Dupont Reviews

Pros

- Work and life balance
- Good research environment
- Good people to work
- Experienced people to work
- Work ethics is good

Cons

- Working dynamics is a little slow
- Little opportunity to work with outside company
- Many people do not have sense of urgency

Advice to Senior Management

- Sense of urgency
- Find a way to maximize our strength.. we have excellent people but how to draw their strength and let them work together?

Pros

Support of personal and professional development activities.
Work life balance needs.
High ethical standards.

Cons

Slow to get anything done.
Poor habits hard to break.

Advice to Senior Management

Support initiatives through to the end.

Pros

Benefits (Pay, 401k, Pension - no longer offered)
Job assignments challenging
Good work environment (fellow workers, offices)
Company long history (200+ years)

Cons

Performance Evaluations merely an administrative chore, don't provide sufficient feedback for employee improvement/advancement.
Office politics play too large a part in determining an employee's future

Advice to Senior Management

Communication lacking between senior management and mid-lower level management.
Company is risk adverse, not willing to step up and take advantage of opportunities. This attitude is witnessed at all levels of management.

Pros

Great benefits, connections, work/life balance

Cons

The employees are older and the knowledge slightly outdated

Pros

While at the Troy site, it was more like family than work. A very tight knit group. The facilities were very nice and organized. It was a shame to see it go.

Cons

The facilities at Mt Clemens are in terrible shape. To many people crammed into a very small area.
There is not enough equipment to work effective.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice would be to concentrate on improving the work environment. I would also reward those who go the extra mile. Also spend the money and upgrade the equipment.

Pros

facilities are good at the company

Cons

salary was not as much as expected

Advice to Senior Management

overall the company is a good one

Pros

Manufacturing has so many problems in getting it "perfect", it is awesome job security in being an engineer. If you make the effort to document (prove with data !) that you can not only fix a problem, but increase cash to the business, money is always available. You can create your own work, and have a lot of fun learning new things. You have a lot of flexability, if you stay out of management, to balance your work with personal time (family)

Cons

Sometimes you get a bad manager, but they are recycled so fast, give him a year or two, and you get a new one. The Salary system is a generic one used by a lot of fortune 100 companies, there are only 3 boxes to fit into, meets expectations, exceeds expectations, or doesn't meet. So unless you are one of the top 1%, you tend to stay in the middle. The company does recognize good work through promotions, but they are much more liberal and frequent if you go into management.

Advice to Senior Management

Pruning the tree on the top, encourages growth of vigerous new shoots !

Pros

work life balance
respect of people

Cons

indirect and vague feedback
slow pace

Advice to Senior Management

management can increase the effecacy by providing more direct and constructive feedback

Pros

Good benefits; friendly and decent people; genuine concern for the safety and well being of its workers; technical goals are honorable.

Cons

Managers seem to be encouraged by their superiors to discourage employee promotions. The core value of respect for people was not practiced by management during the economic downturn.
The company used to be loyal to its employees decades ago, but now its the bottom line; R&D has moved out of the US. Used to be an R&D chemist but was forced into manufacturing.

Advice to Senior Management

Live up to your profession of valuing and respecting the employee; bring R&D back to this country; upgrade the skills of your people.

Pros

Many good people to work with.
Great name recognition on resumes
Some managers (now retired) were very supportive and nurtured a good environment for growth and for reaching potential.

Cons

Many people are promoted who don't qualify and don't have the skills to manage.
Office politics is rampant, and stifling.
People in management positions are out of touch with reality.
Consultants from the "big guys" are treated okay, but contract IT employees without the backing of a major consulting firm are screwed.
Some managers micromanage, rather than trusting their employees not to be morons.

Advice to Senior Management

Only promote people to management who truly deserve it. Trust your employees to know their jobs. Hire good people directly.