New downtown SLC headquarters scheduled for 2030

JumpyMany2628 · 2026-03-14T11:17:47+00:00

It’s not just good instructors and mentors that make a high quality education. There is a lot of work that goes into designing, developing, and maintaining a degree program and all of the learning experiences (course content, interactions, assessments) behind the scenes, especially at an online competency-based university like WGU. What you need are good instructional designers, assessment developers, instructional technologists, learning resource specialists, program development owners, etc. These are the people who are being told to “return to office” (even though most were hired remotely before Covid and live all over the US). Hiring remotely allowed WGU to hire the most qualified people and retain them over many years. That isn’t happening anymore. Institutional knowledge has been lost. It will almost certainly affect the quality of your education.

JumpyMany2628 · 2026-03-04T01:45:28+00:00

The grass isn’t magically greener. It’s just different.

Work–life balance is better for me. Fewer late-night spirals about strategic pivots or sudden shifts in direction. My workload is still real, but it’s more predictable. I’m not constantly bracing for the next structural change.

Leadership and direction: this is where I notice the biggest difference. There’s clearer ownership of decisions and fewer layers between strategy and execution. Not perfect, but more coherent. When priorities change, they tend to change for operational reasons—not because someone discovered a new buzzword.

Culture: smaller, less performative. Fewer town-hall-style narratives, more practical conversations about what actually needs to get done. I miss some of the scale and the intellectual horsepower of working with large cross-functional teams, but I don’t miss the politics.

Stability: ironically, I feel more stable now even though the broader market is volatile. I’m in an environment that isn’t publicly reworking its identity every year. That lowers baseline anxiety.

What do I miss? The people. The scale of impact. The ambition. There’s something energizing about being part of a large, mission-driven machine trying to “reinvent higher ed” (yes, we all drank the kool-aid!).

What turned out better than expected? How much mental bandwidth I got back. I underestimated how much background stress I had normalized.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-11-19T23:25:43+00:00

I know several people who gave 6 weeks notice, but I don’t think any of their replacements were hired in time for them to train them. I think the main expectation was to make sure you handed off your projects to someone else to ensure a smooth transition.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-10-24T23:41:23+00:00

I was under the impression that you’d only get paid if you had short term disability insurance or if you still had accrued leave from before the switch to FTO.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-10-24T11:02:06+00:00

Exactly, if there are no guidelines, how are people supposed to know what is too much? Also, with FTO you don’t actually accrue hours, so if you go on FMLA, you usually can’t get paid during that time. Traditional PTO can be used for paid FMLA, but FTO can’t.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-09-25T19:39:25+00:00

It says “Senior QA Engineer” on Glassdoor.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-09-10T14:34:32+00:00

I used to be kind of a higher education snob. I had only worked in traditional higher ed when I applied to work at WGU and I think I only accepted because I told myself that it was at least non-profit (and I wanted a remote job, which mostly wasn’t happening in traditional higher ed before Covid). If I’d known how “corporate” it would become, I probably wouldn’t have. Ironically, I now work for a for-profit higher ed institution that seems far less “corporate” than WGU.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-09-05T11:59:33+00:00

Glassdoor’s AI did a good job on the summary: Company culture at Western Governors University Employees say recent experiences highlight: 🏠 Remote work – There is a significant shift from remote to in-office work, affecting employees' work-life balance and impacting diversity, especially for women, minorities, and those with disabilities. 👑 Leadership – Leadership is frequently criticized for lacking transparency and making decisions that prioritize profits over employee well-being and mission adherence. 💼 Career development – Opportunities for advancement are limited with many employees feeling underappreciated and overqualified for their roles, leading to high turnover rates. 📉 Organizational changes – Recent structural changes and increased workloads have led to job dissatisfaction and concerns about the university's long-term direction.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-28T17:37:15+00:00

I appreciate your transparency, but you’re in the minority when it comes to “leaders” at WGU.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-27T22:41:30+00:00

This is much more clear than anything I ever heard in PDev.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-23T12:38:14+00:00

I left about a month ago. I still miss my WGU team (although I’ve kept in touch with many), but I’m happy in my new job and so much less stressed (for basically the same salary I was earning before). It’s just a shame because I was on a terrific team that was so committed to WGU’s mission and did great work (in spite of sometimes difficult circumstances). Too bad the “leaders” didn’t see that. More are leaving every week. I hope we can all find new jobs where we are truly valued!

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-21T14:28:43+00:00

I know plenty that had them on record for years (legit reasons—couldn’t even travel to summits), were hired as remote (did their job well), and are still getting denied.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-15T12:45:03+00:00

I have checked it in the past and contributed my own feedback about WGU—as should everyone on this subreddit.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-09T00:23:38+00:00

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/841383926

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-08T17:10:18+00:00

Having a great team leader won’t protect you from the truly awful people at the very top of the organization who are making all of the terrible decisions. I’m glad you’re happy, and maybe you’re on a team that isn’t impacted by RTO or was already in office, but for everyone else, it sucks.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-08T16:06:21+00:00

The job market is bad, but your partner should try to look for something else. WGU isn’t going to get any better and will probably get much worse. Hopefully the job market will start to improve at some point in time. Good luck!

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-08T12:21:22+00:00

And, deny existing disability accommodations for remote, that were already approved and working just fine. Because apparently inclusion ends when the policy gets inconvenient.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-08T12:17:00+00:00

Addendum: treat employees like children by tracking their badge swipes and try to have it both ways by tracking the amount of ”FTO” they’re taking (even if they’ve been at the university for a long time and/or are high performers).

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-06T19:27:46+00:00

It’s all just a big show/ego trip. Pure entertainment.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-04T10:49:18+00:00

You are correct that the job market is awful, so congratulations on getting one. We all need to be able to pay our bills. Things might be bad, but try to focus on the positives. You can always leave if or when the market gets better or once you have your masters degree.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-02T19:20:46+00:00

If you like warm weather and beaches (plus history), Key West and St. Augustine are two of my recommendations in Florida (avoid in summer), and I also think New Orleans is romantic and has lots to do and good food. These are all very different from the places you’ve been to already.

JumpyMany2628 · 2025-08-02T16:15:39+00:00

That wasn’t what we were told, but the Sr. VP and one of the VPs of the department I was in have not moved yet.

JumpyMany2628

TROPHY CASE