Good ole boys and yes men - Anonymous employee Eastman Employee Review

Often it is not about what you know or what you contribute, instead those that know the right people and talk a good game (without even doing good work) are the ones that tend to be recognized and promoted. Many managers are more interested in advancing their careers than growing the individuals under them. This leads to them kissing up to their management chain, while those under them are doing the hard work and not getting recognized. Employees' true feelings and different perspectives are not encouraged; the executive leadership team and many of the managers only want to hear ideas from those that think just like them, or say what they want to hear. Managers also rotate out of their positions on average about every 3 years, which means they can't coach their employees to be more successful because they don't have enough time to get to know them. Many managers seem to treat women with less respect than men. Women are afraid to announce pregnancies for fear of being penalized for it. Some women have been accused of doing lower quality work because they have children. Eastman has too many layers of management. This leads to employees spending more time explaining/justifying what they do, rather than doing “real” work. It also encourages micromanaging and not trusting employees to do the jobs they were hired to do. Morale is at an all time low. Two layoffs occurred in 2016. In the second round, good talent was purged. The stability that was once found at Eastman is gone. Employees are at risk of being let go, regardless of their ability to perform. Forcing employees to fit on a distribution curve (meaning someone has to be on the bottom) for pay raises and promotions is also decreasing the morale which is demotivating employees, especially since there are not good checks and balances to ensure that managers are ranking employees on actual performance rather than just the manager's perception of the performance.