Eastman reviews

3.3

55% would recommend to a friend

(2,478 total reviews)
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Mark J. Costa

42% approve of CEO

38% positive business outlook

Eastman has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 2,478 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Eastman employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Aug 2, 2019

Unappreciated

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working with some the best people in the industry. Decent pay relative to the cost of living in the area.

Cons

Employees are becoming less and less valued. Layoffs are a regular occurrence, and there are very few employment opportunities in the area. In addition to layoffs, freezes on salary increases happen fairly often. The performance management system requires a forced ranking of employees into categories making a majority of the employee population feel scared and undervalued. The only real incentive for working harder is not losing your job. Folks are constantly being asked to do more with less and less, and their performance has to be better every single year. Otherwise they will be labeled partially meets or does not meet expectations. And once they are labeled, it is very easy for management to give them the same rating every year regardless of performance. This also makes them a potential target for the next round of layoffs which are inevitably around the corner.

2.0
May 12, 2019

Process Heavy, Leadership Light

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Brand new headquarter building is nice. A pro for the rest of the hiring economy is the exodus of talent from the company. Some people like Kingsport...it's close to the mountains and the climate is nice...but, if you want any culture, music, theater, entertainment beyond an OK movie theater, or cuisine that isn't fast food this is not your place. The city school system in Kingsport is very good. There are a lot of AP classes offered at Dobyns-Bennett High School. There is a lot of pride in the schools to prepare the students.

Cons

This is a company full of managers and hardly any leaders. They are process HEAVY and the hierarchical power is nauseating. Apparently, if you are knighted with a "director" title you are also transferred infallible knowledge. There is fear and avoidance of anything that might look to come across as conflict...diversity of thought need not apply. 8 years or so on the journey to becoming a specialty chemical company, and they are still on the journey to become a specialty chemical company. Their plan is to govern the masses with massive pre-defined processes with little room for creativity or individual and unique, talent demonstration. Why is a specialty chemical company hurt so bad with the current trade dispute between the US and China? A true specialty chemical company should be largely immune... And, when the going gets tough, the VPs spend two days to come up with the awe-inspiring plan, "Make better decisions faster." Wow...

2.0
Jan 29, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, good location (if you like mountains and smaller communities)

Cons

Company no longer sees employees as the most valuable asset and we are entering the fourth round of layoffs in 6 years. This has become the current CEO's go to method for "costs" reductions. There have also been multiple process safety events since 2017 including two significant events in 2022. The blame then gets pushed down to 1st and 2nd supervisors rather than senior leaders taking responsibility for denying capital requests and under investing in safety and infrastructure projects in order to make balance sheets look better.

Viewing 25 - 27 of 2,478 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,862 Eastman reviews submitted anonymously by Eastman employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Eastman is right for you.