W.L. Gore Reviews

Pros

Gore is a very flexible work environment, but so are many other companies these days. The culture of Gore used to be something unheard of but today many companies are catching up.

Cons

There are no clear cut career paths to take to end up at certain goals. They discourage you from planning ahead to careers you may want 10-20 years down the road and they want you to focus on right now. That's fine but you need to develop towards your goal at some point and it's helpful to know what types of experiences you need to get under your belt to work towards your goal (this is very unclear at Gore). The culture is one for people who are particularly in tune with their emotions. It seems like the whole culture is built around demonstrating empathy. People who are very direct will not do well at Gore. Gore pays very competitively. You will not get rich working at Gore. Our plant leader makes the equivalent of what senior engineers make in other companies.

Pros

- some really nice people working there.
- traveling and therefore getting away from the office.

Cons

- compensation well below industry standards
- greedy bosses
- slavery like work environment
- completely incapable and dishonest management
- poor benefits
- working weekends and not getting rewarded
- disrespect to customers

Advice to Senior Management

Just do the work a favor and leave this industry

Pros

The people are great to work with.

Cons

Lots of unqualified people making key decisions. The overall quality of work is very low. Little training, and limited career advancement opoprtunities. In general, a poor career investment.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on your quality of work. Find a way to retain talent.

Pros

If you are up for the challenge, opportunities for growth are always there. Cool science abounds in the products that Gore makes. Freedom and flexibility make working at Gore more rewarding. Fellow associates quickly become your best friends. Leadership associates really do try to be fair with their teams and maintain a great working environment.

Cons

If you have to be told what to do everyday, then this isn't the company for you. If you aren't comfortable with speaking up and expressing thoughts and opinions, then this isn't the company for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to get out and walk around the building to find out what associates are working on. Leadership meetings can easily consume one's schedule and leave no time for it. Most associates love to talk about what they are doing and why it matters to the enterprise.

Pros

People treat you and each other respectfully
Wide range of freedom to choose commitments and work in areas of interest
You are trusted and allowed to make mistakes
Creativity and innovation are valued
Others willingly help you
Long term view of people, products, markets

Cons

You need to feel comfortable with ambiguity in your commitment area
Some projects don't work out and you have to be willing to pick up new ones
Not the kind of place where everyone conforms and does it the same way; each plant is different

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the culture alive by resisting the pressure to be just like other companies

Pros

You can have freedom to choose your projects to a certain extent.

Cons

You have to be a great propaganda artist to succeed, no matter how good you do your job. you will end up lower in the ranking process if you are bad with office politics. Leadership is incompetent at best.

Advice to Senior Management

Practice fairness or the high turnover will destroy the once great company.

Pros

They did offer me more money than I was previously making. But my previous salary was below industry standards.

Cons

I do not recommend working for this company. The "culture" is dysfunctional and oppressive. There is no way to move up and they don't give raises after your first year. The other "associates" score you and this causes a lot of intimidation. They don't have training and I didn't learn much I could take with me to the next place.
Comments on Flagstaff: It is a place to go on vacation. There are no other places to work if you quit.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend the $ you pay relocating people on hiring competent leadership instead. This way everyone's time isn't wasted and your turnover will be less.

Pros

Good benefits and work-life balance. A 30 hour work week for the professional associates is common . The Medical Division is currently HQ'd in Flagstaff, AZ which, for some people, is a real draw for the outdoor lifestyle.

Cons

Gore is a very flat and wide pyramid organization. As such, there are few advancement possibilities and a lot of "real politick". "Professional" workforce is a foreign subject matter. If you are talented and knowledgeable, peers will become jealous because you will be a perceived threat. Raises are shockingly pathetic with the typical engineer receiving 2-3% every other year.

Technical acumen amongst the engineering workface is spotty. College new-grads are heavily recruited for their naivety, ability to be easily assimilated in the Gore CULTure, and low wages. As such, there is fundamental lack of design knowledge depth in the engineering workforce. The practiced design methodologies are arcane, overly reliant on bench-top testing and quite inefficient. If you remain at Gore for too long, your marketable engineering skill set will evaporate. You will not be able to compete or function at other companies.

Advice to Senior Management

None. They don't care and don't listen anyway. For them, the status-quo is "working". There is no need to change in their eyes.

Pros

There are a lot of really nice, genuine, smart people at Gore. You have the ability to make a lot of choices in how you can contribute to the enterprise. Also, the enterprise is always willing to make investments into the future (not very short-term minded like other companies). Work-life-balance is good.

Cons

Compensation is very bad. Its best to negotiate a really high salary coming in to Gore because there is a good chance you won't get a raise for several years. Getting a cost of living increase is considered "good". The way the compensation system is setup, there is a chance you can get a high increase, but those are very rare and normally require a change in roles. Even if you change roles, you don't get a salary increase right away. It can be up to a year later.

If the enterprise does well during a given period of time, you get a profit share check which is about 2% of your annual salary, and is heavily taxed. This has happened 1-2 times a year during record breaking profits.

Advice to Senior Management

The enterprise is doing great financially. If you want to keep your good associates, make sure their good work is recognized and that they are fairly compensated for it.

The enterprise is growing in terms of people. To keep the ship from sinking, you need to implement changes in the way things are done. The great culture we once had 10-20 years ago appears to be very diluted. The compensation process needs to be refined so people that know your contributions are actually involved!!!!

Pros

Challenging work. Lots of very intelligent and fun people to work with. Family and quality of life valued. Different divisions offer options for future career changes.

Cons

Some people have changed the idea of culture into a cult. No bosses is dishonest. Salary ranges are are secret. Raises are terrible. Your peer review could be awesome, but if you don't sell yourself to leadership, you won't get a good raise or recognition. Manufacturing associates are oasis terrible. I have seen people remain as temps with no benefits for more than two years.

Advice to Senior Management

Educate people what culture really means. Be honest about the hierarchy. Publish salary ranges. Reward for performance, not for secret networking.