Pros
- The majority of peers are great colleagues and easy to work with - Shared lifestyle habits - fitness oriented, work hard / play hard in Boston - There are a lot of young, passionate people who care about the brand, and want to be competitive with Nike, Adidas, Brooks, and Etc. They sincerely care about making a difference. - Benefits are good, but not incredible. - Salary is good, but not incredible. - Some departments are flexible with working from home - new office in Boston is very nice - will be even nicer when the T-stop is complete as traffic can be bad - everyone gets laptops, standing desks, and ergo chairs
Cons
- While the majority of people are great to work with, there are just enough "bad apples" and people with unethical business behaviors that make the environment untrustworthy. What's unfortunate is these people tend to be in leadership positions, and there isn't much associates can do about it, even if behaviors and specific examples are bubbled up to HR. - There is very little emphasis on coaching or career development. In fact, for several years in a row, my manager had me write my annual goals at the end of the year as I was writing my self review. There is no mid year check-in on performance and managers aren't held accountable for providing their team with coaching / feedback (positive or constructive) throughout the year. This way of managing has resulted in an unprofessional amount of favoritism. - Related to above comment, when people aren't "BFFs" with their manager, when they challenge the status quo, or express differing points of view, managers will terminate their employees because they feel threatened and aren't simply doing what they are told to do. They get accused of not being collaborative. Aside from the obvious unethical behavior, this way work of working and thinking is going to cripple New Balance in the long run because they will never make progress in achieving the "young, modern, innovative, running brand" they so strongly desire to be. If you want to appeal to the younger generation, then trust the younger generation more, listen to their POVs, and don't accuse them of not being collaborative b/c they aren't simply executing plans created by out of touch leaders. - New Balance is blinded by their false sense of self. They ignore their core "older" customer who wears the white leather walking shoes and they think they are this hip, young, innovative brand. I see this happening with a lot of aging brands - they try too hard to ignore who they really are and customers tend to see right through this. - There is serious turn-over and turmoil in the eComm department. Most people are over-worked, unhappy, and burnt out. Management and HR continue to ignore the source of the problem. - HUGE EGOs with Senior Leadership - this is crippling New Balance as leaders don't listen and see beyond their own opinions. They pretend to be open-minded and listen their team's recommendations, but at the end of the day, they lead through "dictatorship". - Poor communication from leadership - most people feel left in the dark with key strategy decisions, company wide decisions / goals, or structural changes. For example, we made a huge announcement at CES regarding Digital Sport, but not a word has been discussed since. You'd think there would be ongoing communication about the launch of a new category. - In addition to the above, once strategies, goals, and direction has been communicated, more often than not, leadership changes their minds within a few weeks / months and any work initially completed needs to be reversed. This is a sign senior leadership doesn't know what they are doing and they aren't confident in their decisions. - When business is tough, there is a lot of finger pointing and leadership does not take responsibility for their mistakes. This is particularly problematic because most leaders "tell" their teams what to do, then point the fingers at them for missing goals.