Great mission, great people. Pockets of ineffective, dysfunctional management - Anonymous employee AARP Employee Review

3.0
24 Sept 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You'll work with wonderful people. The work-life balance is basically good (though it's not what it used to be; workloads and expectations have ratcheted up significantly). The mission is warm and fuzzy, and staff genuinely care about making life better for people 50+. Pay and benefits are quite good.

Cons

There are some key execs who have undue influence and are in the wrong roles based on their skill sets. There's a lot of infighting and dysfunction. But a lot of terrific people stay because they believe in the mission and they genuinely want to make the organization more effective. It's just highly challenging to do that from the bottom or middle. There are a couple of key obstructionists who have a lot of power and therefore can torpedo ideas that would change the company for the better. There's also very limited opportunity for advancement, and no program to groom or retain high performers.

Explore other reviews about AARP

5.0
28 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great benefits even for interns like free lunch, reimbursed parking, hybrid work. good opportunities to network, hone your skills, and potentially get a permanent role within the organization.

Cons

long onboarding. lots of hr training.

2.0
2 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

benefits are strong - pension, vacation, sick, caregiving work life balance is generally good

Cons

AARP suffers from a serious toxic work culture, particularly in the IT and Digital Transformation departments. Leadership is atrocious. People leading the 2 key technology functions for the business are incompetent and ego maniacs. Both departments are extremely toxic with burned out employees and contractors. Money gets wasted in the extreme due to these factors. Constant signal switching on projects and priorities. Everyone you work with is unhappy. Bullying and retaliation are common. Avoid these departments in particular, but the whole organization is top heavy, with terrible leadership all around. Still there are some great and talented people, but it's not the norm, and senior leadership is wrought with incompetence and arrogance. The organization flails around endlessly, and blows money with no discipline or rigor to their work and methods. Think someone is juicing the Glassdoor numbers with people saying the place is great. No opportunity for growth. The organization tries to do good work, and does in many ways, but it's so poorly run that it severely hampers its potential.

4
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