Good company, but too focused on younger employees - Anonymous employee 3M Employee Review

3.0
Feb 12, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great pay structure, vacation time earned by years of service. Flexible work hours, great benefits: employee discount programs, 401K, medical insurance, dental, vision. etc.

Cons

Work at home is offered, but people that use it are treated negatively. Unfortunately, "butts in seats" is current preference for management. Take a lesson from companies that have employees that really work remotely (IBM, Apple, etc.). Very limited opportunities in Austin for advancement. Too many layoffs in Austin has created extremely bad morale and constantly scared employees. Fear does not create an innovative workplace... Focus of management is retaining younger employees and lay offs of older seasoned workers is commonplace. Performance review structure is archaeic and can be extremely biased.

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5.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Good company to work for.

Cons

Large corp culture for employees

4.0
Jun 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compensation is genuinely competitive — one of the stronger-paying manufacturing roles you'll find in the area. Benefits package is comprehensive and well above average. The retirement account and stock options are a real standout, especially for a machine operator role; 3M clearly invests in its employees long-term. Day-to-day, the people on the floor make the job. Coworkers were hardworking and easy to get along with, which goes a long way in a production environment. Upper management is what you'd expect from a large corporation — a bit removed from the floor — but that's pretty standard for a company of that size, Not a deal breaker.

Cons

The shift schedule is rough. Rotating between 12-hour days and nights on a swing schedule sounds manageable on paper, but constantly flipping your sleep schedule takes a real toll over time. Work-life balance is difficult to maintain when your "days off" are often spent just recovering and readjusting, and you can easily miss out on normal life things — social plans, family time, errands — simply because your schedule doesn't line up with the rest of the world that week. Upper management can also be a friction point. When people who haven't touched the machines in years (or ever) come to the floor with strong opinions about how things should run, it creates frustration. The folks actually operating the equipment day in and day out develop real expertise, and that doesn't always feel acknowledged from above.

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