Working for Eastman Chemical Company - Maintenance Mechanic Eastman Employee Review

High pay and good learning environment

Interview process is kind of difficult

Certain pockets of the company (dependent on leadership, primarily design or corporate/technical roles) have excellent work/life balance with unlimited sick time, half day Fridays, and flexibility to leave for appointments and childcare and/or work from home occasionally as needed. In these situations the direct group leader focuses on work output rather than time tracking. This is an incredible place to work if you can get one of these opportunities. In that environment, people are happy to be there and respectful and appreciative of each other. The biggest downside is you have to wear khakis and button ups. If your direct supervisor is good (I've had some amazing ones and some poor ones) there are so many career options for young engineers at Eastman. You can do WAY more with your degree than manufacturing. The sky is the limit. You can do lab work, sustainability work, modeling and calculations, company project management, product development, equipment design, research, you name it. After engaging in some job searches lately myself for fun, I can see that Eastman still has pretty good benefits (health, 401k match, vacation and sick leave policy) compared to other companies, at least for exempt employees. The salary and bonuses are what lag behind. Big pro is the people at Eastman are still good. We hire competitively and also have many 10-40 year employees who plan on spending their career here and are smart, competent, logical, caring, and collaborative. We at Eastman support each other and make time to mentor and help our co-workers. EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT RECENT TNO SITE LEADER CHANGE.

You know how I mentioned all the amazing opportunities for young engineers? Yeah that's only for chemical and electrical engineers. If you are mechanical then your options are basically pipe design or doing a manufacturing role equivalent to your CME peers but getting paid 20% less. If you have career ambitions as a ME then do not work here. Similarly, work/life balance is incredible only in pockets of the Kingsport site. In other areas (manufacturing, especially polymers) engineers are expected to put in well over 40 hours per week, occasionally work the operator's shift schedule (12 hours per day, horrific back and forth form days to nights, with no additional compensation or overtime), frequently be on call and work weekends, and in the worst situations planning vacations and time off around each others schedules so there are no lapses in complete coverage. It frequently seems these demands on your time are unnecessary and not directly related to plant need. The general impression from the engineer is that management prioritizes the most miniscule reduction in risk over the engineer's entire personal life. From my experience, the manufacturing roles are a young man's game, and COMPLETELY incompatible with having hobbies or children unless you're fortunate enough to have a stay at home spouse who shoulders the full burden of running a household while you dedicate your life to work. Co-workers are still typically high quality and collaborative in the manufacturing environment, but it's more like a trauma bond situation. Another big con: your ability to be promoted almost entirely depends on your direct supervisor. If your supervisor is out of touch with your work and/or unwilling to go to bat for you to the higher ups, you will not be promoted. In my situation, I missed out on 2 promotions on schedule in my early career - one due to an unsupportive/out-of-touch manager and one due to budget cuts. It has been almost impossible to get caught up to my peers despite consistently good performance reviews. Now as a 10 year employee I am making exactly what I hired in at, adjusted for inflation. Adding to the cons of performance reviews, they are inherently competitive, on a curve system with your peers and there are limited spots for "good" reviews. This is eroding away at the collaborative nature of work at Eastman, which is one of our big strengths. When finances are poor (which they have been a lot recently), Eastman can't afford to give out good bonuses and promotions. Rather than giving you a good review and then poor compensation, they use a system that forces them to tell you you didn't do well so that they don't have to give you any money. It's demoralizing and results in the feeling that performance reviews and promotions are unfair. Your entire career track depends on your boss and timing. For example, the promotion I was passed over for this year was submitted to management and it was noted that I was qualified for the promotion per the system's metrics. However, budget cuts restricted 1/2 of all employees put up for promotion in my area and I didn't make the cut because it had been longer since their last promotion for other employees. Mind you, my promotion schedule was already delayed so my last promotion was already a year+ late. Now, I won't get this promotion until next year. It's an unspoken rule no one admits to, but they still promote on a standard schedule and there have to be extreme circumstances to get promoted 2 years in a row. Therefore, my next promotion after that will also be delayed. It's frustrating. Upper management tries to manage rather than lead, with some prominent higher ups pulling strings far outside their area of expertise and many layers down in the ranks. This results in a complete lack of power for the lower employees and an inability to make decisions for anyone below director (and in some instances higher) level. Several members of upper management (CEO is primary example) respond to questions with deflection and corporate jargon that has a lot of words but somehow says nothing. It gives the impression that upper management thinks the average Eastman employee is too dumb to understand when they are getting the work around, and/or that they don't deserve real answers to their questions. I get that CEO works for the board and not the employees, but there is a sense in the company that he is prioritizing quarterly finances over the company's future longevity. This is exacerbated by the impression that the CEO is not invested in the Kingsport community. Why would he care about the future of Eastman? His family doesn't even live in Kingsport. This impression extends to Kingsport community members who do not work at Eastman. Eastman is a big deal here in Kingsport, and they want to see a local in charge who is out and about in the community. someone with a stake in our town, who sits next to you at ball games and eats at the same restaurants you eat at.