Great Place to Doss - Machine Learning Engineer Optum Employee Review

3.0
16 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really sound people Great work life balance Lots of activities, events, parties, etc If you network, you'll find intelligent people to learn from

Cons

Endless bs corporate politics nonsense. For example, I needed database credentials to get some data for a project I worked on. I set up a meeting with another team (who owned the DB) to get set up. They asked what I wanted it for, and business analysts got involved, and it turned out that they were planning something similar in a few months, and one thing led to another and my team's project got put on hold for months until the other team was ready. So I had no work for months. This is the type of thing that happens on every single project. None of the work matters, some American will just decide 6 months into a project to cancel it, and everyone knows it's going to happen, so nobody really cares about what they do. There are people working there who literally do nothing, they sit around all day watching movies, and then just pretend like they're working when managers ask them. And they earn in the top 5% of earners in this country. (There's definitely a perspective in which all these cons are extreme positives)

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very employee focused company and good PTO.

Cons

Performance is mainly based on billable hours.

3.0
4 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some very talented people give so much of themselves to the company, the clients and their co-workers. I work with (and have worked with) some excellent, smart, supportive people.

Cons

Too many layoffs. Upper management is clueless about how the day to day work gets done, what it takes to make certain changes to processes, and how to treat employees. Some are great. Mostly, they just look at numbers. So many of us have been doing our jobs long enough to know what is needed for certain requests. But we don't get a voice. We just have to do it and suck it up. They are firing ('reduction in force') all of the seasoned staff and let the rest deal with the fall-out. So many teams are losing good people but those people are training their off-shore replacements before they are told about being cut. So how is that a reduction in force? It's just a reduction in payroll numbers. Everyone is on edge just waiting for the next axe to fall. And we have to try and learn or teach another role with less experienced people and more work. It's crazy. On milestone anniversaries, they send an email recognition but once the milestone gets to over 15 years, you are a target. Pay and benefits are fine by me. Raises are practically non-existent, even after layoffs and asking employees to take on more responsibility. that's messed up. They talk about work/life balance but that doesn't trickle down to the actual workers who are so stressed they fear for their jobs if they don't do the extra mile. Many of us are just hanging on instead of quitting so we can at least get some severance. Others are actively looking.

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