On the Decline - Chemical Engineer Eastman Employee Review

2.0
27 Jan 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people here are truly remarkable. There are many employees who are known industry-wide for their expertise, but almost all of these bright stars are humble and happy to teach new employees. Despite management's best efforts, a collaborative, team environment persists. The company cares about safety and environmental issues.

Cons

Currently implementing a forced distribution ranking system to determine raises and promotions. No matter what happens (changing market conditions, overall economic slowdown, etc.) the employees take the hit in the form of layoffs, cost reductions (no training for you!), and canceling raises and promotions

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Eastman Response
9y
Thank you for your review. We believe in this company too and also believe that our people are truly remarkable and makes us successful. Contrary to some postings here, Eastman does not have a forced ranking system. The system we use closely matches a normal distribution of performance in a high-performing company. We expect our managers to provide ratings that most accurately reflect an individual’s level of performance relative to their peers in a given year and to have candid, ongoing discussions regularly. Our philosophy is that every team member deserves clear and honest feedback on their performance. We strive to attract, retain, and develop high performing team members in order to accomplish our growth goals. The ratings are intended to increase clarity, specificity and consistency of feedback and coaching to unlock the best in our team members. Companies that have successfully moved away from formal ratings have very strong, natural, and candid feedback and coaching cultures. Performance is managed throughout the year. Feedback and coaching conversations happen on an ongoing basis. Employees report that the quality and candor of the discussions is high. And they clearly understand the linkage between their performance and their recognition & rewards. Over time we hope to build a culture like this, but we're not there yet and are using our formal process -- as many companies do -- as a way to help drive the rigor, candor and consistency.

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5.0
3 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High pay and good learning environment

Cons

Interview process is kind of difficult

4.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly, helpful colleagues. Vast variety of opportunities for engineers, especially younger ones. Actively supporting the communities where we live and work. Recent changes in management have restored positive outlook.

Cons

A lot of eggs are in the circular-economy basket rather than having the risk more evenly distributed among our product streams. We've lost a lot of talent recently to other businesses, partly because of unhappiness with former management but partly because of pay. Annual pay increases exist but have not even come close to keeping up with inflation.

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