Disappointing Culture Shift in Recent Years - Department Coordinator/Administrator Rice University Employee Review

1. Very unfair hiring practices. The best jobs, the highest paying ones, are awarded to friends of those already at the top here. I see it again and again. 2. They also routinely hire in new people to take the place of somebody leaving and pay the new person more than the old one leaving ever was able to earn. Of course the employee leaving must train the new, more highly paid replacement. 3. Very bad employee support in HR. HR is strictly about the university and not at all helpful to the employee. It was not always like this here! Again and again I have seen an experienced, dedicated employee suddenly have a problem that was no fault of his/her own, and when one goes to HR for help, the employee now is seen as THE PROBLEM! The university is all about covering itself. 4. The culture here has changed so much over the past 15-20 years or so--what used to be a family taking care of each other is now a two-tiered system with the "royalty" at the top getting obscene salaries and benefits and the rest of the staff being treated as unimportant, except, of course, to their direct managers. It has become corporate and heartless at the top, unfortunately, and that is spreading downward. 5. They have removed many of the perks that made employees here happy, such as free membership to the health club, reasonably priced parking, free parking for retirees, awards at 5 year intervals for longevity, lunches for same. And they do this while allowing all of us to witness the excesses the university practices on items such as PR, entertainment at the top, etc. 6. Many divisions break the rules (and the law) by not allowing overtime pay. Supervisors will say to a new hire directly that "We do not pay overtime here. You can take comp time some other time to make up for it."