Secure job but lots of politics with a hierarchical structure. - Graduate Administrator Carleton University Employee Review

Support staff are treated like peons and given no respect. Faculty think they are better than staff and pretend they believe that staff and faculty are equals. It's not true. Most departments have a clock in/clock out mentality and are scrutinized for everything. Can luck out and get a decent environment but usually only in smaller departments. Because of all of this, low moral across the board with staff and high turnover. Union is horrible - keep people in positions who would be fired in any other circumstance. Most frustrating thing is nepotism - job descriptions ask for specific level of education OR equivalent. How do you categorize equivalent? Depends on who is on hiring committees. Super frustrating that you are helping students get bachelor or graduate degrees and the people dolling out the advice have never even been through the experience. If I was a struggling student and asked a staff what their education and they responded "none" or college certificate, I would question "what's the point" if I can end up with a decent paying job with pension and benefits?