Just not kind - Anonymous employee Cornell University Employee Review

2.0
30 Sept 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some jobs let you work from home when there's snow or if you're sick.

Cons

Cornell rewards micromanagers even if the micromanagement leads to high turnover. There also is not much of an "anticipating staff needs" culture: 1) The vast majority of people hired do not have a quiet place to do their work. New people will be forced to share an office with multiple other people, close to constantly dinging elevators and loud student voices echoing in the halls, with the door required to be open at all times even for positions that aren't particularly student-facing. 2) Culture of bragging about their offspring constantly. Not much modification of the topic around those who have lost offspring or had other traumas. You better be ready to hear about everyone's kids all the time. 3) There's also a culture of not making even the slightest attempt to choose kinder words. Not that the words are always straight-up mean, but there is a lot of all-caps, bolded words, and use of phrases like "you must" or "you failed to" in all-staff or all-department emails. Overall, just not a kind workplace. If you are someone with depression or have anything at all that people should keep in mind when working with you, I'd recommend not working here. There is very little humanity.

Explore other reviews about Cornell University

5.0
25 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great scenery and a beautiful campus.

Cons

It could be stressful during certain periods.

2.0
25 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Time off, subsidy for children for college, small grant for childcare, and remote work ability.

Cons

Heavily bureacratic, top-down structure with zero creative ability unless it's around AI. No performance reviews from the bottom-up tell you a lot. Cornell is going through very tough times and employees are overworked, underpaid and have no room to grow or advance and heavy negative sentiment regarding all of the changes happening and further budget cuts. You need to move to another unit and apply to a higher position that way to get any type of promotion, despite your performance, goals and achievements. We get annual SIP that is below inflation and never any performance bonuses.

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