Electro-Motive Reviews in La Grange, IL

I worked at Electro-Motive full-time

Pros – great environment for an engineer - you can impact the product design within a short time

Cons – very demanding environment for development schedules

Advice to Senior Management – confusing management structure

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Electro-Motive full-time for less than a year

Pros – 1st shift is ok to work on as all the union rules are in effect an work is being don safe.. unfortunately you need 10years in the company to get to be on first shift.

Cons – If you want to make supervisors mad.. do what they tell you to do. We we forced to sign contract that wasn't completed yet.. and its constantly changing how it works best for the company.. there is no union present on 2nd and 3rd shift. you get only 5days off in the 1st year and if you try to safe them for when you get sick they make you use them when they get slow.. I you bring and idea to improve something it will get lost once it reaches engineers with no track or explanation.

Advice to Senior Management – fire all the engineers cause they didn't do anything at all in last 20 years

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Electro-Motive

Pros – Unique product line. Staff is very personable, highly cost savvy work environment, built in job security

Cons – If you think paper approvals & physical signatures were gone you are wrong, they are (have been) back in fashion at Electro Motive. Processes are old & so is the culture within.

Facilities are quite ancient from WWII.

Advice to Senior Management – grow your greatest asset "people", challenge the weak performing HR

I worked at Electro-Motive

Pros – Nice work - life balance.

Cons – Very slow to promote from within.

I worked at Electro-Motive

Pros – EMD offered Good Pay and Benefits

Cons – Hard to get in touch with upper management

Advice to Senior Management – Keep it up

I have been working at Electro-Motive

Pros – Electro Motive is good place to work as an intern. It has great people to work with, $19-22 /hr for Interns, and lots of opertunity to travel.

Cons – Some of the mid level management at ElectroMotive is kinda shoty. But after you get past the bad ones everything else seems to come together pretty well.

Advice to Senior Management – I would advise the management to get to know there employees better. Some of the manager don't even know the names of the people under them. And get to know what your employees projects are and what the challenges are.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Electro-Motive

Pros – Important industry. Interesting product. Varied assignments. Whole-product understanding. Employees dedicated to the industry.

Cons – Electro-motive has some of the long-term support obligations of an aircraft manufacturer, yet some of the documentation and review processes of a startup.

Advice to Senior Management – John Hamilton's program of cleaning up operations first, then engineering, needs to continue. The chief engineer needs more of an "ear to the ground."

I worked at Electro-Motive

Pros – Sharing of information and collaboration between co-workers.

Cons – Lack of ownership for projects and deadlines.

Advice to Senior Management – Hold employees accountable for deliverable.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Electro-Motive

Pros – Co-workers are nice to work with.

Cons – Co. needs to hire competent leadership. They have created a real pressure cooker environment with no work life balance. They are not pleasant toward employees and down right rude. Need to adequately staff so employees will not work crazy hours. Need to develop processes.

Advice to Senior Management – Need to create a better working environment and adequately staff the various departments with a major adjustment in attitude.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Electro-Motive

Pros – EMD is a company in the process of reinventing itself, providing a rare opportunity to participate in such an endeavor. It had to disengage from all that was General Motors and develop new competencies in many areas. There are many opportunities for those with needed skill-sets and the drive to succeed. The marketplace wants two healthy competitors and is supporting EMD in its efforts to reestablish itself. EMD has a great product (diesel-electric locomotives), a proud history, and a workforce dedicated to winning in the marketplace. People learn a lot at EMD, so much so that other companies are always trying to poach EMD's employees.

Cons – There is little work-life balance for most employees. The expectation is that employees will work whatever hours it takes to get their tasks done. The problem comes in that there are many more tasks at this stage of the company's maturity than there are employees to handle them. Ten hour days are the norm in many departments. Many individuals work sixty to seventy hour weeks on a regular basis. Treatment of legacy hold-overs from the GM era was not great at first - the newcomers thought all the former GM employees were part of the problem rather than part of the solution. They did not see the structural limitations the employees were under.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management should try to see things from the employees' perspective, not just from the Board of Directors view. "Churn and burn" doesn't lead to the formation of a better performing company. While I understand the necessity of being successful in the marketplace because there are no "deep pockets" to sustain the company during its learning stages, turnover in a few departments leads to "one step forward and two steps back". The company should aspire to attracting and retaining talent, not just using it until something better comes along.