Eastman reviews

There are many layers of middle management, and from the bottom it is unclear how much value they add. Lower middle management (just above front-line supervisors) tends to be populated by yes-men that have little understanding of the processes or people they manage. Ineffective managers who have impressed somebody in the past are shuffled around to where they can do the least damage. Kingsport is a small town, and those who's parents work at Eastman get promoted with uncanny regularity. Decision-making is slow (except in the case of a manager's pet project!) such that most good ideas are not commercialized until the market has moved on and the product will no longer be profitable. The Executive Suite like to talk about the strength of Eastman's employees and how they are the reason for the company's success, especially before and after announcing layoffs or benefit reductions so the company can meet its earning growth targets. Layoffs are often done quietly. What was once a very paternalistic company where "Uncle George" Eastman took care of his employees is quickly becoming an investor-focused profit machine.

Somewhere in the last 10-15 years Eastman Chemical has abandoned its core principles of decent employee relations and the fair and ethical treatment of its longer-tenured employee base. There was a time when experience was rewarded with advancement and opportunity. That has all changed. A college degree - regardless of the intelligence of the person with the diploma, is regarded more highly than years and years of hard work and struggle for the person who established the process and sacrificed the pain to develop it. Thousands of years of practical and logical experience is being cast aside for lofty catchphrases, excitable ideas that have no power and a group of people who know what to say - at just the right time and to the right people. Everything seems perfect on the surface - but the work ethic has been replaced with ideas that never reach action. If you have a certain degree from an honored institution - you are a deity. If you have 20 years experience and know every intricate nuance of the business you become secondary and expendable. Education does not necessary equal intelligence and a diploma cannot bestow character. There is no magic in a degree. If you share the last name of a director - you are immediately placed on the fast track straight out of college and if you don't thrive you are quickly put into a lesser more protected role where you can 'hide' from the real work and weather the storms of cutbacks because of 'who' you are - not how well you work. And then those around you - who filled in your gaps when you struggled - will be the ones who will be asked to give the ultimate sacrifices. Nothing is ever totally fair - that is a reality. But slowly over time what is being realized with the shortfalls that my company has suffered in the last 10-15 years is a slow erosion of the knowledge base that once made this company a joy to work for. In time - the culture will evolve to correct itself or the company will adopt this new culture as the norm. But as this struggle ensues and the core principles change - productivity and profits will suffer. Kaizen is a wonderful things and change is inevitable but there is an immeasurable worth to hand-on experience. Of course it can be replaced - but if it is not revered, respected and preserved, the value will always be diminished.