2U Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

I've worked for large companies and small and 2U has a pretty good handle on work life balance. I don't think it would be for everyone but if you are interested in for-profit education or education tech you'll probably enjoy it more than if you're just interested in higher-ed. Fun perks like snacks and holiday parties and a great company meeting. Great co-workers. Good college partners.

Cons

A lot of people come here to work in higher-ed but this is an education tech company with higher-ed partners. It is a good stepping stone to working in higher-ed if that's what you want but if you want a pure higher-ed experience you're not going to find it here. Micro management is prevalent in some departments. Inexperienced managers but it seems like they're working on this.

Pros

UPTO Supportive management (team dependent) Remote opportunities Work life balance (sometimes)

Cons

Salary Limited upper mobility depending on team Rare promotion opportunities Constant change

Pros

Great benifits and employee rewards

Cons

Fast pace challenging to achieve work life balance

Pros

- Culture: every day is dress down day, free snacks, extremely easy to make friends, Company Meeting - Flexibility: most departments/supervisors are flexible when it comes to making your work/life balance up to your standards - Emergence in the space: in a good position to dominate the online higher education space - Technology: truly one-of-a-kind (for now) - People: everyone seems to get along really well and it's a very young, energetic environment full of (mostly) hard workers

Cons

- Work/life balance is almost TOO good: difficult to separate personal life from work at times - Promotions: not all come to those who deserve them (this happens in probably every company in the world) - Lack of standardization: across departments and even across programs within departments

Pros

Unlimited PTO/ Work life balance Culture Training support

Cons

Hard pathways for advancement Diversity and inclusion is still a work in progress Lots of executive level changes without reasonable accommodations and communication given to individuals contributors

Pros

The company has such an incredible impact on peoples daily lives. In the role that I have, I have gotten to personally see the growth of people from all over the world as they earn their Masters degrees. Customer Services is top priority and it shows from the bottom all the way to the top of the company. 2U is fashioning itself to be the next Google in terms of employee satisfaction and fun. They actually ask you on their satisfaction report every year if you have a best friend in the company. That simple question shows that they care how you feel about coming into work everyday. They want to harbor these types of relationships here. Events are held by employees to gather everyone together in different areas just to have fun with each other. It's an exciting thing to be a part of.

Cons

The company is a start-up so there are some kinks they are working on figuring out. Sometimes career paths can be muddled, but they are striving to make that clearer. I have been with the company for several years at this point, so I have seen my fair share of ups and downs, somethings get taken care of right away - others take a little longer. Work/Life balance are not amazing all the time - everyone works long hours and sometimes too often. The balance comes from within the employee but also from management, the expectations need to be realistic. They are getting MUCH better with this since the company has grown.

Pros

Their work/life balance is great! Everyone is very nice too.

Cons

Can be boring working for Ed tech at times

Pros

The work life balance is amazing unlimited PTO and the benefits are amazing you have the option of working remote or go into the office

Cons

No real pathway for career advancement in the role

Pros

• Many kind, smart, and helpful people on my team • Remote flexibility • I am only giving 3 stars because of my positive experience with the company during the first half of my employment. Otherwise, I would rate 2 stars based on current factors.

Cons

Benefits have been stripped over the last year: • UPTO is now just normal PTO (anything beyond the set number of days requires skip-level management approval). • Tuition reimbursement now only covers edX courses (i.e. not a full degree) • No in-person company meeting/time to connect with the team face-to-face unless you work in one of the offices. When I first accepted this job, HR and management advertised the past company meetings in places like Disney World, Las Vegas, etc. I understand that covid and other factors have since required adjustments, but we were later promised there would be upcoming events last year/this year. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single opportunity in the four years I worked here to actually meet my team in person. Constant changes that are poorly planned/executed: • Three different managers and numerous directors over four years. • Two re-orgs, drawn-out lay-off periods • The company is currently undergoing a tumultuous re-org internally. Changes started in August and are still impacting the day-to-day in a way that is hard to navigate/balance as an individual contributor. Growing pains are natural, but it's going to be years before the dust settles and edX/2U are truly merged and functioning efficiently. • The nature of the work has changed to accommodate the re-org goals. Unfortunately, in my experience, it has been to the detriment of creativity with an over-focus on efficiency and cost-saving measures. • No training for employees new to the role/team as a result of the re-org. Completely up to the individual contributors to bring new employees up to speed in addition to massive workloads. • Workload and work/life balance is poor since the re-org, despite flagging concerns with project management and management in general. Small concessions were made, but overall heavy amounts of work with unrealistic and arbitrary deadlines. Management's hands are tied: • My direct managers were empathetic, helpful, and did their best to address my needs and concerns (on their own–management training is lacking in general). Feedback is lost further up the pipeline though–you're just a number and will need to fend for yourself. • C-Suite is completely out of touch with the reality of lower-level employees day-to-day. CEO can get defensive when pushed or questioned. Toxic positivity and gaslighting from leadership about the reality of day-to-day contributors, how the company is doing, the 'success' of the re-org, etc. Sure, the numbers may be looking better depending on the day, but what about the mental health and well-being of the people making things happen? • No recognition of anniversaries, success, holidays, etc. besides a short Slack message. • Team morale is exceptionally low. If you don't buy into the new direction or voice an alternative perspective, then you're viewed as a disruption to 'progress'. Unacceptable: • The CEO sent a company-wide email about the restructuring last August, outlining that large-scale layoffs were imminent, then making everyone wait for weeks to find out of their role would be impacted or not. The mental toll this took on me (and literally everyone else I've talked to on my team), has been traumatizing and is something I'm still trying to recover from. • During this period, employees took to chat channels to air concerns/grievances. Soon after, the ability to post in company-wide channels was revoked. This came across as attempting to control the message rather than promoting a safe space for employees to find solidarity and support during a scary time.

Pros

Amazing community at 2U, all of whom are eager to help. Despite being remote, I feel an incredible sense of community with my coworkers and am eager to keep learning along side them. The culture is great, everyone is knowledgeable and in line with the core values, and there is a genuine sense of warmth in every interaction. Benefits are top tier.

Cons

With every remote job there’s going to be a bit of difficulty finding a good work/life balance. However, 2U makes up for this with unlimited PTO, so really there aren’t any cons I can think of.