W.L. Gore Reviews

Pros

Good work life balance good benefits, allows flex work for those in need.

Cons

Some have the power to derail another's career and not be challenged. There is nowhere to go to complain without being seen in a negative light.

Advice to Senior Management

Starting to get too many layers of management. That can lead to being out of touch with what is really going on.

Pros

Freedom to soar with your strengths, good technology based on ePTFE that allows for more innovation, natural teams that can help get things done, learn the art of value creation in the market place

Cons

Leadership is not by natural followership as Mr Gore set up, instead the good ole boys network that promotes mediocrity. The peer ranking on which annual compensation is based is nothing but a tool easily manipulated by leadership. Just like how the political parties carve up electoral districts in the states, leaders decide ranking lists such that they can shut out associates most knowledgeable about your contributions from ranking you, if they want, and spin their own associates in contribution meetings to the top. This has resulted in the rise of mediocrity into leadership resulting in massive failures of projects invested in, leaving the associates in the team affected when projects are shut down, but the leaders have the golden parachute to land as a leader somewhere else. Former Dupont guys who are leaders in Gore are the most insidious, bringing in their ole boy's network mentality. Interestingly, these guys were not that great in Dupont to begin with. Even the home grown leaders are all about territories, and promoting their own support system, while their poor decisions continue to slow down the growth of this company that still has great potential. All leadership, at every level, have insulated themselves into "ivory towers", distancing themselves from reality.

Advice to Senior Management

Why don't you let associates at large pick the leaders, have an annual ranking of the leaders by the associates most knowledgeable for each business and function. If leadership is not addressed, the rot has started in this enterprise that will undermine the growth and profitability within a decade, and will drive talent out fast.

Pros

Very flexible when it comes to yuor family they don't hesisitate to let you have time off if you need it

Cons

Don't seem to care about employee well being while working on the job. They don't want to upgrade work conditions even. If someone gets injured. Would just try to modify things

Advice to Senior Management

Put people who are competent in leadership positions not who is your best bud or just agrees with everythingQ

Pros

Great work balance...can "succeed" even when working less than 40 hours per week....great for raising kids or being a single parent...ASOP plan contributes 12% as a retirement benefit...great community.....short commute....

Cons

Leadership is terrible! Unless you grew up in Flagstaff or endorse an alternative lifestyle, don't expect to move up very quickly or at all. The leadership of the SG&A functions are "homegrown", not qualified, and worthless! Only go to Finance as a Business Unit Financial Analyst, otherwise, you will always be low on the list and never make what you should. Politics are horrendous! If you do happen to get a promotion, you will not get any additional money for at least a year or two until the "contribution" process catches up. And leadership will not go to bat for you! IT, Finance, & EHS are all run by one person who is the Godfather of the CEO's son so nothing will ever happen to him/her regardless of skillset...and these functional areas are not valued to business leadership. The "unique management" style that everyone reads about in the management articles that praise Gore for its style...it doesn't exist unless you are an engineer. Do not leave a good career for this place because your career path goes away as soon as you walk in the door! Also, no one is held accountable for anything. Decisions are made in groups so one person cannot be blamed for a bad decision. Sometimes it is like having 30 bosses whose approvals you need before you can move forward with a project! I would not recommend this place!

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the nepotism, promote based upon performance, get rid of the ranking process, and start holding people accountable for their actions!!!

Pros

The only good thing about working at Gore is there seminars. Building on the Best is an excellent class.

Cons

The leadership is a joke. You have compensation reps that make less than you and area leads with substantially more education being held back.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to practice Gore Culture and not merely preach it. Everyone including the plant leader speaks of Gore Culture but only uses this for unfair practices. Teams are not culturally diverse and many of the leaders need to not be threatened but embrace new ideas. What I found is that you have teachers, mechanics etc. leading billion dollar manufacturing floors. Gore is lucky that the product they manufacture is good as they would have long been out of business if this solely rested on their leadership.

Pros

Private company with strong margins. The support of defense and aerospace contracts is significant. Innovative products. The lattice structure organization is perhaps best suited for the research and development aspects of the business.

Cons

Company of synonyms. There is a great deal of subjectivity in the interpretation of the culture. Each site, even within the same division, has the 'freedom' to choose how to operate which perpetuates inefficiencies. 10,000 plus associates in 90+ countries with no organization chart. Corporate politics is a popularity contest. Power of small teams, decisions require a team. What happened to the individual and personal accountability?

Pros

good place to work and has a very nice community, nice people, pays pretty well when you first start out.

Cons

Takes time to grow and get promotions, work gets boring and is sometimes slow moving, hierarchy can be hard to follow sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your employees more benefits and have a younger atomsphere. Give more for promotions and have management talk to employees more.

Pros

Everyone is happy or at least content about their job. Most teams I've seen get along with eachother very well and the environment is not uptight at all, which is perhaps an obvious side-product of the flat company organization. For career development, this is a good place to be for material and industrial process engineers and their are a huge variety of products to work on. All the facilities are quite nice as well.

Cons

Delaware is not the most interesting location. Salaries are not exceptional, but you also have a lot of freedom in how much work you take on.

Pros

The benefits and the relationships are great.

Cons

The lattice (non-hierarchy) structure can make innovation and in IT and change difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

Have more faith in the leadership that you put in place.

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.