ZEWS has terrible culture and makes short-term decisions
Pros
The Downers Grove building is nice and recently remodeled. There is a gym onsite and the building is located near good shopping and dining which is needed to get away from the toxic environment Zurn has brought with them post-merger.
Cons
Terrible executive management - people are promoted for political reasons not because they are good leaders or contributors. Even mid & upper management is awful. Many managers from the Zurn side (which took over the vast majority of Elkay's departments ) aren't even interested in their Elkay employees. They don't share information or check in to see how things are going. Executive leadership thinks they all know better than anyone on the Elkay side despite Elkay having existed, successfully, for over 100 years before Zurn came along. They are squeezing every penny they can from the Elkay business to the detriment of the overall business. Everything is a fire drill. There seems to be no planning about what tasks need to be done and people are told complete complex work in little time. The culture is trash as no one is sure if they will be laid off suddenly and there is no support from management. Elkay used to provide many opportunities for growth and development and Zurn ended all of them because they aren't offered on the Zurn side so it would be unfair to continue. They haven't made any attempts to include Zurn folks in the Elkay groups so it certainly seems they only wish to do away with them completely. People are totally overworked and stressed. The budget for employee engagement and appreciation was slashed - no one feels like they are cared for anymore. All the talented and knowledgeable employees have left or are leaving. Elkay invested heavily in productivity and reporting tools/systems. Zurn has or will be axing many of them because they don't understand the power of good data. Benefits were slashed when Zurn took over. Tuition reimbursement is half of what it was under Elkay. Parental Leave was also slashed in half. Insurance options became significantly worse - I believe all healthcare plans are now high-deductible plans. Elkay offered 2-3 days in the office weekly, Zurn requires 4 so you can go into the office and spend the whole day on Teams calls because Zurn-side employees never bother to come to Downers Grove to collaborate. Pinching pennies by not providing cups for coffee/water, eating utensils, and plates -- in the name of "sustainability" -- but did not replace them with reusable/sustainable products. ZWS' performance outlook is negative so the cutbacks and overwork are bound to continue. The stock price has tanked since the merger was announced in February 2022 (down by almost 50%).