Queen's University Belfast Employee Reviews

Flexive schedule and competitive salary, you can have a life-work balance. Good work envioronment. I recomend working here. You can gain a lot of experience.

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Extremely stressful

Laboratory Technician (Former Employee) - Belfast - 5 November 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?Flexible, but pay was quite poor and work environment was toxicWhat is the most stressful part about working at the company?A lot of bad behaviour and bullying is tolerated and not dealt withWhat is the work environment and culture like at the company?Very unpleasant and toxic, huge amounts expected with very little thanks

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Insights into Queen's University Belfast

Based on 14 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Fair pay for job

Areas for improvement

Support from manager
Trust in colleagues
Sense of belonging

Worked there through uni supported that school took priority

Silver Service Waiter (Current Employee) - Belfast - 8 October 2023

Great spot to work at, worked there all through uni and had a good balance between work and school.After uni I worked full time hours and I had a good choice when I could and couldn't work

Pros

Free food

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Great place to work

Research Fellow (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 6 September 2023

I love my time at Queen's University Belfast. Great atmosphere and colleagues, with a flexible approach to work provided. Clear progression outlined with a scaled approach to salary so guarantees of moving up the ladder yearly.

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Supportive workplace

Research Fellow (Former Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 15 August 2023

QUB is a supportive workplace with great maternity cover. Research fellow have access to various development programmes that focus on areas such as leadership or project management

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Brilliant

Research Fellow (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 16 July 2023

Great place to work at. Provides equal opportunities to all staff. Great pension, supportive people, and very good and inclusive work environment. Belfast is also a very nice city to live in.

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sucks

Research Student (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 4 July 2023

chaotic managementstressful workharsh regulationtime wasting would not recommend to other students who are considering postgraduate study.try to escape from this place

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Great Place to Work

Researcher (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 27 June 2023

I have been working at QUB for almost 3 years, and really happy to be part of the team. Unfortunately, most of the contracts here are fixed term so I need to get another job

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They only care about lecturers

Clerical Officer Grade 4 (Former Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 26 June 2023

I don’t know what other admin staff were doing with their time, but every clerical department I worked in had me bored to tears. The work is simple and you’re mostly just waiting for people to ask you to do something. Putting in 8 hours was impossible some days.Central finance is stuck in the dark ages and a nightmare to deal with - if every dept just had their own equivalent to the Payments team (a single person could do it), things would move a lot faster and it would be less embarrassing when dealing with clients and students.You might get to move from grade 3 to grade 4, but anything else is impossible. Grade 5s barely exist. And many grade 3 roles should really be grade 4, but if your line manager disagrees you’re stuck. Also if you have any personal issues your chances of having them handled well depends entirely on your line manager’s personality. HR don’t care, unless you’re a professor. The most educated staff are the rudest to deal with, and often they can’t grasp basic concepts.They’re so determined to make everyone feel part of the university that they forget just how different many departments and roles are, so you’ll never get fair treatment.

Pros

Lots of free time

Cons

Bored and a waste of years waiting to advance

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Good wowkplace

Scientist (Former Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 1 February 2023

I was able to set my own hours in my lab and friendly team. Contracts are short without job security and this was my main reason for leaving my role.

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Jobs at Queen's University Belfast

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Administration Officer (Grade 4)

Accommodation Manager

Great place to work

Project Manager (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 1 February 2023

They must be doing something right as I've been an employee for over 20 years! It isn't perfect, but there is a huge drive to make things better. The Staff Forum gives staff from all areas a voice, which is encouraging some real positive change.There are many great people in diverse roles, and still a need to recognise the importance of those in non-academic posts and provide clearer career pathways. But, the culture of the University is definitely improving, which is great.

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excellent

Chief Operating Officer (Former Employee) - Belfast City Centre - 1 November 2022

It is a great place to work. The workplace culture is in the process of being improved for professional services staff in particular.Whilst there has been an under investment in IT in the past it is changing now.

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Stressful Environment

Research Fellow (Current Employee) - Belfast - 27 September 2022

No career progress and work environment based on bias unfortunately thus no matter what you have done, you are not going to see any progress in your career

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Okay as a student job

Student Host (Former Employee) - Belfast - 27 July 2022

Worked here for a year as a student host. Wasn’t a bad experience, very flexible around your work life. Will say that they’re almost too flexible as there was times we were severely understaffed.

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Depends on the department

Varied (Current Employee) - Varied - 23 July 2022

Think of each part of the uni as completely separate businesses. Each has its own culture, expectations and rules that vary wildly from one another. Directorates aren’t typically good places to work- stricter dress codes, less flexibility with hours, much restricted holidays (eg no annual leave to be taken over summer months), often open offices where any chat is squished so less “friendly” overall as there’s more separation between teams, and flexible working might be only a day a week, but potentially more promotion possibilities and typically permanent posts. In several years in a directorate was never offered the fun lunches and events that were common place in Schools. Schools on the other hand tend to be friendly, good community spirit, relaxed, more or very informal dress, private offices, very flexible on work times and home working (3 days home working typical), cyclical work throughout the year so only spots of time eg. September where leave is restricted. However promotions are often not possible unless someone retires/leaves and many posts in centres/projects/schools are temporary. Depending on the school they regularly arrange lunches and fun events to help bond staff. Interviews vary wildly from place to place. Unless you are going for testing and a clerical board, there is no consistency in the types of questions they ask from one post to another.

Pros

Fabulous holidays, good pension, great sick pay, flexible working, lovely people in Schools and Projects

Cons

Lots of red tape, Salary is not performance based, Many leave posts due to bullying but can’t highlight it as HR process is weak, some managers have no people skills, may end up doing two jobs

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For your own sake - avoid

Lab Technician (Former Employee) - Queen's University Belfast, County Antrim - 14 March 2022

Chronically underpaying and stripping staff of benefits each year to the point of mental break, warning you as strongly as possible to avoid this terrible employer

Pros

Limited management oversight

Cons

Cripplingly bad pay

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Miserable place to work

Cleaner (Current Employee) - Mbc - 17 October 2021

Unfriendly place to work not made welcome.Work load not divid out equally because of favouritism.Having to cover sick leave plus your own work at busy times of year is physically demanding and therefore adds to sick leave rising.

Pros

None

Cons

None

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nice place! not much progression for temps

Clerical Officer (Current Employee) - Belfast - 19 September 2021

I came in briefly as a temp and enjoyed my time. Managers and co-workers all respectful and easy-going. So long as you are willing to do the work and show respect you'll get it back. I was hoping to get a permanent job but neither myself nor other temps I worked with had any scope for getting one really..... So just something to consider if that's also how you'll be working with them!

Pros

free coffee, good transport links, relaxed work culture

Cons

not much room for progression

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Ingenieur development

Study engineer expert, biodegradable polymer (Former Employee) - County Antrim - 12 December 2020

Good

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Great team environment good holiday and pension scheme

Maintenance Assistant (Current Employee) - Belfast - 1 November 2020

Good management and understanding of family work life balance. Work is demanding but can be rewarding .Good chance of education development and possibly of being able to climb the ladder

Pros

Phone, ipad most equipment supplied

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Pockets of toxic culture

Interim Head of Resourcing (Former Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 24 June 2020

Worked with some highly professional and competent individuals but unfortunately experienced some very poor behaviours. It’s a place to join for life and not for change agents.