I've been working long enough to know the difference between a good manager and a bad one. The bad ones are everywhere sure. But the really awful ones, the ones who make you question everything, I found more of them in five years at 3M than in all my other jobs combined. Something about this place attracts them.
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@km Your response reflects your lack of knowledge of what is going on at 3M. I am experiencing the same level of bad management as the writer you criticized. I have worked for many large companies in high level roles. The senior leaders at these companies do not allow managers to yell at employees, berate employees in front of others or the other bad behavior I have witnessed at 3M. In fact, at one company where I worked a manager was fired after yelling at an employee. These companies take their Code of Conduct seriously.
@jr are you sure you aren’t part of the problem at 3M? Have you actually ever worked anywhere else to have a comparison on good managers or are you just complaining because your manager is making you be accountable now. Seems everyone complains here while also highlighting not wanting to work and talking about quiet quitting. Thats not a formula for success by any means.
My manager and her boss are two of the of the worst “leaders” I have ever worked for in my many years of working. They rule by fear, are narcissistic, have no empathy, abusive and more.
They would have lasted less than two years at any other corporation but are treated like royalty at 3M, making more money in a year than most of us make in several years.
Negative traits at most companies are positive traits at 3M. Good leaders leave 3M on their own or are forced to leave by bad managers who feel threatened by good leaders.
It used to ebb and flow, between weak executive structure supported by strong managers and strong executive structure supporting weak managers. Now it seems a poor executive structure has squeezed the life out of the managers. Can this be fixed?
3M used to have really good managers for the most part. I am an hourly employee and cannot tell you how many times in the years past you collaborted with a manager to accomplish a task or project. The good ones have either retired or left. You end up with the ones who cannot get a good job anywhere else. 3M is no longer a career, but just a job. I could go on for hours about this.
It used to not be this way.
But now, because of anti-promotion policies, you have a density of terrible managers, because anyone who can do better leaves when it becomes obvious there's no upward movement here at 3M.
As a result, we get what's left, which is all the rejects nobody else wants, and they're never going to leave.