If the professional world is my oyster, can't I do better than Rutgers? - Anonymous employee Rutgers University Employee Review

I joined Rutgers as part of the forced merger with another institution (the University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ). A few of my colleagues experienced good relationships with their new Rutgers bosses. Most had negative interactions. Mine were particularly ugly. I had to interface with two different Rutgers departments. Visual Identity and Administration & Public Safety. Their attitude toward my legacy department was hostile. The message was for us to sit down, shut up, and do things their way. There was no interest in what our best practices were, nor how those could be utilized in a "Rutgers" context. I can understand that the merger put both institutions under duress. My criticism is the managerial communication skills of my Rutgers peers were shockingly rude and authoritarian. At UMDNJ there was mandatory training for all managers, conducted by the HR dept. to avoid such poor interpersonal skills. I concluded that my professional growth would be stunted by doing things the "Rutgers way".