ESAB's product is a premium in today’s economy, especially in light of tariffs and inflation. Directionless and flailing leadership. Complete lack of self-awareness across all functional leads, from CEO, CHRO, CFO to key functional regional leaders. No bonuses, low pay raises due to financial struggles and constant layoffs pitched as operational efficiencies. Leaders would hold a townhall at a site telling us to get ready for growth and expansion, then a year later we have massive layoffs and empty promises. Leaders constantly being told to cut headcount and literally picking names off of excel sheets just to land at the number they were given without any regard to business continuity. Career development is non-existent at the site level for line management due to all the attention and career resources shifted towards directors and above. Feedback is given yet no one cares and it is shifted back to management as 'our problem to fix'.
The Company is 'lean' meaning do more with less in every department including support functions like Finance, IT, HR and EHS. There is a constant battle for funding and several departments are dealing with outdated systems, ERPs that don't communicate with each other, broken processes, etc. No investments are made to better manufacturing plants aside from a few key locations, with dozens of sites operating with old/dangerous equipment, no air conditioning, etc. yet they wonder why productivity drops, constant turnover and worker's comp issues continue.