Kimberly-Clark – “An Unpleasant Place to Work”

Pros

Generic, median-level benefits. Nothing to brag about, but it's better than not having benefits at all. But nothing that you wouldn't expect to receive at any large corporation.

Cons

First, the longstanding negatives about the company culture:

1. Excessive risk aversion and maladaptive reactions to failure.

Upper management plays it ultra-cautiously and has missed many business opportunities over the years. Now we have a boatload of creaky brands with products that are becoming commoditized. (if they're not already.) If you're an employee and you take a risk -- and things don't work out -- you get hammered. So why stick your neck out to help the company? Don't rock the boat if you want to keep your job.

2. Vacillating upper management.

Regarding company strategy and tactics, first it's one thing and then another. And then it's back to the first thing again. Employees are forever "re-looping" as priorities change haphazardly. Much good work is placed on the shelf only to be revived at a later time. Then other employees retrace the steps of their peers. And the cycle repeats itself, endlessly.

Now for the negatives that have arrived more recently:

1. An oppressive, punitive employee evaluation system.

K-C is in the fifth year of an "employee forced ranking" system, with set percentages mandated for each of various grade levels. That includes surprisingly high percentages for the lowest "you're in trouble" grades. But what if no one in a particular peer group has truly performed poorly? When there are no fair and proper reasons to skewer someone, and someone must be skewered, you have a recipe for unfair treatment. The reader is free to imagine the machinations and political maneuverings that occur under this system. And if you can imagine it, it probably has happened.

Then there are the many "leadership qualities" that employees are expected to demonstrate. The problem is that everyone is supposed to demonstrate all of them, all the time. It doesn't leave much room for individuality, and when you combine it with the historical "don't rock the boat" culture, it amounts to employees being treated like school children. With smarmy teachers constantly on your back. Now kids, don't forget to be visionary, act collaboratively, look both ways before crossing the street, tuck in your shirts, and never ever do anything that I wouldn't do... etc. etc.

2. Process madness.

There isn't a problem within K-C that a new process can't resolve. Or so upper management would have you believe. There are official, proscribed ways of doing nearly everything, including altering the processes. It doesn't matter if it's a highly regulated area or not; this company thinks that process is where it's at. Working there is like donning a straight jacket. The freedom to use your personal judgment is being progressively limited. Some standardization is advantageous, of course, but K-C goes terribly overboard.

Advice to Senior Management

First and foremost, reform your awful system for evaluating employees. Make it humane and allow room for individuality. The current process-heavy boondoggle has devastated morale and caused people to live in fear. How do you expect people to be optimally productive under those conditions?