United Airlines Employee Reviews about "leadership"

Pros

- Flight benefits - People are generally very nice and easy to work with

Cons

- Barely any PTO to actually use the flight benefits (only 10 days per year that you must use or lose) - No work/life balance (you are required to work 7-day, 24-hour on-call shifts every few months) - Pay is nowhere near industry average, especially for the amount of work you are required to do (your coworkers in the same position with less experience will also be paid tens of thousands of dollars more than you) - Leadership plays favorites so no room for growth/promotions (my manager at the time even acknowledged this) - Instead of promoting its hardworking, dedicated employees, United will instead hire from the outside - Communications employees leaving left and right due to the reasons listed above and leadership did nothing about it - During my time at United, I was contacted by almost every other major U.S. airline looking to hire, all of which paid significantly more money than United and offered me more senior-level roles

Pros

flight benefits, amazing people at the lower levels

Cons

corrupt and unethical leadership at the upper levels

Pros

- Compensation is fair compared with other airlines. - Interesting and challenging work. - Many highly talented colleagues with great skills to learn from. - Travel benefits. - Nice employee discounts at numerous companies.

Cons

- Way too many Managers and Directors and not enough staff to actually DO the work. - Totally convoluted org charts that result in a huge amount of 'passing the buck' as no Manager or Director ever seems to want to actually MAKE a decision. Instead it gets discussed in circles, meeting after meeting, for months on end ... a completely ridiculous process that they then label 'collaborative'. The man hours wasted by this insane legacy process is staggering. - No leadership resolve to ever see anything through - too much reactive and not enough proactive. - Totally unfair employee evaluation and advancement process. It's far too political and subjective. - Corrupt and totally out of touch senior leadership spending all of their time managing Wall Street instead of running an airline. - Most of middle management are nothing more than spin doctors and empire builders who create massive amounts of non-value work to justify their paychecks. The company would be much more effective and efficient with MORE staff to do the work required and HALF of the Managers and Directors.

Pros

Most coworkers are really smart, hard working, friendly, thoughtful, and looking out for each other. Every day is different and you get to use your brain solving real problems in a way that will have a real impact. The industry and the product are interesting. Having an automatic employer 401k contribution plus a 401k match is nice.

Cons

Most middle management is dead weight or or a burden on their team. Very little direction and leadership is provided so most project flounder but then blame gets placed on those who were trying to muddle through the undefined work. It's nearly impossible to get a timely, relevant, sufficiently-nuanced answer out of leadership. Employees are not empowered to make decisions that enable them to do their jobs. Work is smothered in poorly defined, ever-changing, top-down processes. The company is extremely contractor- and consultant-heavy with some teams being outnumbered 5 to 1, outside people to United people, so the people who know things about the business, industry, processes, or tools spend the bulk of the time explaining to six-month swoop-in-swoop-out workers how things work and why things are the way they are rather than doing actual productive work. Many, many functions are outsourced to people who do exactly as they're told, even when what they're told is obviously a mistake or terrible idea – they lack the peripheral vision and/or investment in work and/or experience and/or empowerment to say 'are you sure?' – which causes many, many last minute fire drills and sub-par business outcomes. Many leadership types will listen to your concerns and re-assure you and then do nothing with the substance of those conversations. Re-orgs, with RIFs and confusion, happen on an annual basis and are designed by people who don't actually know what work is going on so the new org structures never reflect the realities of the organization so get half-implemented, leaving an even bigger mess for the next re-org. Health insurance options change every year. HR and other employee benefits (travel, discounts) are extremely opaque in communication: the information is out there but you must wade through 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 information from different subsidiaries and work groups spread across dozens of different intranet and answer systems to get an answer only to find out what you're looking at is obsolete. Pay is stagnant. Opportunity for advancement is non-existant. Employee recognition and other 'look how much we care about you!' things only make it to Chicago HQ employees, not other Chicago locations, Houston, Denver, or other places. Oscar's message of hope and change rings hollow – leadership only cares about agents and flight attendants. Flight benefits are very over-hyped. You can fly for cheap-ish, but you can't actually get on a plane to do so.

Pros

United Airlines offers an extensive benefits package including free/discounted travel. Our company allows ample opportunity for growth into leadership roles as leaders are commonly selected from within the company. Our foundation is built on open, honest and direct communication. Safety is a top concern and having fun is a must! Employees at United Airlines are co-workers but also family. We work together and ensure that everyone is part of the team.

Cons

This is not a con for me but can be for some people: Hard work is a must. We strive to meet and exceed expectations and expect everyone on the team to do the same!

Pros

With new leadership in place, Oscar Munoz focus on customers and employee satisfaction is evident. By resolving customers concerns, introducing better quality products and services, and investing in new technology United is transitioning to distinguish its brand as a distinguished and exclusive entity sought by premier travelers. Senior leadership is working diligently to streamline labor issues and create one company with one focus ahead.

Cons

There is still more work to do in terms of quality meals and products in the Economy cabin. The snacks, meals, utensils aren't as comparable as other Star Alliance members. There's still more work to do in the area of employee recognition and the effective utilization of mid management and junior supervisors making more effort in employee engagement and promoting equal opportunities at all levels of the operation.

Pros

Travel benefits are the best and most unique reason to work at United.

Cons

The company has been through very difficult times and the leadership has not always been up to meeting the challenge.

Pros

a good group of people to work with

Cons

lack of leadership in senior management and poor vision. Policies are set up based on recommendation from outside management consulting agencies who do not have a clear understanding of business culture at United

Pros

Fast-paced, high energy and diverse company. Benefits are excellent including flight benefits. Employee base is extremely talented and great folks to work with. Very big on diversity and inclusion.

Cons

Senior leadership needs to do a better job of work/life balance for management and administrative employees.

Pros

I had a very good experience working at ISD. I had good career growth, good support from senior management and was I am proud of what I achieved. My peformance was well rewarded.

Cons

Constant change at CIO level did not help the organization. Current leadership (though not very familiar with situation now) seems to be not interested in recruiting ex-UA folks (????)