One Eastman....or One Disappointment - Anonymous employee Eastman Employee Review

3.0
11 May 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Eastman has had a lot of interesting product releases in the last several years, and along with the acquisitions, the product portfolio has expanded to the point of having many different types of businesses and technologies to work on, so plenty of good opportunities to continuously learn. The company also does allow people to change job functions (provided there is a need). With so many manufacturing sites, there are usually opportunities to travel for work if you seek them out.

Cons

First, the company has made a huge negative shift in how they value their employees. When I hired on, it was a team based feel where people enjoyed helping each other. After the rating system was introduced, the desire to help each other started to drop. Mentoring became more awkward for people, as helping one person might be hurting another, so both the company and the employees were losing. The company has some ethical issues as well. Despite receiving the "Most Ethical Company" award several years in a row, there are some shady actions that happen within the company. There was one particular issue I reported, and after the investigation occurred, I was told "That's just part of their process." The company doesn't seem to truly value diversity and inclusion. This issue becomes worse as you move from Senior Management to middle management as well. Senior Leadership at least recognizes it and says they want to work on it. A good portion of the middle management (in all fairness, not all) ignores it. The company took the approach of "it takes time to change a culture" when it came to diversity and inclusion, but when the company wanted a change for something that made a quick dollar for the shareholder...let's just say things were happening within a week. Promotions are horrifically slow, unless you are one of the "chosen" ones who are placed in special development programs. They have a list of these "chosen" ones for opportunities, and the select people are added pretty quickly after starting with the company. This brought the diversity issue to the forefront even more; how were they able to pick these "chosen" ones without some time to evaluate a person's work? The answer is reflected well in the organizational charts.

Explore other reviews about Eastman

5.0
15 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Eastman has been the best company I've worked for in my career. They have a solid safety culture and room for growth.

Cons

No con in my experience...

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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