Q&A With National Education Association Employees

Over 50% overall, 10% in IT. Around half of new hires are women, so whatever diversity issues they used to have are gone now.

8 women out of about 30, 3 of the women are managers. There are no significant obstacles to women being hired or promoted, and no gender discrimination issues within the staff.

Delighted to have them - we've been understaffed for many years. NEA is relatively immune to the "not invented here" syndrome, so we absorb new people quickly.

Historically, Scrum. In the past year, a consulting firm imposed a new "Agile" method that was really Waterfall, but they are gone and we'll go back to Scrum.

Nominally Agile (Scrum), but in practice projects come and go too quickly to organize.

Fairly common - it is almost the only way to get a raise.

Yes

Basically, you don't. There are small step increases within the union scale, but they max out. The increases rarely equal the rate of inflation, so they not really raises.

There is not much mobility officially, but your best bet is to attach yourself to a manager or mentor, so you'll go where they go.

There is one, but it is not advertised, so you have to discover who to ask. There are lots of interns, though, and they're paid.

Typical. It will take a while to get connected electronically, you'll have mandatory harassment training, stuff like that. Your first week or two may be boring.

Very generous, e.g., fathers get lots of maternity leave.

These days, it will probably be political. Perhaps, "define the role of intersectionality in your life," something like that. No, I don't know how to answer that either.

My work products were always good despite a horrendous work culture.

Very good. All the health benefits are excellent.

Very hard. If you are near senior-level the salary you start with will be less than the salary you retire with (counting inflation). On the plus side, maybe you can arrange to be hired at an inflated salary.

Business casual to slovenly, depending on the department.

Essentially never - you would have to apply for a new job at a higher grade. You can get small increases within a grade, though.

Not much longer than a week. The bureaucratic part of the process is over before the interview, so the decision is pretty much in the hiring manager's hands.

Cost of living adjustments. They think of that as a raise, not as salary protection.

Sure, if you have activist cred and can network to someone within the NEA. Seniority and skills don't matter that much until you are here.

I wish I'd known how low the overall management quality is. It wouldn't have made a difference taking the job, but might have kept me out of trouble once I was there.

A week or two, typically.

The health benefits are second to none.

Nothing unusual besides activist politics. Most employees are pretty old so involved with family stuff.

Both paid and unpaid internships, and a fair number of slots. They are not advertised, so they tend to go through universities with links to the NEA, but anybody can apply.

Extremely good HMO and PPO programs, very cheap compared to most companies.