Western Governors University Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

Great culture, great mission, and great people!

Cons

Very political and work/life balance can be difficult. The vision doesn't seem to be consistent with the rest of the university.

Pros

Work from home, travel twice per year paid, dedicated co-workers who are truly committed to serving and helping students overall. Low pay, though when factoring in not having to commute or eating lunches out, etc its not too bad. It was great the first 1 1/2 years and then started going down hill once upper management changed.

Cons

Shifted from student- focused to numbers-only focused. Felt the school supported its mission to help students complete their degrees, but over time as middle/senior management grew became more focused on numbers and have forgotten the individual student. Mentors are held 100% responsible for students progress or lack their of, retention, etc, and are expected to be able to change life-long behaviors in students in 15 minute weekly meetings. Management knows that a vast majority of students were those to failed/struggled at other institutions, yet they demand that they perform like the top 20% of students. The way performance indicators are calculated is never fully explained or disclosed to mentors, so checking the data to ensure its accurate is impossible. They start you off saying... take care of your students, and your numbers will take care of themselves. NOT TRUE at all. There were known strategies and approaches, but they were not shared with new mentors or pat of initial training. Horrible work/life balance - management pays no attention to office hours. They say you can set your own schedule (with 10 hours being outside of 8-5) but if you aren't available when a student wants to meet, you have to change your schedule to accommodate it. Inconsistent expectations for documentation - some mentors barely type a sentence in their notes, while others are expected to write paragraphs for each student call.... even on the same team. Too much preferential treatment based on who you are, and whether or not you're part of the 'in' crowd. Not a bad place to get some higher ed experience, just don't stay longer than 2-3 years. Unless you want to manage a team of mentors, there is no room to move up or get other experiences. Additionally, there is very POOR change management. It seemed that each person in middle/upper management was trying to make a name for themselves creating a ridiculous number of initiatives, very few that resulted in anything meaningful and often took mentors time away from focusing on students. Someone needs to be in charge of change management - and to communicate it to students and faculty in a clear, consistent manner. Constant changes were always put on the shoulders of mentors to communicate and navigate students through, often when Mentors weren't even given adequate information or resources to do so. And again, taking mentor/student time away from focusing on their progress and coursework. They tell students its a self-paced program, but they need to share very clearly that there is a minimum expectation. It seems like pretty much anyone can be admitted there, their admission standards dropped as time went on.

Pros

Good life work balance The vast majority of people are fun to work with

Cons

The data teams are decentralized which makes for a lot of overlapping work and some politics by leadership

Pros

Working from home has provided me with more work life balance

Cons

University decisions aren't always communicated in a timely manner.

Pros

Fantastic company culture, they take a lot of time recognize their employees Amazing company mission Sense of purpose Flexible Great work/life balance

Cons

Health insurance is only okay - could be better

Pros

Great work/life balance Work from home Great Teams to work with

Cons

I miss water-cooler conversations that are missed from working at home.

Pros

-Great people to work with (friendly and personable) -Awesome mission statement and company culture -Good onboarding and training -Strives to keep employees happy -Benefits and PTO decent -Good work/life balance; hours flexible

Cons

-Little room for advancement -Lack of organization and communication -Lots of upper management/overhead; not in touch with employees at lower levels -Job security questionable; threats to outsourcing certain jobs

Pros

Work life balance Supportive management Flexible Great teammates Convenience

Cons

None I am happy to work here

Pros

They already have a remote teaching model, so there was no scramble to make large changes during the pandemic. Offer a lot of flexibility with your schedule to accommodate a good work life balance. My experience with management has been positive and their culture and mission of putting students first is admirable.

Cons

Teaching model is very segregated, course instructors don’t have a lot of control of the course content or ability to make changes to it when there are problems. This can be frustrating if you are used to being able to develop your own curriculum and critique students work. You have to do a lot of work arounds if the course you are in doesn’t align well with the assessments/exams. If you are working with a problematic course you spend a lot more time explaining to students the work arounds than actually teaching content. Or you spend a lot of time listening to frustrated students vent about the course that you don’t have any control over changing.

Pros

Great work life balance Good salary Good health care Good 401k

Cons

One location in Murray - probably a pro and con for different people