American Public University System Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Work from home full time

Cons

Upper management and lack of opportunities

Pros

Free ed for employee and half tuition for family Telecommuting opportunity for many positions Lower-level employees are the nicest and where productivity from Lukewarm benefits

Cons

Promotion not based on contribution and competency for the job but by how you can unshamefuly brag about yourself in front of your boss Company is declining due part to competition and lost FSA student but mostly due to ill-management (look at APEI stock) Upper management is out of touch of the business operation, middle management each has tight territory that not even the upper management can look into - in terms of productivity, expense, treat of first line employee Overall dysfunctioning and worsing

Pros

Best place ever worked at. I have been there a very long time and accomplished a lot of things. Upper management has assisted me in progressing my career.

Cons

Recently their some uncertainty about if the executives really value the IT Department and the work that gets done. It seems the culture of the entire company has changed to be only revenue driven.

Pros

Depending on your manager, you may have the opportunity to work from home at times. Very slim chance but again, it's dependent on your manager. Other departments on the 1st floor are very helpful, caring, and care about their employees. Encouragement comes from those in other departments when you have the urge to just give up because you've had enough of getting looked over, not appreciated, and not heard. FSA Specialist and the management on the 1st floor is what the Financial Aid department, 2nd floor, needs to mirror in order to maybe stop the turn over rate.

Cons

No room for advancement unless you're with the 'in-crowd' or the Patty's regulars!!! Financial Aid management concerns themselves with pushing you out the door rather than offering better training. Students complain about their money not the quality of the call. Management spends more time chit chatting with favorites in upper managements office rather than pulling their weight and assisting students. Seniors spend more time hanging out with other Seniors rather than assisting students in the phone queue and email queue yet Advisors are constantly micro-managed and frowned upon for taking too many bathroom breaks. Don't even bother going to HR as they seem to care until you walk out of the office. Then there is fear of losing your job. Everyone went to school together and brought he schoolyard to APUS. Lastly, if you're with the in-crowd, you can basically slack off the majority of the day...you may get a stern look but it will end with a giggle while the hard workers who have families to take care of and a home to keep over their head are sweating bullets each day wondering if their job is safe. As long as there's the in-crowd or Patty's crew, you won't move up in this department. And don't even this about going to the new President. Her attitude would make you not even want to be employed there.

Pros

Opportunity to move around the company a little bit, and the company tried to create an environment where the employees could participate in events outside of the regular work place, like picnics and such. Some amenities to use if you want like ping-pong, electronic gaming systems, Foosball, etc..

Cons

-Some of the upper management cares more about personal interests than the success of the team.

Pros

Ability to work remote. I had a 8- 430 schedule

Cons

Upper management is horrible. There was no employee morale and only the favorites were selected as managers.

Pros

Paid Holidays 2 Weeks Vacation Sick Leave 401k partial match

Cons

Overworked Underpaid Upper Management doesn't care about employees Micro managed to the utmost Promotions are based on favoritism, who you know, and not qualifications From what I can tell the President is great, its' everybody under his umbrella that's the problem. I've worked in several major corporations before and this place by far is the worst. I used to think it was just my department, but talking to others in other departments it seems to be across the board, everyone is equally unhappy.

Pros

Able to take courses for free, friendly employees.

Cons

Beware of the snake charmers. APUS has been a sinking ship for years and continues to be moving full steam ahead regardless of the mess they are leaving behind. APUS has allowed mismanagement to occur at every level. Upper management does not know how to run departments or people, evident by the staffing choices and new time shifts. It has allowed idiotic employees to climb the ladder due to nepotism and influence. Bob Gay is hands down the worst thing that has ever happened to admissions and student support, he does not care about you and will gladly throw you under the bus to make himself look better. He does not take the time to get to know the people working under him and cannot even manage to fake a smile at them when he stomps down the aisle. Things will never go back to the way they were, APUS is on a collision course to lose accreditation and thousands will lose their jobs in the aftermath. Departments do not know how to collaborate to accomplish anything, this has led to many instances of things falling through the cracks and incorrect information being given to a student. As a 100% online university, APUS works with lousy, outdated systems and programs that crash and cause errors. Good employees get looked over if they do not cause problems, while terrible employees are not reprimanded or disciplined because no one wants to deal with it.

Pros

The benefits like insurance, etc. are great if you're willing to pay the extra premium for the good coverage. The vacation/sick/holiday leave is good too.

Cons

In less than a year this place went from an amazing company to work for with great values and inclusive culture to a heaping dumpster fire. I always thought APUS would be immune to the corporate culture of trying to force long-term employees out to hire cheaper, newer labor willing to work worse hours but here we are today and that's exactly what has been happening. This place has become a revolving door of people coming, staying for 3-6 months and realizing it sucks, then leaving once they find a better job with normal hours. The few long-term people who have been here for more than a couple years are also leaving because more work and expectations are being dumped on them. Managers have dozens of people on their teams and are overworked as well. We lost a ton of people in the last year due to multiple circumstances so everyone left is expected to just make sacrifices because they either won't or can't hire people to fill in the places. People tend to make it to the job interviews, find out what the position requires, then run screaming out the door. The only ones willing to take the jobs and shifts are kids fresh out of college who need the resume experience. There were rumors that certain CEOs were trying to kill off most of the company so that it could be bought out by a bigger name for-profit college system. I didn't want to believe it, but that's the only logic I can see behind all these changes outside of just a flat out drive for money at the expense of experienced employees that know the educational policies. Unless upper management does something quick, this place is just going to keep up this rapid death spiral and end up as a penny-stock begging for scraps from some bigger company to buy it out and try to salvage at least some of what was originally built by the founding presidents and deans. What a disgrace. They're really trying to highlight the 'for-profit' aspect of what should be a respected institute of higher education that prioritizes student success over squeezing every last dollar out of everyone by running the place as ramshackle as possible to keep overhead costs low and profits for shareholders high. Oh, and don't expect any sort of upward movement in terms of positions or promotions. Anything like that is a rarity, and if they do post a position they already know who they want so good luck with that.

Pros

Remote capability Decent pay Insurance is good.

Cons

Upper management does not care about the employees. Employees are leaving left and right. Horrible work hours if you're on nights or weekends.