Under Armour Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

Emphasis on work-life balance Open and welcoming atmosphere that encourages making connections across the company (even with execs) Many young and talented professionals that are open to helping on projects Great team-based atmosphere Easy to find opportunities to innovate, particularly if you are working on product teams Formal mentor system helps connect you with resources and advice (and it is very easy to set up your own mentors, as many jump at the opportunity to support you) Having the "Summer League Rookie" essentially gives you an all-access pass to accessing almost anyone in the company. All it takes is an email introducing yourself as an intern to any person that you want to learn from and there is a very high chance that they will jump at the chance to meet with you. It could be as important as getting help on your project or as simple as grabbing a cup of coffee and picking their brain for 30 minutes. Definitely use this opportunity to network with established professionals.

Cons

Very difficult to get a full-time offer after interning (full-time positions are competitive and depend largely on how the company is doing financially) Overall company vision and direction does not seem to have much support from employees A lot of very talented people are underutilized due to restrictions stemming from reaching the target consumer (they are not intentionally hindered) Baltimore has a great community, but the city itself takes some getting used to, especially if you are not from the east coast. (Transportation is very difficult/expensive)

Pros

The engineering team culture is incredible. As an engineer, you can learn a significant amount from your teammates. It is encouraged to have open discussions with the team on pretty much anything: new or existing product ideas, technical projects, workflow optimizations, and so on. I personally never felt any disdain from my peers whenever I would converse with them about a seemingly radical idea because they were open-minded and critical thinkers. Because of this characteristic, it's allowed engineers from all levels to freely converse with each other without feeling like someone may pull rank on them. From a growth perspective, this is an incredible attribute in a team's culture. There are several opportunities to work on meaningful and impactful initiatives that help peoples' lives. Because the surface area of health and fitness is so great, there are a plethora of ideas to explore. Some of the projects the teams worked on ended up resulting in patent acquisition, including the workout recording technology stack. The company lives through its initiatives by providing several fun opportunities to do events like taco runs, beta testing challenges, and yoga classes throughout the year. Under Armour this year has taken a significant stance on providing speaker-series talks on anti-racism and social equality, which have been incredibly insightful. There is a healthy work/life balance with flexible working from home (prior to COVID-19).

Cons

Connected Fitness is riddled with an obsession of micromanagement and subsequently, a lack of trust. As a manager for a few years, I learned how to properly protect my team from requests that were ambiguous, impossible, or not ready to accomplish in a given timeline. Often enough though, if I had responded negatively, my decision would be superseded by another non-technical manager talking to one of my direct reports directly (to which they would reply positively). It wouldn't be until later in a planning meeting that a direct report of mine would be assigned work that I specifically declined, which unfortunately resulted in stymying my direct reports' career paths. This caused some distrust amongst leaders from different teams, and subsequently, some attrition due to engineers not being able to work on projects largely related to their development plan. It was because of this lack of trust and my own personal stagnation of career growth that I moved back into an engineering role, in hopes to help foster and drive these technical initiatives. Connected Fitness operates based on the notion of completing largely product-focused goals at the expense of thoughtfully building a given teammate's career based on their development plan. This meant that most technical projects were met critically with non-technical stakeholders due to the lack of product-facing incentives. Even if technical projects included objectives like improving the user experience, increasing the fidelity and resilience of a session, or reducing crash rates by fixing a system, these were often overlooked for projects that would add a new feature or a new screen against a broken system. Candidly-speaking, this is due to a lack of maturity from the product team. From a company standpoint, unfortunately the pay is not as competitive as other tech companies in Austin. Due to the volatility of stocks, the bonus percentage payout is inconsistent. Compensation increases are often minimal, and promotion opportunities are difficult to navigate due to the aforementioned issues with product goals and the overall leanness of the engineering teams. In terms of career growth, it is difficult to advance beyond the first few levels unless an opportunity exists for backfilling an open position. For instance, going from a senior engineer to a staff engineer can feel unobtainable given the high expectations and difficulty of accomplishing them, given micromanagement woes.

Pros

50% discount on UA items

Cons

The best way I can describe working there is to say it was like an abusive relationship. The culture was terrible and the disrespect from employees and management was beyond the pale. If the corporate office was a parent, CPS would have taken their “warehouse children” and put them straight into foster homes and intensive therapy. Everyday you were beat down emotionally and just physically drained from the overall treatment and the lack of a work/life balance. At the same time you were brainwashed into thinking you were part of something special - which is what kept you coming back for more. Another day of abuse because ‘UA thinks I’m special, they only hit me because they love me…right?’ Working there was not a team sport, it was every man/woman for himself/herself. It was like everyone was a javelin thrower of varying skill set with the goal of plunging the tip straight into your back.

Pros

Good work/life balance and understanding management

Cons

Could pay more with better benefits

Pros

50% discount on product, good health insurance, 4% 401k match, 8 free group classes at the on campus gym each month.

Cons

Poor work life balance. No clear path for advancement. Frequent layoffs (4 in 5.5 years) each time resulting in fewer teammates being left with more work. Still very much a “boy’s club” even with HR’s push for diversity and inclusion. Toxic culture and as a result, teams are divided and do not work well together. Very evident that some teams are held accountable for their dates and gates while others are not, which leads to internal disputes and frustrations.

Pros

Great discount, decent gym and cafeteria. They are trying to be competitive with salaries.

Cons

No work life balance. When you are pushed to the max they try to tell you that the department is actually over staffed.