W. L. Gore & Associates reviews

There are too many to list. Innovation is dead at Gore. This ties directly into the current focus on short term revenues, profit, stock share valuations - all for the family members benefit on the backs of all of the Associates who have built this company. To what end? Who knows? But it's likely easier to sell off parts of the company for family profits with some of the recent organizational changes. The CEO keeps hiring outside hatchet folks from companies like Danaher and DuPont (Dow) that used to be clear examples of companies the founders did not want to be. For years now, Gore has continued to promote unqualified Associates to multiple leadership positions and much of that is finally catching up with the company. New guidance is coming out that basically is telling everyone to get back to the plants and virtual/hybrid work is dead. Leave it to Gore to be behind the common work trends during Covid, as they were painfully slow to come up with remote work polices, and now on the wrong side of return to work polices that are clearly not what quality Associates want. It is interesting that there are still loads of leaders who are remote, yet many of them are getting a pass on returning to the plants. And what are 'we' returning to the plants for? So more disgruntled folks can get together over terrible coffee and talk about how terrible this place has become? It certainly won't promote collaboration and innovation, because all of that has clearly been killed by the CEO. On that note, many of us have known the CEO for years. We've worked on collective projects with him and truly enjoyed working with him. All of that seems to have changed over the last 24 months and sadly, he is becoming the "3rd Generation" cliche that is notorious for killing companies that their family has built. Ironically, he's doing this so the family can get their money - which again has been generated by the Associates as very few family members have actually worked for the company long term. Much of this is likely being driven by the original Pokeberry Trust (public information - look it up) that Bill and Vieve set up for the Gore family members. It seems like the family members can cash in their trust accounts in Jan 2025, 20 years after Vieve's death. In 2014 (internet search), the Gore family was estimated at $5.3 billion - think how much more they are worth now. All of the CEO's actions over the last 2 years make a ton of sense in this context because the family needs money to pay out the trusts. And, as you've seen with some of the other recent reviews, there are hundreds of 'voluntary' layoffs coming. A healthy company does not lay off hundreds of Associates to increase short term lines on a financial spreadsheet.

Where to begin? Everything you've ever read about 3rd generation dysfunction and destruction is playing out as I type. What used to be a company full of vibrance, integrity, transparency, self-motivation is now a cesspool of apathy and mediocrity. The CEO has no idea what he is doing, inexperienced, massive ego, continues to lie to the hard-working people who built the company that now allows him and his family to live their lifestyle. He's virtually offended most (if not all) of the long-term associates with his total nonsense and complete misunderstanding of what motivates people to get results. Surrounded by C-level consultants and professional thieves, he doesn't even realize that he's being played like a violin by allowing these top-level managers rip him and the company off with the garbage they put out. High level, theoretical organization models that failed in other places they were fired from. They will all be gone with a load of cash while the hard-working people who dedicated their lives to this company get let go. Innovation by finance. That's the new thing. Tighter cost controls, fast (poorly thought out) decisions, and zero accountability will eventually destroy what is left of this company. The grandparents and former second-generation CEO created a company that was admired from every business school in the country. Soon, it will all emerge again in the B-schools, but for a different reason. How quickly the grandson destroyed a 65 year icon. It's hard, perhaps impossible, to change the very DNA of a company and make it something it was never meant to be. But yet, somehow, this particular grandson thinks he knows better than his uncle. Because after all, we pay these consultants and executive thieves a lot of money to execute on this garbage being rolled out now. It will be written in history as one of the greatest declines of an icon company in record time unless a course correction happens soon. Perhaps it would be wise to actually interact and value the opinions of some of the people who built the place into an icon, rather than offend them with every town hall and word that is spoken insincerely.