Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories reviews

In my first year at SEL I lived in and perpetuated the Public Relations (PR) Bubble that my hiring manager and HR sold me- "what a great place SEL is to develop your career". My Bubble was fed each Friday, during our weekly company-wide meeting/lunch where employees are effectively pumped with select SEL propaganda. However, starting in year two, and clearly during my third year I began to see, with my own eyes, the harsh reality that SEL is and my PR Bubble collapsed. With respect, I learned that the Electronic Relay Business is not the core business process at SEL, but rather the PR Machine that pumps employees and the community full of misinformation. Heck, even some of the "Best Places to Work" organizations have bought into our misleading propaganda. Do not accept an offer to work at SEL without hiring and paying for a professional third party (Industry firm or private investigator). You must know the facts about our working environment here at SEL. These Job Boards, or even asking someone you know at SEL is not good enough to make such an important decision. I suspect, that many of the "Positive" SEL reviews written on job boards are either from those employees who are still in the PR Bubble or have been written by our PR or Business Intelligence teams to try to "own the public perception". There are a few rare areas in the company where there are exceptions to this. Kudo's to those few managers who currently are pulling this off. Expect crazy, long-term overtime hours (If you try to take a vacation, expect to be working throughout it- time away from work to be with friends or family is not respected by SEL). Understand that although SEL is an ESOP, it is completely controlled by the CEO who "Sold" his company to each of us... The way the ESOP is designed, we have little rights or advocacy and the CEO dictates from top to bottom the daily affairs of the company. I personally think the ESOP is a very risky retirement plan where all of one's egg's are in one basket. I also think the CEO uses the ESOP to underwrite his "business" interests. Many of us are very concerned about not having access to the specific financial information on how the company is doing and where the money flows. We do get a powerpoint overview on total revenue, etc, but let's see the P&L, the Balance Sheet and where all the cash goes. Many of us want to know how the money flows to other SEL entities and to the "separate aviation company". All of the secrecy leads us to believe that something is not right. We do not get to see what the "Bank" has to say in their annual reports. Besides, they are too vested in the current process- we need an independent auditor to come in and unearth what is being hidden. This will never happen unless enough of us employee's find a way to organize and protect ourselves from the backlash of this type of effort. So given that so many of us fear for our livelihoods, most likely, nothing will change. The CEO has put each of us "Employee Owners" at risk by moving his family members into key leadership roles that they are not qualified to do. This creates a tough situation for everyone that regularly leads to excellent employees, who report to the family member, being let go just so the family member/CEO can try to "save face". This practice cripples our business and we are only a fraction of what we could be. There are typically a few bad apples in any company that need to be let go, however its backwards at SEL. We lose far too many of the best people because they do their job, identify a critical gap in our business and bring forward a respectful and responsible plan to solve it- or grow market share. You see, it has been our experience that the CEO does not separate himself from the business- meaning that he is the business and the business is him. So any gap or mistake that is unearthed threatens who he is as a person, he takes it very personally and he protects himself by regularly getting angry and "shooting the messengers". This may mean he publicly humiliates, demotes or isolates the Employee Owner. Other regular activities include being starved of current and future resources or the Employee just disappears overnight. All strategic and many of the tactical ideas on how to improve the business must be the CEO's, all others need not apply- or you will pay by either being ignored and/ or severely punished. After a person is fired or run off, their recommendations often have a funny way of becoming a good idea and something the CEO can now get behind. The CEO then takes credit for the improvements- ridiculous and unprofessional. This also manifests when someone has a solid industry technical idea- the founder will shoot it down, and then has an uncanny ability to resurface the idea as his own several months later. Astounding. My peers and I have always found it odd that our CEO regularly talks about freedom and traditional American values (openly pushing his own "espoused" political views on us). However, when you review the facts, his condescending, micromanagement "Dictator" approach limits creative insights and puts employees in a locked box. The voice of the people is rarely respected or even wanted. I wish the CEO would sell his stake or worst case, move into a Board only role and bring in, from the outside, some competent professional executive leaders who manage the day-to-day business and can help SEL stop digging its own pit. So what keeps the company afloat? Good employees who no longer live in the PR Bubble that have learned to play it safe, sacrifice their own "Dignity of Work," take the regular belittling, work the crazy overtime and hope they do not disappear overnight. To a large degree, the craziness becomes "normal" to us and we actually begin to "Identify" with the CEO. Under significant and prolonged duress, people will do almost anything to try to survive.

No company is perfect and SEL is no exception to that rule. It all comes down to people. Some people make great leaders, team mates, employees, etc...and some people...well...don't. On the whole I have found SEL to be a healthier place to work than other companies I've been with. Way more good people than bad, though there are certainly a few undesirable apples in the barrel.