Vaccines, Outsourcing, Diversity, Return to Office and Open Floor Plans - Information Technology Leader Celanese Employee Review

#1 You will be punished if you are not vaccinated. If not vaccinated you will pay $60 from each paycheck. You will be forced to wear a mask. They did ask for people with Medical and Religious concerns to the vaccine to submit a formal document asking for accommodations. But then refused all religious accommodations. This was false hope! Everyone I knew was denied. Leaders put on a "People First" show but in the end did what they wanted. #2 Outsourcing level 1 and 2 IT Operational Services. We have done this in the past. It failed due to cost, performance, quality, vendor management... We brought it back in house. We worked really hard at maturing out teams. We now have a GREAT global operational support structure. But none of that matters. New CIO said knows and does not care if the outsourced services quality is not as good or costs more. We also did this years ago with Application support. But when we failed here, we did not insource again. Instead we punted to another vendor. On a positive note, our new CIO has been telling leaders across IT this outsourcing will not equal a reduction in headcount. Says we can use those resources to focus on more strategic initiatives. Only time will tell because here we go again. I hope this move to Azure and outsourcing support works out better than our Follow the Sun initiative. Some IT leaders overpromised savings and Operations had to cut headcount to make their numbers. #3 Diversity and Inclusion. This means you will excel or be hired if you are a "Diverse" candidate. You will not do either if you are not. Look at all the changes in leadership. They have numbers they are clearly trying to meet. Diversity is built in to the leaders objectives. Hard and direct push across the board for people leaders to promote and hire diverse candidates. Multiple times I saw candidates of Diversity selected for an open or new role over more Capable candidates. #4 CEO wants everyone in the office. We have lost entire organizational teams with no compassion for the people because of this lack of flexibility. Even though VPs and Directors disagree with Lori, every leader still supports this demand out of fear. Those managers and team leaders who appose with logic and reason are deemed bad leaders not accepting our business / core values. Standing up for their team will impact their performance reviews. We have positions that took OVER A YEAR to fill. Now, because we are not giving any accommodations to working remote those very difficult positions to fill are empty again. Our great talent we recruited and trained are leaving to go work for companies that allow a more flexible work environment. Leaders have been putting together schedules for locations to return back to the office. These same leaders asked those with needs for accommodations to work remote submit their request using a formal process. Everyone thought this was great. People wrote out why they needed their accommodations and submitted them. Some had moved to help family during the pandemic. Some could not send their kids back to school. Some enjoyed the work life balance that driving to the office for a 7 am meeting would take away. Accommodation request were submitted. Everyone I knew was denied. Leaders put on a "People First" show but in the end did what they wanted. This was false hope! In Mexico and Budapest Celanese is trying out a flex schedule of 3 days in the office and 2 days remote. Budapest allows those days to flex week by week. Mexico does not. Local leader is more like a dictator. He has local HR track who misses their "scheduled" day in the office and report it to leadership. Very controlling in both Mexico and US. Team leaders / managers do not have flexibility to manage their team members. Celanese cares more about butts in seats than results. And they care a lot about results! #5 Open Floor plan for our shared service locations. No office for leaders unless you are at the very top. Offices for Lori and a few direct reports. Everyone else is stuck in dog bone cubicles with short walls. Everyone sees everything. Everyone hears everything. Leaders from all levels VPs, Directors, Managers, Team leads, Team members have said this SUCKS. Other companies have tried the open floor plan, and written about why it failed. But here publicly our leaders support the CEO and push forward an environment that an overwhelming majority hates. If these cons don't bother you then come on. Lori has good plans for growing Celanese. Always an M&A in the pipeline. Celanese is still a great company if you get on the right team.