Yale University

"Depends on the department. Maybe I got lucky with my boss, but I feel very valued and equal in my workspace."

"Time off, maternity and paternity leave are better than finance industry, but new hires get significantly less time off than employees who have been there longer than 7 years. This refers to staff, not faculty, where the inequities maybe more pronounced."

"Negotiate your pay. Ask what the median pay is for people in your role? What's the market range?"

"The time you take for maternity is based off of your accrued time. If you are in management, you get 6 weeks paid by disability. Any other time is based on your own PTO bank. Previously, the university did not have short-term disability that guaranteed any maternity leave, but you could accrue up to 64 vacation days. That total vacation carry-over is now just 15 days. Therefore, maternity leave is better and worse -- all managers can have 6 paid weeks, but it is unlikely that women will be able to take 4 months paid time off like I was able to do in the past. There are a number of women in leadership roles and women are able to advance, yet we still face challenges. I find there's acceptance for taking leave and time off. Flexibility is the norm."

"I put my unpaid leave as 19, but I was paid for 13 of the weeks--using my accrued sick and vacation time. I could have taken the full FMLA unpaid time off, but wanted to have a salary again. There are some childcare centers on campus but I think they are small and hard to get into. One has hours of 8:30-5, which are my normal working hours, so maybe only professors can use it? Flextime and working from home are sort of available; it depends on your boss and job. I have heard the director is not a fan of working from home. Women are in more than half of the top level jobs but it still feels male-dominated. Yale has some great benefits--a college tuition donation, free/nearly free health care option, generous vacation (if were hired before 2009), events and resources on campus. The university feels more corporate and has lessened benefits over the last 5+ years to save money. As a non-profit, there are no bonuses--except there were some recently for top admins which was ridiculous. 2 women and the outgoing president were given multimillion dollar bonuses when they left. The president's bonus was supposedly developed while he was working as an incentive to keep him there. Raises are very low (about 2-3%) in my department of the University unless you can get a promotion. The union has negotiated better raises for its members which is great but I feel it is an unfair to non-union members, and creates a usually subtle 'us vs them' atmosphere. The raises are not really merit-based; there is either a proscribed raise or little room in the budget for a meaningful raise."