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Ascend Performance Materials

Engaged Employer

Hope Things Improve - Corporate Houston Ascend Performance Materials Employee Review

2.0
Jun 5, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Operations and contractors folks keep the business afloat and are paid at average to keep up with market. Company tends to bring good professionals but management keeps them from performing in the best interest of the business. 3-4 years ago, company made lots of money and our bonus was around 140% of target; thanks to Invista that had quality issues and their clients switched over to Ascend.

Cons

Egos are a big issue and play a big role in company's culture. People spend significant time navigating through politics. Perform your role in the best interest of the business, but not in the best interest of personal interests and you will be singled out and, possibly, let go. Co-employment is a big issue since the Monsanto time, we were communicated that a project to address co-employment was on the works but the HR associate managing the project left, IT re-took it; however IT is not co-employment expert. Co-employment issue has increased in the past 1.5 years with new HR team starting treating contractors as employees. Management doesn't communicate well with owners when setting bonus goals, and while company tends to have good earnings, the paid bonuses have been at 50% or below in the past 2 years. Work hard long hours for owners to make cash but expect to be paid at 40% of your target bonus. There is a culture to have small wins, get the low hanging fruit with no high impact on the business, rather than addressing achievable high impact results for the business. Sad to experience that some management members feel they belong to a different class and treat non-management members disrespectfully. Superficial-highly political relationships and finger pointing is a must. HR headcount is large and results are yet to be seen for the past 4-5 years. HR head and team have been promising for years, but no deliverables yet. 3 new and very good corporate HR guys have already left the company; not so good corporate HR guys stayed. Finance team members look at each other as enemies; no collaboration, finance managers use management by fear with their directs. Management by fear is embedded in the company's DNA. Management knows the company has quality issues and top management tends to blame the client's processes to cover own quality issues. Some clients have terminated contracts because of quality issues. Heard from new hires that during the interview and selection process they were told the company was great, when they join they get disappointed. President left, or was let go last week. Big expansion project is now frozen due to forced-by-top-management unrealistic expectations.

Explore other reviews about Ascend Performance Materials

5.0
Mar 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really good culture with everyone

Cons

The company is not doing good financially

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- 401k match is above industry standard - New CEO doing things differently. Seems to be working so far. - Refreshed focus on plant reliability - No longer going after pipe dream projects with no immediate benefits. - Good base pay

Cons

- Lots of turnover, doing more with less - Still recovering from CH11 - No real bonus in years

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