Pros
Good 401(k). Decent benefit package. Avoid the company stock plan, though. The stock price isn't going up anytime soon.
Cons
WestRock, used to be a 25,000 person company. It is now a 50,000 person company as a result of a series of acquisitions. But getting bigger did not make the company more profitable. Instead, it increased corporate debt, brought the scrutiny of government regulators, and left management trying to piece together a confused mess of mills and corporate structures and ex-headquarters and workforces The result -- significant white collar layoffs at the Atlanta Headquarters and in the plants that started October 1, and aren't likely to end anytime soon. A company facing this is a bad place to be. People are stressed, worried about the future and face doing much more with less. Layoff decisions are arbitrary and often appear mean-spirited. WestRock’s severance model is 1 week for each year of employment and uses Sub-Pay, a perfectly legal but definitely punitive method, to reduce severance payments. Sub-Pay requires employees to file for unemployment immediately after leaving the company in order to get their severance. Then deducts from the weekly severance the weekly amount of unemployment. This affects everyone – except of course the C-suite. WestRock’s compensation levels are below industry standard. They won’t increase much (if at all) while you are there. Their corporate structure is flat and stove piped and WestRock corporate doesn’t promote people. The average raise (when one is given) is 1 or 2 percent. HR is focusing on luring millennials to the company. Given these realities, that group won’t be happy or interested, even if there is a ping pong table in the lunchroom. The current CHRO has been around for a couple of years. She often challenges old ways (sometimes a good thing), but the CHRO approach to people management is defined by this statement made in her opening remarks at the company: “A meeting with me is a learning experience”. That attitude trickles down.