Worst Experience Working at Optum – Highly Political and Demotivating Culture - Manager, Instructional Design Optum Employee Review

2.0
Jun 23, 2025
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Hybrid work culture: Only 6 in-office days per month. Convenient transport facilities provided by the office. Structured work processes and access to large-scale projects.

Cons

The workplace environment is heavily influenced by internal politics. Whether you’re new or experienced, you’re often subjected to unfair targeting. Success often seems to depend more on internal alliances than on merit or performance. There’s a noticeable culture of withholding information, undermining others, and prioritizing personal gains over collaboration. At the mid-management level, the experience can be particularly difficult due to the lack of transparency and unhealthy competition. While Optum does offer the comfort of a hybrid model and logistical convenience, the internal culture—especially for mid-level professionals—can be extremely challenging. If you’re at an entry level, the structure may suit you for gaining experience and moving on. However, for those seeking a healthy and collaborative work environment at the mid-level, I would advise caution. Unfortunately, this has been the most politically charged and professionally disappointing experience in my career.

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5.0
Apr 8, 2026
Anonymous employee
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Pros

Good pay and people are awesome

Cons

Working for a very large company hard to keep up with emails

1
3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
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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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