Pros
RIT has an overall friendly work environment depending on the division, department and/or college that you work under. They offer adoption assistance and other non-traditional benefits.
Cons
- No real wage increases for over 10 years. RIT does not offer cost of living increases but rather "merit increases" (typically 1-2%) based on performance. Even performing above and beyond only equates to a small percentage more than others who are performing at par or below. - Merit increases have been less than the cost of living increases (3%) for at least 10 years with many years offering no increases at all. With increasing health care costs , health care premiums (each year's increase is typically 7-8%), AND being told to save more for retirement as RIT changes retirement benefits, individuals - mostly staff as faculty are treated as gods - are effectively making less now than they did 10 years ago. Faculty are given increases from a separate pool of money and more often than not receive increases higher than staff despite already making decent wages. - HR and the administration changed their views of employee retention and compensation several years ago. Top performers are being recruited by outside sources with RIT not even attempting to retain them. We are "disposable and replaceable". They have chosen to ignore the intrinsic value of long term employees. It is evident in my interactions with many of the replacements that we have lost a lot of what makes RIT work. - Internal "promotions" are often met with a zero increase in pay because the individual is internal and already with in the wage band of the new position therefore taking on new responsibilities and stress without compensation. - This year they sent out messaging hailing that they were not increasing health care premiums without pointing out the fact that they introduced co-insurance for a number of procedures such as X-rays, MRIs, surgeries, etc. as well as a deductible. The HR response was that many individuals do not utilize those things so the people that do need get those procedures need to pay more. In effect, the sick get poorer and those that are healthy are "ok". Isn't the whole point of health insurance to cover a spectrum of risk factors and costs for the broad spectrum of the people under it. For example, someone that needs a gall bladder surgery - last year they would have paid roughly $300 in co-pays for the Dr. and Surgical Center. That same surgery after Jan 1, 2021 now costs that same individual more than $3,000. - RIT is constantly looking for space yet staff that are not front facing are being made to return to campus post-pandemic. For what? Staff that have proven their efficiency (often better than in office) should be allowed to stay remote. Faculty wanting to be able to drop in is not a valid reason to make a staff member return to campus. Email and zoom are effective for today's workplace needs for non-student facing employees or faculty support. - People say that the educational benefits and non-traditional employments make up for some of the issues, but I have no dependents and I am not planning to adopt. So...???
