When you read these threads you wonder was it ever a good company? So much whining and moaning and everything is wrong and it’s always the fault of others. Perhaps simply a long-term losing culture?
29 replies (most recent on top)
@OP coming to think of it, it was always mediocre operations and bad decisions by seniors and nepotism. But more rampant now than before. Earlier the completion for us was less and we could take long product development cycle, sales cycle. Now the competition is high and bad decisions are catching up to us. SAP actually brought to light many double counting …. Take note from the introduction of SAP we have deteriorated … or may be coincidence
@66a our senior leaders have been in survival mode since 2019. They do not care how much it cost to recruit outside talent. If the new hire makes them look bad they will find a way to make it so miserable the person leaves or they make up reasons to give them a bad review so they can lay them off. We pay the price because only the bullies or those protected by bullies (because they are not seen as a threat) are left as “leaders”.
@5dt My manager was hired from
another company. She did an excellent job, made many positive changes and was empathetic. Sadly, senior leadership was abusive toward her and harassed her to the point where she could no longer work at 3M.
It didn’t help to start bringing in cronies to help run the show. It’s one thing to admit you know nothing about the business but are willing to learn. Quite another to come in acting like you know better than anyone when it’s obvious you don’t know sh**. Top that off with hiring consultants to do your job and we have the blind leading the blind.
This country was good when doers were valued and taken care of. They had long careers in 3M and long term thinking was encouraged. Managers spent 10 to 15 years at the bench before taking on a leadership role as compared to now, when they typically spent 4 to 5 years doing something useful before they switch to a pencil pusher role.
@41y I am surprised BB did not “clean house” and get rid of KR and his minions. KR’s mistake created a massive legal liability for 3M. Many of his direct reports are merely “yes men” which explains why Legal is the way it is.
@xz He was also the acting head of litigation during a lot of this.
@xz The head of Legal is a perfect example of how 3M rewards terrible “leaders” with high level positions. This creates a toxic culture where the most talented leave, get sick due to the stress/abuse or stay and are miserable.
You can thank the head of legal. All began with filing an objectively baseless IP lawsuit to bully a competitor (while he was head of the IP group at the time). Fascinating read:
https://www.wsj.com/business/3m-earplugs-fight-stems-from-self-made-legal-battle-11658156756
3M really bragged about having done their homework on the Aero acquisition. Who missed the boat about the army earplugs lawsuits? Was it written off as a government problem?
@s7 Everyone who caused the earplug lawsuit got promoted including the two managers from AearO who started the problem. One was promoted to VP level and one to senior director level. Both were "rewarded" with promotions in the middle of the lawsuit. Promoted by MK, the current SVP of CRL
@s1 I was laid off from CRL. My last day was March 29th 2026. Go pound sand.
@g5 Sadly, our head of legal created the ear plug mess. Normally, such a huge error would be grounds for firing. Instead, he got promoted and has made millions at 3M.
I saw a huge change in 3M in 2019 just after the stock took a dive. But I think bad, passive aggressive leaders, toxicity and nepotism have been part of the culture for a long time.
@pq+1
Then what is CRL and its numerous staff for?? They don’t seem to have layoffs.
Are people who only plan to be in their roles for a few years (like marketers and tech directors and VPs) going to support Class 5 projects that take a long time to turn a profit or focus on Class 3 (let's have a new color!) projects?
Yes. I remember Inge coming to Tech forum and ask the scientist to look into modern technologies which we have not been doing in CRL. Our science advocate gave her speech saying how could he talk ill of 3M technology. The warning was given several times to step up. Unfortunately the then directors , current VPs laughed it away. I am not supporting Inge. But R&D is also to be blamed
Part of the reason is R&D too not just CEOs. All the current VPs or SVP of R&D had grown with doing what is needed for the boss to look good. They were black belts in the Six Sigma time, they were trying to climb ladder but not contribute technically. Now these are the leading guys. None of them have products to talk about. Blind leading the blind. Where is renewal of new products when old ones die? With these leaders it will never happen
@jp yeah they really su-ked you know - inventing stuff, making billions for the company, working long hours to get sh-t done. They really were the problem I’m glad those stiffs are gone🙄
It was great under Desi, and with each new CEO they slowly ki-led off what made 3M unique until there was nothing left. Now it’s a shell of what it was. Bad decisions, poor judgement and greed destroyed what was once a great place to work.
So it’s been pretty awful for probably 10-20 years but the people driving this site’s narrative make out it’s all recent and external. They are the problem - the long-timers who delivered nothing and blamed others. Don't be fooled by the former 3Mers on this site. They were the problem.
@OP
If you read the history of this company, it started out bad. It started on a huge mistake where the wrong rock got mined and brought in the make the abrasives. What happened? People with vision and talent made the best out of a bad situation. The majority of these comments give testimony to what this company once was and how it went downhill. Bad decisions and bad CEOs/leadership have plagued every major corporation in this country. The talent and capability and skill is still out there, you just have to get rid of the greedy mofos that are so far removed from what greatness is and can be.
If we can find a way to eliminate the idiocy above, this company and the country will rise again.
Not counting on it, though.
PFAS and ear plug lawsuits collectively made things quite difficult. Then GE management style spinning off Solventum didn’t help. After that, ki-ling the golden geese of product and manufacturing technology expertise and ability to compress time schedules really hurt. So here were are the victims of inability to see beyond this quarter.
You sound like a new 3M’er in a SVP or VP position attempting to reassign your quilt for upcoming lay-offs! Get it done, we’re waiting on our severance packages.
@cs The slide really started with McNerney. Buckley arrested the slide for a few years, but wasn't around long enough to really move the needle, unfortunately. Then Inge, Roman and now Bill just continued Mac's cut-cut-cut routine. I get a laugh every time Bill says "we are investing in NPIs". I've never seen budgets as tight as they are now. And headcount too. Like many here have said, he's aiming to break it up or sell it off or something. He sure isn't trying to grow the place organically, no matter what he says publicly.
Agree that things went south some time after Roman/Monish took over. I firmly believe that Roman would have been at least ok as a CEO if Monish wasn't whispering in his ear all the time and only focused on cost reductions.
I retired a few years ago after 36 years at 3M. While not all years were great, some - but only a very few- assignments were poor, and most were very good. I put in more than 40 hrs per week for sure, and gave 3M my best efforts. And 3M took care of me and my family. Good enough pay, good benefits. When a family member had a health crisis, 3M stood by us in many ways. Most of the people I worked with were fun and talented. Most managers were good. Only 2 incompetent ones. Overall though, leadership was pretty good, and sales and profits were very good.
But then Roman/Monish happened.
It hurts that the company is essentially falling apart now.
I have worked for 27 years. The deterioration happened when Roman took over. People started working towards protecting their back and stabbing on others. The advance 3M, getting out of PFAS, EPR change, SaP fiasco, bad CFO appointment, bad leaders appointment, supporting those he knew - all happened during Roman dynasty. Since then the SVP, VPs have lost their mind and focus on talking big but not performing
Absolutely. 20+ year hourly employee here. Skilled trades. From the plant manager on down, everyone knew every one, and respected each other. We all worked together. Salaried, hourly it did not matter. Sure there were bad people on both sides of the fence. Tell me what company does or did not. We were treated with respect. You literally were fed once a month a GOOD lunch for achieving success. You were proud to be a part of something great. It was a career and a "destination" job.
Now not so much. All this place is, is a training campus or a place for people to hold a job that they cannot get anywhere else. Treated like children. That applies to salary as well. The level of incompetence is INCREDIBLE. It is just a job now. It has really gone south in the past 8-10 years. I know things that I should not about corporate people, local management and REALLY BAD HR policy that someone should have been fired over. When your HR manager was erasing / deleting electronic files, how does that person get a HUGE promotion?
I worked for 3M for 18 years. For the first 13 it was the greatest place I ever worked. I highly recommended it for anyone who asked. For the last 5 things went down hill fast. Kind of coincident with advance 3M. Been gone for 2 and work for another big company now. My opinion still stands … for awhile it was the greatest place I ever worked.
used to be, it was a proud place to work, teams working for each other and building each other, problems not just at work but home problems tried to be solved , but society has changed from the outside and i have noticed the poor management slide on a progressive scale over the years, only one manager in the last 25 years had people skills, he looked where he could build up the lower scale employees and gained the respect of workers, no more of that , the last 10 years have seen manager feather their own nests and build them selves, workers just get on invisible to them,the stopping of minor perks to workers was disgusting especially when buying back billions of shares just to keepan inflated share price, it will fall flat very soon and this company will go the way of being broke into pieces and again the rich will get richer for it