Pros
- The worker bees in R&D are wonderful - Work-life balance is average - Not much travel required for most R&D positions (could also consider this a con)
Cons
- Ageism practiced regularly. Culture of fear for employees older than about 45 and on pension plan 1. Productivity is terrible. The company does a good job of hiding it. In my former lab, 69% of all employees job-eliminated were 50 or older. It is justified by fitting the demographics of the lab but not the corporation. Targeting an area staffed heavily with older employees amounts to ageism by default. - Estimates are that about 50% of all current employees will experience at least one job elimination during their tenure - Job eliminations by project and not performance; history of excellent performance does not help - Pay was about 12% less than industry average for my field - 3M underpays colludes with peer companies to set salary levels. This is legal because they do it using grouped data through a consulting firm and not company-to-company. 3M underpays relative to the center of the distribution for its peer companies - Millennials in certain disciplines leave after 3-5 years due to low pay and scant promotions - At risk pay is forced on employees who have no business or R&D strategy or program selection decision-making power. At risk pay is included as a percentage of their base salary and not as a bonus - Incompetent managers placed by Jim McNerney are entrenched at senior levels. McNerney may have failed to destroy the culture of innovation at 3M, but his legacy is carrying it out effectively - R&D and product development is being managed by executives, including the CEO, who have no clue how they work - CEO wants to measure the return on investment in R&D. The answer is easy. EVERY product 3M makes and sells came from R&D either internally or by acquisition. - Promotions depend highly on your management and business unit success. - Management is promoted based on "potential" and technical workers are promoted based on results.