Solvay reviews

4.0

80% would recommend to a friend

(860 total reviews)
avatar

Philippe KEHREN

93% approve of CEO

50% positive business outlook

Solvay has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 860 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Solvay 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

860 reviews
1.0
Jul 23, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are into stepping on fellow employees and kissing up to management. This is the place for you. (REH)

Cons

It was fun at the beginning. It felt like family and was great to come to work. Made you feel like you were part of the team. Now the fact the USW had to be called in to help from the corporate idiotic decisions. The bond created was destroyed. One op that came down from Hook. Has made it to where he gets away with racial comments and downing everyone while the company stands by and does nothing. HR knows about the comments made and still keeps his job. Talks down to everyone while recording to fire people. Company has protected this one and will fire anyone that tries to test them. The company knows the threats made and turns their head. "Well between me you and the wall. They were only joking." Over and over they tell us. Discrimination is allowed in the company. You will not go anywhere. They love their engineers more than anything. Operators are seen as cavemen. They don't know anything as said previously. No matter how hard you work. There is no growth to advance up in the company. But if you have a bachelors chemical engineering degree. You get to move up the chain. Any other associates to bachelors degrees do not matter. School is no longer paid for by the company. The USW is always fighting them. More sites in north america are becoming unionized.

2.0
Sep 10, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

401k, company matching, relocation option, BCBS. If you are a fresh graduate, Solvat might be great company to start your career.

Cons

Solvay is a large organization and as expected, it is like any corporate environment. Meaning, like a horse race, it is not surprising to expect that the management will force you to compete with your coworkers to keep you as productive as possible. As long as you play the game, you are a good fit. If you think you are an individual thinker, you may not fit well with the organizational culture as they tend to hire strong team players - who follow the group and obey. Speaking up is not a safe game to play. Management seriously lacks track record of success and it is all old boy's club. If you are not hired by one of senior managers your chance to advance in your career is not even poor, it is basically "0", null, zip, zilch, nada. Do not let average tenure of ~7 years mislead you, this is basically average time to reach your full potential in the company and the time to hit ceiling. If you are a career oriented individual and really good at what you do and did not become a leader in your organization or assume a management role, you should not spend more than 3 years in the company. Most people who decide to stay more than 3-5 years either doesn't have an other option but stay (H1B's, visa holders) or want to play safe and prefers to keep their paycheck over their mental health. With the help of Covid-19 and recession, they have cut some meaningless positions including removing some mid-management. There are still more pointless positions left in the organization and they appear to be willing to eliminate this jobs over time which will optimize the business and hopefully increase productivity. Most of the projects/employees have no meaningful impact on the industry so your job is to justify your existence constantly in the organization and make other people believe that you are doing something important even thought you do not believe that yourself. Maybe you want to work 8-5 job, play safe, drink your free coffee, get a free lunch time to time, get your middling performance scores and complain about how unfair the management is with your coworkers, collect average paycheck. If that is the case, Solvay is the place for you. If you want to advance well, do more than just appear to work and solve complex problems, really impact the industry, bring something new into the world, than go to anywhere else. Solvay will suffocate you. Overall, at this time around, it is the blind leading the blind kind of situation, lack of strategy.

1.0
Apr 10, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I can’t think of enough to even fill the 20 word minimum. The pay is decent and that is all.

Cons

The environment is terrible Micromanaging in certain departments Huge amount of disrespect Harassment Incredibly high work load and no new employees, only replacements Unrealistic expectations

Viewing 7 - 9 of 860 Reviews

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