Textron Reviews

Pros

The division I worked in (E-Z-GO) was great at driving change and engaging employees; leadership shares a lot of information with employees.

Cons

Leadership was hesitant to say "no" to any project from parent company - resulted in very heavy workload for some employees.

Pros

Happy with progression of career and pay. Good people and usually interesting work. Company allows flexible work schedule for busy families.

Cons

Weak to OK management, work can be schedule driven. Some long work days that could be avoided with better planning. Vision and where the company is going is unclear. The company could more diverse and invest in new technology to advance products.

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce mangement too many people telling other what needs to happen.

Pros

Very strong brands and customer focus. Committed to developing top talent. Opportunity to work with some very strong players with good credentials.

Cons

Easy to get lost in the expansive management structure. Not sure decisions were always clearly expressed to frontline. High stakes politics.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in development of employees at lower management levels. Refocus on strong brands versus spending time defining and marketing corporate entity.

Pros

Many different opportunities and the ability to be in a rotation plan and find a job function that is best suited

Cons

Textron is a large corporation with many separate agendas. Which can make the operating business less competitive in the market place.

Advice to Senior Management

More transparency with changes and incentives

Pros

Excellent place to learn and take on a significant amount of responsibility. Will work on interesting projects. People are very friendly and a joy to work with. Small team, can take on as much as you can handle.

Cons

Very low pay. Pay increases even for top performers are very limited. In my personal situation, the director of our site appealed to the VP of Finance for an increase and was turned down. Left the job solely because of pay... 30% increase at next job. If Textron acquires your company, expect a 4-5 year run before you're dumped. Horrible bureaucracy and excessive processes.

Advice to Senior Management

Smart people are assets, compensate them.

Pros

the vacation is pretty good

Cons

the pay is not so good

Advice to Senior Management

listen

Pros

Not too many engineers are stressed out over amount of work and few complain about the work/life balance. Compensation is average at best and the medical plans are not great for families (think high deductible). Tuition reimbursement is above average if you want to go for a masters degree.

Cons

You are at the mercy of the contract and the defense industry life cycle. Bush was $$$ in and Obama is $$$ out. Cutting edge in defense is old proven technology so its hard to work with the latest and greatest. People are not very motivated to get stuff done and schedules get blown.
Lots of bureaucracy (Six sigma etc) and paperwork galore. But the main negative is lack of a development pipe line for new products and services. Once current contracts end or make it into production what to do with all the engineers....

Advice to Senior Management

Spend money on superstars who can build a product/service pipeline and keep engineers busy and learning. Team with other contractors and bid smaller jobs with potential not just the mega defense contracts.

Pros

Strong brands
Decent compensation
New CEO is a no-nonsense, hard-driving leader, which is sorely needed at Textron.

Cons

Difficult to move between business units - this is likely to change with new CEO
No obvious career planning - this is likely to change with new CEO
Too top heavy and bureaucratic - this is likely to change with new CEO

Advice to Senior Management

Cut out a couple of layers of management and allow middle managers to run the show - less micromanagement

Pros

Fair to employees in general, in terms of compensation, benefits, severance, etc.
Opportunities at all levels for learning, career advancement if you can get things done
Generally found good people here working under corporate management... hard working, intelligent, want better for the company

Cons

Poor company-wide communication of events/changes/ideas
Deteriorating employee satisfaction / increased stress
Difficult to navigate corporate/management/political red tape and personality quirks - inhibits productivity

Advice to Senior Management

Increase transparency with employees. They know what's going on, why not just own the issues instead of ignoring them?
Acknowledge exceptional or outstanding work in a meaningful way
Continue to simplify "red tape" and get on the line/on the floor with your employees. This is their company.

Pros

Great Pay/benefits and training opportunities

Cons

Ran out of runway - business managed poorly

Advice to Senior Management

break it up

The next question is not applicable since Lewis is gone so by answer is in Past Tense