City of Portland (Oregon) Reviews

Pros

Great salary Excellent benefits Work/life balance Telework option

Cons

-the Lack of diversity overall

Pros

Long term benefits are really the golden carrot of the City of Portland. They have multiple forms of coverage for the employee and their family and it is considerably more affordable than other places to pay for life and health insurance.

Cons

The city is often disorganized with commissioners directing the work who have no expertise in the service area. This will be changing but there will undeniably be lasting effects on the structure and nature of city governance. What is worse, the probation period is nine months. Most work is grant funded so employees join the city on limited term contracts of one year and end up doing the lion share of their work before probation is over. It is near impossible to expect a prospective employee to leave a relatively stable job for that kind of inconsistency.

Pros

cannot think of any now

Cons

Incompetent managers and vindictive colleagues

Pros

Decent pay, unionized, good benefits, 40 hr work week, part remote

Cons

Constantly demonized in the media and by city council as being "shady" or ''incompetent' whereas actual customers only have positive responses about staff and recognize that the issues are systemic and due to a chaotic city council and lack of reliable and informed leadership. Unrealistic expectations of timelines or outcomes by city council and staffers. Bureau has no strategic plan so anything related to housing is thrown on the bureau with no additional funding for staff support. City council has full control over the business operations of the bureau (including hiring and firing of directors!) but councilors and council staff usually have very little to NO experience in the field-- there should be a change to having a City Manager in 2025 but it will be new and therefore it is unknown what the impact will be. Allowing politics to drive the business regardless of the needs of the community has run the bureau and all of its staff ragged with no end to changes in sight.

Pros

Benefits, holidays, accrued leaves and represented positions

Cons

Taking away my right to unionize

Pros

There are many great people working to address not only essential city functions but also livability.

Cons

The next few years will be particularly complicated and volatile, given that the Charter Reform measure to change how city government works passed in Nov. 22. It needed to change, but it will be a bumpy ride.

Pros

Great benefits, wonderful coworkers, stable career

Cons

Management isn't the greatest. Pay was below industry standards

Pros

My coworkers are some of the nicest and most capable people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. The pay, while high for the national average, is actually quite low for the state of Oregon. The union continuously folds to pressure from its majority members at our expense.

Cons

All of the skilled, driven, and communicative people in police management have been headhunted, promoted out of agency, or moved on to become Chiefs of Police at other agencies. All that's left are a stack of lying incompetents more concerned with public image and spreadsheet numbers than actually correcting the poor practices and explosive workload as crime rises.

Pros

Decent benefits. The remodel of the Portland building is very nice.

Cons

Too much politics, wages are below average. Few or no rules against nepotism.

Pros

Very good pay and healthcare benefits.

Cons

Politics interfere with ability to provide services to the community.