OC Reviews

Pros

Very family oriented, laid back company....decent pay, good benefits, great people. If willing to relocate can fast track career rather quickly.

Cons

At times economy has a roller coaster effect in housing market which can lead to stress and job uncertaintity. Overall good company though.

Advice to Senior Management

Understand that the employees are the one who truly make the wheels on the truck spin.

Pros

Highley tested, quality designed products to sell. Decent brand marketing capabilities. Talented sales force to work with...for now. I truly enjoy the fact that I'm no longer with them.

Cons

Internal political environment that does include customer accounts. Yes, OC's management culture allows some customer accounts to dictate who is employed on OC's sales force creating an unfair advantage for that customer. Corporate greed, pricing approvals just outside of competitive reach in your market dooming your ability to compete. An unsupportive, non-communication sales support environment. Unethical behavior, OC Management requires competitive pricing knowledge from your customer base placing YOU in an awkward position with your accounts. Because of a communication deficit and an inept sales support staff, the competition can easily out manuver them. Relationships with peer sales team is "clicky" and untrustworthy. Unsupportive Regional Management, addressing any issues with your immediate report to never happens due to a fear laden corporate culture. In short , corporate management turns a deaf ear to any internal negitive support issues you are facing.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize that you have INTERNAL ISSUES to solve. Hold ALL areas of your company accountable for success besides the sales force, you'll EASILY FIND the CHOKE POINTS that are killing your sales volume. You are LOSING EXCEPTIONAL TALENT for the above reasons. Market your company with equality and fairness for all customers, the channel market pricing issues you are creating (i.e. better sell price for big-box retailers v. traditional 1 & 2 step accounts) will come back to harm you in the long run.

Pros

Great opportunities in multiple locations, strong upper management team, the people are wonderful, the leadership will try to provde wahtever you need to be successful

Cons

I feel the locations where opportunities exist are undesirable locations, you will work long hours, there is job ambiguity and people need better expectations and they have poor accountability.

Advice to Senior Management

Please continue to grow and and remain profitable in this down market through further development of your people and searching for new ideas.

Pros

Great people. Career opportunities available to those that want it and work for it. I worked there while they were in bankruptcy and ongoing communications from upper management was ongoing. They were very open about where we were in the process and what they needed from employees...keep focused on customers. Overall, considering the circumstances, it was a good place to work.

Cons

Some areas were held to a higher level of accountability than others. Unfortunately this was very evident and quite disheartening.

Advice to Senior Management

Hold all areas accountable equally. If you're still using the employee survey, put the results (either good or bad) to good use.

Pros

Name recognition, constant training, learning opportunities. Mike Thaman is a very capable and talented individual.

Cons

Excessive interference from Headquarters, if someone at HQ does not like you, that's it, game over for you (and that someone at HQ can be a simple clerk!). Too much HR interference!!!! unfortunately they do not have the best and brightest people, but they wield excessive authority!!. Talented people leaves in hordes and Sr. Management does not seems to care. Most of the people that surrounds Mr. Thaman are not top talent

Advice to Senior Management

-Limit HR's power in the organization.
-Less interference of HQ with the plants
-Management programs: Limit to one every 2 or 3 yes, not every month!!!!

Pros

Reasonably competitive compensation package especially when the business perform. Opportunity for advancement is available if you are willing to relocate as well as at WHQ. The company's view of work-life balance is very reasonable. There are a lot of good people working in the company and the focus on continuous improvement, safety, quality is constantly being strived for.

Cons

Benefits seem to be declining a bit in recent years, particularly on the health care side. Department/plant staffing can be pretty lean and getting leaner with the expectation of everyone picking up the slack. Although OC is one of the most recognized brands in the market (shingles, insulation) they still are commodities and not very glamorous commodities at that.

Advice to Senior Management

I think we're moving in the right direction and we should continue to push for synergies among and between divisions.

Pros

1. Decent work life balance
2. Fortune 500 name recognition
3. Pay can be good.

Cons

1. Benefits. Horrible health care benefits. One of the hidden disasters in working for this company is the health care plan is bare bones at best. And it's getting worse for 2010 as they've cut even more out. Pensions are being nixed, they're outsourcing all employer benefits support functions to India. So now if your pay is screwed up congrats you get to call India.
2. Disdain for employees. I am waiting to see where the evil genius in this company is who is actively trying to eliminate any reason for a talented employee to stay. Just to see if there are any smart people in senior positions left in this company. They keep taking away and taking away, and then any dissent gets pretty heavily crushed.
3. HR is inept. Pretty much no way to sugar coat this.
4. Incompetence at director levels and above. All the good talent has left. You see the remaining folks and shake your head.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Admit we make a commodity product that ebbs and flows with the building industry.
2. Fire everyone in human resources and start over. Truly and seriously. I have no quarrel with them, but damn these people are terrible and getting worse.
3. Stop hitching your wagon to whatever consultant promises you drastic results for only a couple zillion dollars. I'm talking lean/six sigma which has delivered nothing but powerpoint slides.

Pros

Owens Corning is a large company, with many divisions, and if you are willing to relocate, you will be able to hold most any position you are qualified for - assuming you are performing in your current position. I believe they fairly compensate their employees and also provide a decent yearly bonus - again, assuming you are a performer. They are one of the few companies that still offers both a 401K and a pension.

Cons

If you dislike unions, Owens Corning may not be the company for you. The majority of their manufacturing facilities are union, and at times, it appears that upper management too often caters to the "wants" of the union employees. This can make "driving change" difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

Decrease the levels of management between the plant's and the CEO. Reduce the corporate culture at the plant level. Increase accountability across all levels and stop letting the unions bully upper management.

Pros

OC is a global company with many different businesses that provide opportunity for advancement. I like the people that I work with and the underlying financials of the company are sound.

Cons

The overall benefits package outside of the 401K match is abysmal. Corporate support functions can be reorganized to better serve the business and reduce redundancy.

Advice to Senior Management

I would like to see a clear vision for the company in the future; right now, I do not see what the plan for the company is going forward. I realize that the company will do better once the NA housing market turns around, but once that happens, I am not sure OC is positioned to continue growth in the future.

Pros

The way most of the job areas divided you're almost forced to work in a teaming environment vs. the individual float or sink mentality. There’s plenty of projects going on to get some experience or specialty in a certain area for a couple of years. Though the culture seems to be in a middle of a change, it’s still a relationship driven company which benefits if you can get into it quickly. Overall headquarter facility has a good physical work environment.

Cons

Choose wisely before accepting an offer from this company. The pay is below market value, and health care benefits can be a near joke. The generation gap within the company spawns a lot of resistance to trying anything new with classic “it’s been done for x years” speeches. Be cautious of pigeonholing or taking on projects too far from the mainstream. You will quickly get stuck or have a long uphill trek to justify. Toledo, a rust belt city, where the main office is can be a hard place to live in especially if you’re not from the area or Mid-West.

Look at the big picture. You can do worse, but you can do better too.

Advice to Senior Management

Think about how you’re trying to develop and keep people when you’re restructuring while adding more layers of management. Pick an objective and run with it instead of pausing, reworking, and trying to figure out one time use solutions the company bought which is all hinder some.