Great Sonicare products, too much Dutch management from "The Mothership" in Amsterdam - Anonymous employee Philips Employee Review

3.0
Jul 18, 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great product, customers love it, does a great job cleaning teeth. Philips is a global company with many resources to draw on and has high ethical standards and really believes in sustainability and stewardship of the earth. Very good benefits including high match 401K with high salary deferral limits, excellent tuition reimbursement ($10K a year when I was there).

Cons

Unless you are tapped to be in the elite "Hi Potential" talent pool, moving up is very hard. This "Hi-Pot" group is limited to those employees only 40 and under (seems like age discrimination to me). They get special coaching, mentoring and training. Global Philips politics is rough at the higher levels of management. Fundamentally many believe that Philips has too many senior Dutch people in management in Amsterdam with not enough to do other than come up with management improvement initiatives that put a real drag on managers around the world and do little to nothing to help getting work done. The local marketing group was in constant chaos and turmoil during my time. It is a very dysfunctional group and management does not seem interested in fixing it. Many excellent people left frustrated with the management, hiring and promotion of incompetent people and lack of strategic vision. "If you're not Dutch, you're not much" is more than a saying, it's reality.

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5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work life balance, pay, opportunities

Cons

Slow moving industry, management style

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Philips Response
5d
Thank you for sharing your perspective and for your ongoing dedication to our organization. We acknowledge the feedback regarding internal organizational dynamics. As a leader in a heavily regulated and critical sector, we remain fully focused on process optimization, streamlining decision-making, and enhancing leadership alignment to cultivate a highly agile environment for our teams worldwide. We encourage you to reach out to HR or your manager for an open discussion regarding your feedback, and we appreciate your continued contributions to our shared mission.
2.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people in non- upper management roles that work there are fantastic. Great sense of community onsite and the culture champions are consistently looking for ways to make work life better.

Cons

Very poor communication on the strategy for the business unit. Leadership publicly promotes innovation and new ideas to be presented but then those ideas are shot down or penalized in private by current upper management. The business unit leadership says that don't want excuses for project delays but will then decide to do 3 major layoffs in the first two quarters with no transition plan, no support for gap in resources and no expectations to delayed progress.

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Philips Response
18h
Thanks for sharing your feedback and for your 7.5 years of service with us. It’s great to hear that you found a fantastic sense of community and culture onsite among your colleagues. We’re sorry to hear about your experience. Your perspective on management transparency and resource support is incredibly helpful, and we’re actively working to improve our ways of working. We appreciate your dedication over the years and your honest insights, which help us focus on building a better workplace. We wish you all the best in your future career.
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