Toxic Culture - IT Director Optum Employee Review

1.0
Nov 18, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of good people. It's a good place to gain experience to take to your next employer.

Cons

Considering it's a healthcare benefits company, the health benefits are awful. Other companies using UHG insurance actually get better coverage. They have a nice set of cultural values, but only pay lip service to them. Current IT management is mostly toxic, politics driven, and self-centered. Employee surveys consistently call out a lack of trust in senior management, but why should they care? They still get their 5-figure cash bonuses. Get a good salary deal when you get hired, because you'll probably never get a meaningful pay increase, and promotions are almost unheard of, unless you know and suck up tot he right people. Offshoring as much as they can. I often wonder how they get away with it, as there's a lot of sensitive healthcare info in the hands of low-paid Indian and Filipino workers.

Explore other reviews about Optum

5.0
Jun 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work from home - no travel

Cons

Pay is not competitive- compared to many

3.0
Jun 4, 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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