Most Disorganized Place I have EVER worked - Manager UCLA Employee Review

1.0
15 Apr 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some great people there. If you find a pocket of these people you're protected from the rest of the disorganization. Location is nice if you live in the West Side/ Metro area. Benefits are good and UCLA Health was a really good health care provider.

Cons

The most disorganized place I have ever worked. My entire career has been in Universities and the practices here go BEYOND the normal dysfunction the University environment. They don't follow or even know their own policies. One of the HR groups was allowed to be staffed with only 1 person, with no apparent support for this person. . In my 2 years there HR had 2 full turnovers of staff. My own dept had 80% of the staff turn over twice in the 2 years. They take over a year to resolve HR investigations into work place bullying, slander, and misconduct. In retrospect I believe this is not only a result of inefficiency but also a targeted strategy to burn out the CA State statute of limitations so that you cannot sue. They do not remove extremely toxic and abusive employees, even though there is a 0% NO Bullying policy, it is not enforced. This policy is a big component of their annual HR training. Just about every dept I worked with had a toxic employee that contributed to high turnover. They do not address the root cause of high turnover in the administrative departments. Managers do not manage people. There is no strategic planning, even though the words are used. There is no accountability. Many people work at UCLA for benefits but have side gigs that that actually pay the bills, meaning they don't do their UCLA job. The main motivator of the Administrative unit is to avoid being in the LA Times and not actually fixing deeply rooted inefficiencies and incorrect or outdated work practices.

Explore other reviews about UCLA

5.0
9 June 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

nice location, good professors, nice campus

Cons

too many people, not quickly responsive

2.0
5 May 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, but not really as great as everyone assumes. Some colleagues who really care and do great work. Impressive students.

Cons

Relatively poor pay and pay inequities. Extremely poor fiscal management - that CFO who was fired for outing it was spot on. Senior administrators and faculty are incentivized to spend a lot of money on things that serve few students and hoard resources to make themselves look good for performance reviews and tenure committees, but it means a lot of extra work gets dumped on a growing a number of mid-level administrators and support staff - who now face layoffs or added workloads. It's all strangling the university's ability to serve its students, but I know several faculty members simply don't care about students or teaching.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All