United States Steel Reviews

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Most jobs are well compensated, and the insurance benefits are good.

Cons – Employee morale at this company is abysmal. There are some good managers, but a majority of them are bad with people. The atmosphere is hostile with management over-disciplining employees and failing to train and man jobs in ways that eliminate needless overtime. Good employees are not rewarded for their service, and bad employees are left to become worse. Everyone in this company is stressed out, the managers yell at each other in meetings, the hourly workforce is subjected to unwanted overtime (that can be avoided), and a large majority of the workers seem to suffer from depressive symptoms. The theme seems to be "I hate my job, but the money is good, the economy is bad ... I have no choice but to deal with it"
The situation is sad because this company is profitable despite its TERRIBLE culture. Imagine how much money could be made if managers actually managed ethically and productively, workers were better utilized to minimize stress-inducing, morale-defeating overtime, and everyone stopped pointing fingers and blaming each other for problems.
I have worked at this company for over 20 years. I am saddened that I have to write such a poor review about a great and historical company with roots that trace back to the very beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, but this job has become and example of the type of job I preach to my kids to avoid at all costs.
If all you need is income, you may be able to deal with this harsh environment. But I would recommend considering a lower salary from a better company so that 10 years down the road you are not stressed, depressed, regretful, and resentful.

Advice to Senior Management – Consider advancing experienced hourly people into management positions. Insist on ETHICAL treatment across the board. Stop the immature screaming and cussing that happens in management meetings ... REWARD managers who have GOOD relationships with their employees. Research and implement ideas to begin to OVERHAUL the negative culture that seems to permeate every corner of this company. And for God's sake, TRAIN AND UTILIZE the employees you have. Too much talent is wasted in this company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – • Salary and benefits are very competitive.
• There are many hard-working, talented individuals you will work with (at least temporarily)

Cons – • Management at this company is outdated and frequently filled with micro-managers. The exception may be Mario Longhi who is a relatively recent addition to the executive level and might move this company out of 1901 or 1970 (depends upon where you are in the vast reaches of the company)
• Poor Communication on all levels
• Terrible business processes and zero interest in reviewing or making changes
• They do not reward or promote based on talent- it's based on nepotism or becoming a favorite of someone already in management.
    o Also depending upon where you work in the corporation you can forget a promotion if you are female- there are currently two departments that have absolutely zero female members of management. There's a pool of female applicants that put to shame the males hired to replace management members that have left or been promoted. And management didn't listen to lower members of managment to reward some of these talented womend. One woman was even offered a position and had it taken away before anything was officially announced due to "the need to have additional applicants for review" (a well-connected guy from the plant with 0 experience in our particular focus was choosen over her for a management position).
• They are working on improving technology and remote work capabilities, however, like all things at this company it's at a snail's pace and poorly implemented.
• I could give a full dissertation on their inability to implement organizational change, but let it suffice to say they are incompetent at it, despite paying billions of dollars to consultants over the years to improve.
• The USS culture continually serves to tow the company line intended to make the current levels of mid and upper management look better than they are. Lord help you if you are very efficient, capable, have a number of degrees in your field and want tell the truth (nicely) about the problems facing the corporation in an earnest attempt to help improve it. You'll get your hand slapped faster than you can blink and once you are on someone's list you can forget about upward mobility.
• In regards to upward mobility- there isn't much currently and not likely to be for another 5-10 years.
• There’s a lot of inefficiency, and time-wasting tasks are commonplace in this environment
• There is relatively high turn-around for younger, talented workers, mainly because no one wants to stick around under the above conditions.

Advice to Senior Management – USS is in desperate need of young talent and less management (at least at the corporate level).
Management levels in my area expanded rapidly despite zero need for them. Large portions of the management I've encountered are incompetent and/or outmoded.
This company needs to modernize, review its business processes and do it without their current lackluster approach to change.
I fear you will find USS falling far behind its competitors in the coming years with little decent talent base remaining to continue as a Steel giant if you don't make some serious changes.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at United States Steel full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Nice benefits, close to home.

Cons – No room for advancement, salaries based on how long you've been there not hard work. Management treats employees very poorly.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees, interact with them occassionally rather than making them feel inferior. Show occassional appreciation.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – US Steel is an old company. Founded in the 1890s, it is still holding its own. It has a service center where the sclerotic upper management has its H1-B visa holders attempt to update its technology in a rather haphazard way.

Cons – If you ilke abuse, condescension, low wages, and the like, then this is the place for you! If you like to feel alienated from the intellectual products of the hours spent from your life, work here.

Advice to Senior Management – Management should stop being abusive and condescending to people with multiple master's degrees. Technical management should be more aware of recent developments in software engineering management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – Flexible Hours Free Parking Decent hardware

Cons – Boring, lack of exciting work
Everything moves slow.

Advice to Senior Management – Need to give more people an opportunity to learn new things. Things move at a snail's pace around the office.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at United States Steel

Pros – I worked at their Muriel Street location on the South Side of Pittsburgh. Location was nice because I didn't have to pay for parking

Pay was pretty good. About on-par for other students seeking master's degrees.

Work hours were very flexible, so it was a nice place to work while in college.

Cons – My manager wasn't very good - more technical than a people person.

I got a performance review at the end of my first year working there. I didn't even know they did performance reviews. When I got it, I had no idea I was being measured (well, I really wasn't, it was just based on my boss' opinion).

I graduated from school with 2 master's degrees (MBA, MS-MIS) and they offered me a $40K mainframe programmer job. Seriously? That's pathetic. I called HR to make sure they understood what I had to offer. They had no response.

Advice to Senior Management – The old-school "keep your head down and do your work" mentality is rampant here. You need to find a way to get your employees to speak up and offer ideas for innovation.

Also, your information systems are a MESS! Someone needs to open their eyes.

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – there are good health benefits.

Cons – Upper management needs to be cleaned out. this is not the 50's, so we need some fresh blood and cannot run the company like it is the 50's. So there is a recession...the way to make money wouldn't be continue to make a million mistakes, pay for screw ups, which end up costing us more money! Hire people! We are understaffed. Also, expected to work long hours with zero flexibility. This is the age of 4-10hour days, and working from home, or maybe even a comp day when you are working all weekend...but not at USS.

Advice to Senior Management – Maybe if you asked suggestions from those employees who decisions would affect, better decisions could be made. We know upper management thinks they know the best and only solutions, but they dont actually understand the decisions in the first place. GIve us some promotions. Look at your layers of people! Care about your employees and they will care about you!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – Decent pay and benefits. Many chances to serve the community and a fairly stable future. Good opportunities for growth in the right fields.

Cons – Limited respect for work_life balance. With a very flat management organization, the company has limited advancement opportunities. Unreasonable work expectations and little support of front line management.

Advice to Senior Management – Suggest focusing on creating real development opportunities for new employees and implement changes to new provide opportunities for mid level managers.

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – Money
Benefits
Money
Money
Did I say benefits?

The only real benefits is money. Your degree wont mean much, because they will stick you wherever they need you. An electrical engineer can very easily be placed in a shift supervisory position. beware.

Cons – Lots of overtime
Dirty and unhealthy work environment
Stressful politics
Zero tolerance attendance policy
They will move you form plant to plant -- job to job -- at their whim
They do not care about family lives
The managers are "against" the hourly
Shift work
Equipment old and falling apart
They do not promote through the ranks; they hire from the outside for management
For this company, you are definitely a number
NO job satisfaction

Advice to Senior Management – Treat managers better, promote from within the ranks, and bring some professionalism to the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at United States Steel

Pros – The history of the company is very rich and pay is very competitive.

Cons – Too many levels of management, lack of a clear message and overall poor manage throughout.

Advice to Senior Management – All the senior management needs to retire and leave behind the old way of doing things.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend