Xylem reviews

3.7

71% would recommend to a friend

(1,310 total reviews)

Matthew Pine

74% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

Xylem has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,310 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Xylem 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

1K reviews
1.0
Aug 14, 2017

Stay away....stay far away......

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Those that I trust were great to work with...

Cons

.....you shouldn't trust many people there. People will say things to get ahead or for CYA purposes. The office has thinned out with no new plans to re-hire. This means that those left behind are left to carry the burden and weight of 2, sometimes 3 people. There is no work-life balance, although they say there is. It is frowned upon to only work 40 hour weeks - if you don't come in early or stay late, they definitely notice. There is a lot of pressure to hit the numbers and you need to do whatever you can to do so. There are a lot of fires every day which will make you feel like you never accomplish anything long term. And then you get penalized for not completing your long term tasks. It is a lose-lose situation.

2.0
Mar 11, 2014

Management is Clueless

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent, 401k & health benefits.

Cons

Mirroring what others have said and as my title suggests "Management is Clueless". Specifically the management teams in White Plains and Charlotte, NC. Since the advent of the ITT/Xylem, the management teams have failed to successfully develop the three water and wastewater treatment companies. Over the past 10 years they have taken these successful companies and ran them in to the ground. Unfortunately this is another case of Wall Street ruining small successful companies. Management only appeases to the "Street" and have little to NO focus on the important things: customers, products and employees. In my opinion if you are in touch with your customers, employees, products you will be successful for your shareholders. Mid-level managers are not respected nor empowered in this organization. The upper management team shows little to no transparency, while mid-level managers are required to be 100% transparent in their day to day activities. Specific examples of failures: Recent "restructuring" (corporate lingo for layoffs) exudes the incompetence of the management team. For example they lay off performing employees, but continue to keep rewarding underperforming employees.. Yet another example of upper management not being in tune with day to day activities and operations. Meaningless positions are created to empower the top heavy management structure of the company. Upper management will not hesitate to downsize the frontline employees, while creating useless and undefined new positions to support the top heavy management structure. The current three treatment companies are ran by one management team. This team also oversees operations for one of these three companies. Unfortunately this one team is the underperforming group in both sales, margin and market expertise. So, why is it that this underperforming management team also oversees the other two companies? "Fox guarding the hen house" Yearly bonuses are a joke. Your bonus is NOT based on your performance, however it is based on metrics of the collective treatment companies. Unfortunately this bonus model causes very low morale and does not promote any incentive for going above and beyond. Yearly reviews are a joke. Upper management does not use the information in these yearly review to help develop an employee. In contrast these yearly reviews are simply a formality of being a part of a large corporation. Upper management always knows best and they will always remind you of that. Allowing unqualified, lawyers and accountants to source raw materials and fabrications for an engineered product. Unfortunately lawyers and accountants do not fully understand engineering, product design nor manufacturing processes. So, why would you let them source materials and choose manufacturing facilities for an engineered product? Human Resources should be referred to "Website Resources". Anytime a question is raised to an HR manager, the typical response is: "There's a website for that!". Gee thanks, that helped a lot! Put the Human back into Human Resources! Please look at all options when considering employment here. Initially everybody within upper management will be very nice, but after some time you will see their true colors. Be very cautious when interacting with upper management, as they will not think twice about throwing you under the bus. This company has a proven track record of loosing experienced and knowledgeable employees, while the underperforming employees cruise right up the corporate ladder. This is a recipe for disaster.

1.0
May 31, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are still (even after several rounds of layoffs and restructuring) some talented people that work here.

Cons

Xylem is in the process of transitioning from a utilities products company to a technology and IoT company. In this process, management has vertically stretched the company (with many layers of middle management) based on politics and hiring of previous coworkers from dumpster fire companies like Nortel and Sony Ericsson. If you are lucky enough to have worked at one of these companies or get an executive/VP role, maybe you will like it here. Otherwise, you will have no incentive to go above and beyond because the cards are stacked against you. To start, no bonuses, no equity awards, no profit sharing, no ESPP, and a yearly “salary adjustment” which is just on par with US CPI inflation (2-3%). Managers are forced and encouraged to not give out high ratings for salary adjustments because the standard merit is offered in a bell curve like distribution and is a component of leftover spend from a growth center’s budget. There are too many people pointing fingers and not enough action. HR will promise you many things during the interview and on-boarding which are outright lies or materially false. Just remember - if it’s not in writing, it’s not happening! Healthcare plan is a high deductible plan which covers nothing. Consolation prize is given in the form a $500 contribution to your HSA. Vision is the lowest plan that EyeMed offers. Overall, you are basically a contractor with little to no benefits. Even in the midst of a hiring freeze, no recruiter or HR positions were cut. Instead, engineering numbers continue to dwindle as does funding for engineering activities — not how a “tech” company typically operates! The company has drastically changed over the past three years. No one stays past 5 and most people arrive well after 9. Upper management and executives have one interest - the equity. Pretty obvious with equity based compensation up 50% YoY and refusing to finance the business by doing a equity offering. Overall, staffed employees and upper management are completely out of touch. Instead of fixing failures, everyone is looking for someone to blame. Marketing calls all the shots in the product development phase and is completely disconnected from what is scientifically and financially practical.

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Xylem Response
7y
Thank you for your comments. As we strive to have an open and collaborative workplace that fosters talent and team work, we will share your feedback and suggestions with stakeholders across the company. It is our goal to continuously improve our organization and develop talent across the globe.
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