Pros
The recreation department has lots of (non-leadership) cool people working there and you will meets lots of fun people passing through the classes and activities. The recreation department has a lot of fun aspects and if you like sports, the outdoors and watersports you will enjoy the job regardless of the shortcomings. Since the leaders are unmotivated sloths, it is actually nice not to see them. That way your time is only spent with the people getting things done. If you can slide into a management position, you will only have to work minimal hours for modest pay ($45K - 55K entry) and good benefits plus a pension after a set number of years. Put in a 30 hour work week and you are a superstar worker by this department's standards. No one will ever expect you to improve or perform better, the status quo is good for the 50 years or so. You will not need any computer skills or people skills. If you can operate a phone and send an occasional email you are good to go.
Cons
UCLA is just like working for big government. The management has grown lazy and pathetic. They all are waiting to get their pension and retire with benefits on the back of student tuition hikes. The Recreation department is the epitome of this. After working there I never met any leader hire up than my immediate supervisor. They did not even visit the facility to say hello and introduce themselves, perform a facilities inspection or simply send an email out once in a while. Just nothing, as if they did not exist at all. My immediate supervisors were incredibly lazy and rarely worked more than a 20 - 30 hours work week. Yes, they were non-exempt employees, meaning you have to work your hours. They in fact, were encouraged to slack off, so that the other slacking off managers never had to worry about getting reported. The irony is that if you were hourly staff, they would crack the whip on you over 15 minutes on your time card. All this slacking off sounds pretty great if things were running smoothly, but this was not the case. Employees there really hate management. Everything was archaic and disorganized. Management does not seem to care. The whole department needs an overhaul, but don't hold your breath, it is not happening. Pay is bare bones and raises are non-existent. Management always hires from outside and never promotes from within. If you are a fiend of management there is a good chance you can slide in to a nice posh slacking off position.