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Ascend Performance Materials

Engaged Employer

Ascend Performance Materials reviews

3.0

35% would recommend to a friend

(386 total reviews)

Patrick Schumacher

16% approve of CEO

6% positive business outlook

Ascend Performance Materials has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 386 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Ascend Performance Materials 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

386 reviews
2.0
Dec 26, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay is still good. Still have a 401k match. Work isn't hard.

Cons

Nobody that plans or schedules anything has any idea what they are doing. Rolling out new policies or programs or changes continues to be done either incompetenly or maliciously. Either way, everyone ducks and covers when anything gets rolled out. Safety is a joke. No one making policies regarding safety knows how to do the things they are telling people how to do. Nor do they consult people. They just roll out the new thing (see above). Everything is being channeled into starting a new plant in China. We can't afford to pay to keep our insurance the same, but we can build a new plant in China. They tell us we're not going to be negatively impacted by the new plant in China, but literally everyone knows that's a lie. They'd come out ahead just not talking about it. They offer you $6,000 a month to go over and help start that new plant.

2.0
Oct 11, 2022

Doubled Down on Failure

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits Decent pay (if you can get a raise in your tenure) Hard working operations staff

Cons

Senior and executive leadership doesn’t own their failures. Senior and executive leadership doubles down on poor business decisions and lies to employees, chiding obvious failures as success. Promotions and raises are met with harsh rebuttal despite following the written procedures. Long hours are compensated with misspelled tee shirts. Leadership positions all come from the VP’s phone book and seem to be informed that employees hired before 2020 are less valuable and talented than recent external hires. Micromanaged projects that go over budget or fail to meet objectives are considered front-line employee failures, despite constant senior and executive management “direction”.

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Ascend Performance Materials Response
3y
Thank you for your candid feedback. I’m sorry to hear that your experience at Ascend has been frustrating. We do take things like leadership accountability, employee development, and honesty and transparency very seriously and desire to be the best organization we can be, so it is always disappointing when some employees feel we have missed the mark. We have invested heavily in developing a leadership behavior model, training front line leaders, and assessing leaders using 360-degree feedback to identify and reveal ways they can improve. We have also been clear about our goal of being a top decile company in our industry, which includes measuring our culture against other leading companies and constantly focusing on ways we can pursue our value of being better every day. And we strive to provide honest updates on company information through quarterly town hall meetings with the CEO, skip level leadership meetings for employees, and an open-door policy for feedback. However, it sounds like you have had a different experience and could offer insights into how we can improve. We are working very hard to create an inclusive and safe environment where our employees can share their opinions and suggestions, so feel free to contact me at rfergu@ascendmaterials.com and I will put you in touch with an appropriate leader or pass along your confidential feedback. Learning specific ways we can do better is most valuable. We truly do appreciate your feedback and want every employee to have a positive experience with Ascend. – Tony Ferguson, Ascend communications team
2.0
Mar 28, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good medical benefits, good coworkers. Current problems fixable by investment and upper management turnover.

Cons

Reliability issues because low capex and maintenance investment makes job harder. Zero 2021 bonus because ebitda didn’t hit target, but should have been fractional (actual/target). If they don’t invest in people or plants either management is looking to sell company or too greedy or CEO wasn’t strong enough with owners (imho). And the relatively small, but visible “pet project” doesn’t count - obviously the science won’t work, and we’ll need to abandon it. Change is inevitable.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 386 Reviews

Glassdoor has 465 Ascend Performance Materials reviews submitted anonymously by Ascend Performance Materials employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Ascend Performance Materials is right for you.