Leadership? Where is it? - Anonymous employee AARP Employee Review

2.0
May 17, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits. Yes that's about it. Of course they are increasing the costs to workers to show a better bottom line.

Cons

There is a significant lack of respect for those who are performing work. An environment of fear. You will be replaced, you will be outsourced, you will be reorg'd out. There have been 4 staff reorg/reductions in the last three years. According to senior management that is a sign of a healthy company. Not quite sure what was the latest book / magazine they read that informs them of those details. Now the cloud and outsourcing is the thing. According to others outside our company, as we can only make decisions after spending millions on how to save a couple hundred thousand. Of course that was "true" a few years ago, but as many companies have discovered the costs are a lot higher and the control is lost for the same, actually less, work. May companies are working to pull resources back internally, but we are just getting ready to dump more folks. A sign of a healthy company recall. Its humorous to me that as we know we are gone, executives want us to work harder and for longer hours, nights, weekends with no real additional compensation, as they are planning and working towards removing us. A fine example of how they think.

Explore other reviews about AARP

5.0
May 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great benefits even for interns like free lunch, reimbursed parking, hybrid work. good opportunities to network, hone your skills, and potentially get a permanent role within the organization.

Cons

long onboarding. lots of hr training.

2.0
Apr 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

benefits are strong - pension, vacation, sick, caregiving work life balance is generally good

Cons

AARP suffers from a serious toxic work culture, particularly in the IT and Digital Transformation departments. Leadership is atrocious. People leading the 2 key technology functions for the business are incompetent and ego maniacs. Both departments are extremely toxic with burned out employees and contractors. Money gets wasted in the extreme due to these factors. Constant signal switching on projects and priorities. Everyone you work with is unhappy. Bullying and retaliation are common. Avoid these departments in particular, but the whole organization is top heavy, with terrible leadership all around. Still there are some great and talented people, but it's not the norm, and senior leadership is wrought with incompetence and arrogance. The organization flails around endlessly, and blows money with no discipline or rigor to their work and methods. Think someone is juicing the Glassdoor numbers with people saying the place is great. No opportunity for growth. The organization tries to do good work, and does in many ways, but it's so poorly run that it severely hampers its potential.

4
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