Parking - I have to pay over $1,000 per year, and OSU refuses to pay for it. Salary is terrible. I'm required to have a Masters degree, which is the case for most entry-level positions in Student Life. It takes forever to move up, so when someone does get a higher level position, they never leave. Which means it is hard for others to move up. So much of your experience in dependent on the department you work in. Student Life is completely dysfunctional - 7 people from my area got fired for negligence. There were multiple scandals that hit the news as well. They have a lot of people in leadership who have no idea what they are doing, and no idea what the people below them are doing. There is a major hiring bias that favors minorities - I have been on search committees where we were literally told "you have to pick a black person." Tokenizing to the max. Residence Life is probably the worst unit in all of Student Life - such incompetent staff and top-heavy...horrific working with them.
The University just gave grad students major increases to stipends, so now they make more than many of their full-time supervisors. The University keeps chipping way at benefits - they cut the tuition benefit during the pandemic that is mostly utilized by the same people putting themselves at risk to keep the university open during the pandemic, and after people had already registered for classes...there was so much outrage that they reversed it. But if you're thinking of taking a job due to the tuition benefit...be aware they will probably cut it again.
There are no perks. I had to pay a monthly fee if I wanted to drink out of the water cooler. I also was asked to pay money to attend the staff holiday party. I'm so tired of being paid poorly and getting nickeled and dimed. I have interacted with the new President multiple times, and she clearly does not care about staff. It's all about the faculty. Even when pressed, she has nothing to say about the staff. HR is horrific - do not trust any of them. They have a strangle-hold on everything. Awhile back they did some new HR transformation that was supposed to increase efficiency and streamlining. Not a single HR downsize happened - they all walked away with higher titles and huge pay increases. These are the same people who are screwing over their own units during the University-wide Career Roadmap. They act like this will be some big pay equity thing for staff, when in reality all it is, is an excuse for them to downgrade staff and their "inflated job titles" which is actually a direct quote from a University Senate Finance report. Sure, they may bump some people up in pay, but they are then going to make the same amount of money as someone who just came into the University. Years of service, education, etc. aren't being taken into account in Career Roadmap, which is insulting. And the rest of us will be told we make too much (LOL) and will lose our ability to get pittance equity increases to our base pay.
If your unit is not flush with cash, you'll never get a better job. I've been told by numerous supervisors they wish they could promote me, but they don't have the money. And I never get any higher up positions in other units, because they always hire their own people. They are so bad with internal candidates here it isn't funny. Many of the jobs posted are already intended for someone, but they don't have the decency to mention that on the job posting. If you want to move up, you have to move out.
