Lubrizol Reviews

Pros

Employee/work atmosphere. Everyone is friendly and helpful (at least those in my field of supply chain/procurement). Not too many egos to deal with. Pay is competitive with industry standard.

Cons

Nothing that other large companies do not face such as making the organization a lean one

Advice to Senior Management

Work on improving cross-functional processes efficiency. Work on creating a lean system mindset and improving reverse logisitics process

Pros

Great compensation package.
People at the plant is a great group of people to work with.
Very stable company. Weathered the economic storms well.
Very safe plant to work at.
Fast career advancement up to unit management level.

Cons

Limited career advancement in Texas. Still a very white-male dominated place. Texas plants management staff is all white male except for non-technical roles, i.e. HR manager and Accounting manager.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within the plant. There is so much local talents so need to consider local talents first. Reconsider the requirement of relocation in order to advance/climb the career ladder. This practice is on surface a fair practice, but the company maybe unintentionally limit the female employees from advancing to top positions. In a 2-career family, the wife's career is less likely to be the driving force for a family relocation because most technical females are married to technical males with careers that are at a more advanced stage due to typical age difference between husband and wife.

Pros

While I'm not a full-time employee, I work at Lubrizol part-time. Very satisfied with my experience there....
-the people
-conservative environment
-employees get moved around in the company
-international opportunities

Cons

-nearly impossible for new graduates to get brought on the commercial side of Lubrizol
-conservative environment (could be a pro or a con depending on the person)

Advice to Senior Management

Consider hiring new graduates on the commercial side of the business.

Pros

Small enough that you can have real impact on the direction of the company

Cons

Very significant politics - when you make too much they find reasons to remove you

Advice to Senior Management

Watch your Back

Pros

The pay was great for the position. This is for the most part one of the easiest things to do if you are not interested in advancing. Great bonuses and benefits even when other companies were cutting employees, pay, and hours.

Cons

Management is completely clueless. They do not see what really happens in the lab environment and most of them forget where they came from. Management takes the word of employees who are deceitful and climb the ladder by stepping on others. They give the illusion that they promote from within but once again its all about who you know not what you can do for the company. Management will find a way to hold employees back every step of the way. People I worked with were backstabbers and liars, all for the sake of advancing their own career. No one wanted to take responsibility for anything they did, and they would push blame off on someone else. This section really doesn't have enough space to address all the cons of this place.

Advice to Senior Management

Take some time to actually be in the lab and see what employees are doing instead of taking your 'buddy's' word for it. To senior management....empty out the front offices of bldg 12 and start from scratch!

Pros

supportive environment, friendly coworkers, there were many opportunities for interns to learn a lot about chemistry and working in a large corporation, the company really seemed to want to please its employees

Cons

hard to do significant work in the chemical synthesis department without a PhD (but this makes sense), some age gaps, some said it wasn't glamorous enough for them

Advice to Senior Management

I think the Lubrizol leadership should continue to support employee growth and provide transparency between departments. Keep hiring such nice people!

Pros

If you are satisfied with good compensation, then Lubrizol is a good place to work

Cons

Not a swift advancement company

Advice to Senior Management

Align better career path planning for employees

Pros

Lots of available projects to spend time on.

Cons

Tedious and repetitive tasks at times.

Advice to Senior Management

The management here works well. As with all big companies, the issue is job growth being governed by some ridiculous system instead of how valuable you REALLY are.

Pros

Lubrizol is where you have a career not just a job. My group is different from others within the company. Sure mid-level managers try to take credit for your accomplishments but overall if you work hard, show initiative & creativity, act and dress professionally, you will be rewarded.
It is a great place to learn. We have many, many very knowledable research people. Ask questions, be open and you can learn almost anything your heart desires; polymer physics, analytical methods, polymer chemistry, application development, synthesis,.... The list goes on and on.
Customer interaction. I get to speak and interact and theach customers on a daily basis. Travel opportunities are there although somewhat less the last two years due to cost cutting. I have been all over Europe, Latin, South and North America.
Senior management is very fiscally conservative which fits my personal lifestyle well. That bodes well for the company's long term fiscal health and that of our defined-benefit pension plan.

Cons

Depends on the job. Our marketing group is clueless and not too bright with the exception of the senior manager and the director. Technical people on the other hand are some of the best and brightest in the business.
Marketing expects their people to live here and work 24/7.

Advice to Senior Management

Watch the debt load!

Pros

Mostly family oriented, they don't try to 'run your life', and allow you to do your job pretty much without interference once they learn to trust you. Vacations and holidays are respected, and the everyday working environment is pleasant and mostly devoid of in-fighting. They are trying as a company to grow into a much larger specialty chemicals company, and are experiencing some growing pains as a result of acquiring other smaller corporations. The culture is a mixture of a big outfit combined with the caring and thoughtfulness of a smaller company. This continues to be one of their strengths that makes them an attractive place to work.

Cons

Pay is subpar for area, management varies the entire range from shrewd and savvy to erratic. The senior managers are all astute and well-qualified, but some of the middle and lower managers are not as sharp in dealing with subordinates, which can cause employee retention problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Appoint the most qualified, people-oriented managers for the job, not just your best buddy, or your buddy's buddy.