Weyerhaeuser Reviews

Pros

Pros:
- The people are dedicated and fun to work with.
- Ability to move around to learn and try new things.
- Recognition by certain management is done well while others struggle.
- Excellent worklife balance and flexibility but it depends on the job you do and the group you are in.
- Used to have a really good benefits package. Compensation was always so-so.

Cons

Cons:
- - Some employees seem to rise quickly and so many people wonder why.
- Compensation and benefits are swirling drain. Not competitive especially for those in IT which leads to highly skilled employees finding a better situation elsewhere quickly.
- In tough times the "You are just lucky to have a job" doesn't really work especially in IT.
- Morale is low.
- It kind of feels like the Senior Management is just running the company into the ground. WY used to have a diverse portfolio that would help it get through tough times but all of those businesses were sold off leaving building materials and real estate which are a recipe for disaster in a bad housing market.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your people more and make better business decisions. Be more agile and innovative. Sometimes it takes so long to make a decision and execute that the opportunity gets lost.

Pros

At the local level, workers respect each other and work together toward a common good. But local managers can only do so much against the tide of bloated, top heavy corporate overhead and ineffective senior managers.

Cons

WeyCo corporate is top heavy and rewards senior managers well. But employees who actually produce products that make happy customers are not fairly rewarded. Safety is a prime goal, which is a noble corporate cause. But current over-emphasis on RIR figures has pushed injuries 'underground'. While numbers reported to OSHA are in fact down, worker's comp attorneys are happy, and senior managers get to pat themselves on the back and pad their bonuses, the realty from someone in the trenches is that un-reported injuries are happening.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward your production folks before yourself.

Pros

Majority of people want to do the right thing. People generally treat each other with respect.

Cons

Business practices are behind the times. They were trying to catch up, but the severe downturn in housing starts caused massive layoffs and process improvement is suffering. Businesses (wood products, real estate, and cellulose fibers) are tied too much to housing, and their large holdings of timberlands will probably be spun off into a REIT. Will not be a good place to work for a few more years.

Advice to Senior Management

Short-term focus on cost-cutting is understandable, but don't forget to build for the future with well-trained employees and lean processes.

Pros

Good benefits and good parking at the Corporate building.

Cons

The Company has gone downhill recently. They say the employees are their biggest asset, but are not "walking the talk." They laid off a lot off employees with tenure to get the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to SG&A reductions. They are going to be in big trouble when the Company starts doing better.

Advice to Senior Management

Good luck!

Pros

Good people to work with
Local Management is trying hard to make it a safe and enjoyable place to work

Cons

Corporate leadership has taken questionable steps:
-Sold off or shut down large portions of the company.
-Implemented Salary/Wage freeze, Suspended 401K match, Suspended Bonus program, but senior leadership still received stock grants.
-Tranistioning to reduced medical & retirement benefits in 2010 - placing more burden on the employee.

Advice to Senior Management

1)Lead by Example. It will be easier for employees that actually do the work to stomach necessary cuts if they see the same cuts being taken by senior management team.
2)What is the vision? Will the company soon be a REIT or will it maintain its manufacturing role and assets?

Pros

well compensated with salaries and benefits when compared to other industries and manufacturing in general
still have pension plans available
interesting market challenges to focus on for growth potential

Cons

questionable future of this type of industry and manufacutring in general
unclear path forward for entry level or mid career employees
with downsizing over the past few years, not as many opportunities company wide for growth

Advice to Senior Management

continue to attract young professionals into the industry and manufacturing
support growth and outline potential career paths for the future of the company

Pros

Very nice campus, good about sick time, good telecommuting options, van share, free bus pass. No other pros I can think of.

Cons

Really bad place to work these days. Going thru major downsizing, no opportunities for advancement, no technology advancement. Continuously shrinking company.

Advice to Senior Management

The cuts went too far and too deep. There will be need to bring up lots of people up to speed once conditions improve.

Pros

The people are Weyerhaeuser's best and only remaining asset. Not many of them left.

Cons

Everything I found attractive about this former Fortune 100 company is gone. 401k match - gone, decent health care plan - gone (replaced with high deductable plan), retirement medical benefits - gone, pension plan still in existance, but will be scaled back.

The recent economic situation had hit Weyerhaeuser hard. Questionable decisions in the past to aquire another company was the beginning of the end. At this point, they have let most of the people go. All that remains is managers.

Advice to Senior Management

I suggest you all keep your resume up to date as well.

Pros

One of the few south-end companies. Mid-level managers are receptive to discussion and are responsive to needs.

Cons

Changes in benefits - medical, pension, 401K. I can understand cutting back on these types of things as times are currently tough. It was recently announced, however, that these changes would be permanent as (if) the company starts growing again.
This company has never been fiscally responsible. When the have money, they spend it stupidly and when times are tough, the workers bear the brunt of the burden to save money (i.e. layoffs, reduction in benefits, training, etc).
Outsourcing - Weyco has given away their best resource; Intellectual Property. They have outsourced most of the tribal knowledge and now are left with most of the people that can't get jobs anywhere else or folks that are too new to the company to know what the culture/process.

I could go on and on...but what is the point.

Advice to Senior Management

You used to say that "IT is not a core competency", so you outsourced it. I say Senior Management is not a core competency, lets outsource you...oh wait..that will probably happen when Weyerhaeuser (the 100-year-old American company) gets bought by a Chinese conglomerate.

Pros

If you were to ask me 5 years ago, I would have said that it was a great place to work, good benefits, good career development opportunities, great people to work for. Now, as many others have posted, it's all about the bottom line. I understand that the company is in pretty dire financial straits, but management says it supports its employees and considers employees a critical asset, but then doesn't act as such. Ever since Rogel took over the company, it's been a steady slide downhill.

Cons

With the current environment, benefits aren't what they were (but are still decent I suppose), the direction of IT management is pretty frightening when speculating about succession plans, and when the company starts picking up again, there aren't going to be any knowledgeable people left to help support that growth cycle.

Advice to Senior Management

Look closely at what certain managers are doing and who they have decided to keep. If you want to be able to respond quickly when the market picks up again, you need to make sure you have a strategy in place to retain the few folks you have left, otherwise they're going to jump ship.