard to see them and a lot of time is wasted that way.

Advice to Senior Management – Transparency is key.

Pros – Good work-life balance, great atmosphere, great campus,

Cons – Car Parking is expensice and very hard to get, management

Pros – The university is prestigious; it looks good on your CV to have worked there. May open up good career opportunities for the future.

Cons – I worked like a dog for 1.5 years and felt like I had been eaten up and spat out and no-one even said goodbye when I left. Was told that if I took any holidays at all, I wouldn't have a job to come back to. Had ONE day off in an entire year. The only way to get ahead here was to suck up, work your arse off for nothing, and to join the boys club/gossip mill. Boys club is a HUGE problem. Every day I heard some kind of degrading sexual remarks about women from senior staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Crack down on the boys club, BIG TIME. Someone has to keep these people who push their staff and students beyond what is reasonable in check. This is NOT OK!!!!

Pros – Good benefits, the culture is great, people are friendly and helpful, you feel there is stability and care for your life/work balance

Cons – career progression, not many oportunities for good talents to get employed fulltime if they are nor permanent residents or citizens.

Pros – Flexible workplace, plenty of freedom to try new things, reasonable mobility if you want it.

Cons – Politics, not always clear who has authority/responsibility for things, Pay tops out early and moves very slowly after that.

Pros – UQ has attracted majority of funding in Queensland, and it is still the highest standing university in the state.

Cons – UQ is expanding rapidly at the moment, though it is quite comfortable at its standing in Qld, it is slowing down in recent years.

Advice to Senior Management – Full time research staffs are facing some very intense competition and pressure. And could have cost a lost of talented young people for greener pastures elsewhere.

Pros – Great campus, decent remuneration, 36.25 hour work week, flexi time, leave loading, great training, well defined pay schedule (know when and what raises), ability to move around university easily (secondments and the like), security, great super.

Cons – Large organisation so can be slow moving, government type red tape, well defined pay schedule (not much room for big raises)

Pros – Pays well for academia. Great location, modern world class facilities. UQ is proactive in it own development, unlike many Universities that are too set in their ways or think they can stand still in fast moving world.

Cons – Career progression limited internally - move out to move up. Geographical distance from rest of world can leave you a bit out touch with rest of the research community (e.g., conferences, workshops, networking events), but that depends on the field.