Great mission, good people, bad leadership - Anonymous employee AARP Employee Review

3.0
Oct 11, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Mission and focus on that mission Have some really smart people who care about the work they do Good culture at middle management and below Strong Benefits Flexibility - if you work for the right manager

Cons

1. Executive Leadership, especially after the appointment of new CEO and COO/CFO, is awful. It has turned into a "gotcha" culture, where the CEO/CFO run the organization like a dictatorship- only their way is correct. The rest of the e-team just agrees and tries to stay out of the way so they don't get fired or blacklisted. 2. CEO is more concerned about awards and outward appearance than actually the organization or employees. 3. Passive Aggressive leadership. You are either in or out- 4. Can be political 5. Bounce people out who actually try to enact change or speak up

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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