Good people, terrible management, pay, and benefits - Anonymous employee Berklee Employee Review

1.0
Mar 31, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

My coworkers were nice, and the time off for Thanksgiving and the week between Christmas and New Years was a nice perk.

Cons

Right now Berklee is a sinking, direction-less boat. At the outset of the pandemic they laid off dozens of staff members. Some were furloughed and brought back, and some were just let go entirely. Faculty are in a union so employee cuts had to come from staff (or at least that's my understanding). I wish staff had a union too because it often feels like staff have no protection from the changing whims of leadership, as we saw with the furloughs. Not once did Berklee dip into it's endowment to help prevent lay offs, as other higher ed institutions in the area did. The pay is VERY low, even among higher ed, and Berklee just refuses to raise pay to retain employees, so people are leaving in droves and they are having trouble hiring replacements, probably because the compensation is so terrible. Fast-forward to 2022, people are leaving, pay is stagnant, benefits are sub-par, but the institution decided to spend boatloads of money to reorganize parts of the college in ways that are chaotic and harmful to staff morale. I hope that they're right and the reorg does improve things for students, but in the mean time this is one of the last straws for a lot of people who just don't want to deal with the stressful environment anymore. The president just really, truly does not seem to care about the staff. It's also worth mentioning that the management has made a lot of diversity and inclusion blunders, and have a very poor record of disciplining faculty and staff accused of misconduct.

Explore other reviews about Berklee

5.0
Apr 15, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing work culture, understanding managers, and supportive colleagues. I feel truly valued and I can breathe even during peak times.

Cons

So far no cons at all. Everything is wonderful!

1.0
Apr 20, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-helping students -talking about music

Cons

-forced to train the ai bot that will replace you -despite being the top performer on your team and being reassured repeatedly your job is secure, you will get laid off with no explanation or respect -c suite prefers to keep their 500k+ salaries and 80k+ bonuses even if it means laying off 80+ employees who only make 55k -CEO led first layoffs in berklee's entire history, no transparency with any managers, no discussion or anything -CEO used money "saved" from layoffs to give other employees bonuses and buy unnecessary property

3
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