General Mills reviews

4.0

80% would recommend to a friend

(3,881 total reviews)
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Jeff Harmening

81% approve of CEO

63% positive business outlook

General Mills has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 3,881 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The General Mills 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

4K reviews
3.0
Sep 22, 2015

Ship is sinking

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Loved it for awhile. Learned a lot. Very smart people. Social place. Fast-paced. Met new people every day. Fun brands to work on.

Cons

Culture suffered from 2 rounds of major layoffs. Business leaders out of touch with employees and everyday consumers. Don't see them turning it around. Would be a good stint for a couple years, but know more layoffs or sell offs are coming.

2.0
Sep 2, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Nice-if-pretentious "campus", with lots of anemities (childcare center, Caribou Coffee, workout center, etc.) 2. Convenient location right at the juncture of two freeways 3. Career development; managers make concerted effort to match people with desired work

Cons

1. Too many meetings: People hide in the organization through meetings, use meetings to do work "collectively" so that they don't have to actually do their jobs. Most employees literally have their entire weeks 100% booked with meetings, back-to-back-to-back. Difficult for a "I'm here to get work done" introvert to even function. 2. Bureaucratic: even small tasks involve getting "buy in" from people via dozens of meetings. No one wants to hold individuals accountable, or be held accountable, which is how the culture evolved into "I'll spread the decision making risk around". 3. Lifers and the old boy's club: Too much emphasis on who you know, not on the work you do. Lifers think the "General Mills way" is the best way, even when it demonstrably isn't 4. Political: 40% of what you do at the company is actual work. The other 60% is navigating the morass of General Mills culture and politics, keeping up with org chart changes, etc. Doing crap work but volunteering for the United Way campaign more likely to get you promoted than the other way around. 5. Form over substance: Company has this ritzy campus and propaganda plastered all over the walls (things like "we care about our employees!"), along with politically pushy "LGBT" banners at the employee entrance and bragging about their "climate change initiatives." Yet actual projects are total messes in execution! One guy I worked with said "we make money in spite of ourselves", and that sums it up.

2.0
May 20, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of opportunities first 1-3 years Great place if you love the corporate environment 1/2 day Fridays during the summer

Cons

Too many people who think the same way- no room for independent thought Lack of agility to keep up in marketplace Very political Too many meetings, not enough actual work being done Style is rewarded over substance Very s-l-o-w to make decisions or change Just went through major restructure and are still sputtering Low morale

Viewing 37 - 39 of 3,881 Reviews

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