Hi. Just recruited but Rockwell but this thread is negative. Tell me why Rockwell has declined and why. Is it reversible? I have 2 weeks to decide. My other offers are Tesla and BECKHOFF.
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RA is almost an India company now. Most of jobs are done in India, except some top mgmt, marketing, sales in N.A. Decline for sure whenever involving Indian mgmt and engineers.
The NA remote roles are best candidate roles to be outsourced to low cost labour regions (India). RA NA has many too many parasitic roles, high cost managers, directors, account managers, etc in who are completely disengaged and posses a very limited subject matter expertise. The NA remote roles can be displaced without a major impact to business flow.
I am very glad that I was able to retire last year and not witness further declines
Great post, @12s+1jpkk096z. Wish I could pick your brain, you seem like you have a lot of year's experience under your belt. I don't see how this can change any time soon. There are so many remote directors and managers and Sr managers who I assume were COVID hires or through acquisitions who are making absolute bank. I specified remote because I hear people outside of sales are not happy about RTO mandates. All those big titles with huge salaries that we are paying for, how does this change? Do we have to wait for company profit to increase or for these leeches to leave? Vast majority aren't near retirement age at all. What about tariffs and plant closures and plant manufacturing being relocated?
Not sure what to believe is real vs trolling in this post. Rockwell would not be my first choice of employer if i was early career and had other viable options.
The current state of the company is a general decline across all reasons to consider joining a company - prospects for sales growth, organizational culture, internal investment, and employee opportunities. Most of the blame falls on the ceo for overpaying for acquisitions at the expense of investing internally on people, process, systems and core product/service offerings. He’s dishonest and narcissistic- in the past he publicly stated how important long term employee development and retention was and then laid off ~10% of the global with most cuts coming in North America. At the same time his total comp declined from something like 16.5m to 16.2m while the company’s revenue decline by 1b, remaining employees got little to no merit or bonuses. Ask the current sales employees how they feel about their incentive plan. Is it fair? Is there pay transparency? Does the company have systems to accurately capture and pay them for their efforts?
A good question to ask is how much is the company investing in itself? Can you find a public document that states the % of total revenue that goes back into research and product development? The real research and development is very very short term - how do we “manufacture” adjusted quarterly earnings to avoid the stock from tanking?
The bad acquisition investments are coupled with some of the other disingenuous corporate virtue signaling behavior - DEI isnt the reason the company is in decline but creates a drag on performance, culture, and adversely impacts individuals differently. Individuals are promoted in some cases with little merit and new less qualified people are brought in at Director or higher levels to run programs with little prior experience (never stepped on a shop floor in the industrial space). Those hiring and promotion decisions bypass tenured employees who weren’t given the same opportunities for advancement but were loyal, showed up for work everyday, and contributed. Some underperforming employees appear to be protected because of gender/race to maintain the numbers - not sure if this is perception or reality, probably a bit of both. Some really talent and qualified “diversity” people were promoted for the right reasons but in the back of their mind are now left thinking “was I promoted because I was the right person for the job or because I checked a box”
On the topic of “ethics” - this really means Rockwell is good at protecting itself from legal liabilities. It doesn’t mean the company is honest with its customers, business partners, or employees. You can be disingenuous or flat out lie and still not break the law.
Hope this helps - Rockwell was a good place to work for a long time but sadly has become like other big American publicly traded companies who put profit and prioritize short term gains for a few execs over everything else. It might be an ok place to start your career and bank some experience but you need to understand what you’re getting into. If you’re mid career and thinking about joining - don’t let them low ball you on comp because merit increases and bonuses will be smaller until demand picks up (tariffs and geo politics don’t seem to be clear anytime soon). Also be wary of the prospect of promotion - it’s different and inconsistent throughout the company.
@vs+1jpkk096z if by "tomato growing abilities" you mean the in-house hydroponic farm, I heard they quietly shut that down months ago.
If it was me I’d chose beckoff. I can’t speak to their culture but they are stealing market share. RA is a difficult culture and a lot of new employees don’t last because onboarding, training, HR support is pretty much self service. People decisions center on cost and politics rather than talent. I also witnessed a lot of overextended and untrained leadership so coaching and development opportunities are very limited.
I have looked on the website and watched videos from AF and investor relations. Blake has reimagined Rockwell administration transformed them. Is the not true? Becky and Tessa have helped them create tomato growing abilities and MKE based manufacturing on a line that cost 3x capital to make. Wow-I can't wait to start, my future is secure. Good thing all those experienced old people left, I am sure they just held Blake back. Only a few more cleanups and Rockwell will rule-fire Bob, Matt and Matheus-they are last ten (well Matt was really just a GPT wonk)
If you're serious then run as fast as you can. Rockwell is a no go specially if you have other offers.
@j5+1jpkk096z I don't think so, one of them is VERY clearly ESL
I'll go out on a limb and say I think both people going back and forth are the same person trying to stir the pot, thanks for the entertainment.
@dr+1jpkk096z and @bd+1jpkk096z -(probably the same person) you are the one in denial. I’m going to take a wild guess that you are not as talented or smart as you think you are - otherwise recruiters would actually be chasing you for a job. But….. they are most likely not…which is why you are on this site trolling instead of staying on topic or putting in the work to make yourself more viable for the job you want. Keep looking for a scapegoat to make yourself feel better. Just know you sound pathetic, lazy, and a whiny. LOL
@ck+1jpkk096z Denial ain't just a river in Egypt
Rockwell is unstable, sales decline, products are behind market, Blake over invested in acquisitions.
Slow decline in Rockwell means less projects, less options. I was stuck with my role for to long die to lack of opportunities.
Personally I would chose Beckhoff. Tesla seems to be facing painfully transformation soon
The real meat of this is that a clown corporation like Tesla is being compared to Rockwell. Rockwell used to be considered a stable and long term company to work for, now, in the job market, we compete with clown companies run by dr-g addicts.
Rockwell is losing ground due to lack of innovation, terrible business practices, and complete internal disorganization (CEO is a goofy goober). But the install base is so damn big, the company will be around for quite a while.
It depends what your job is. If you're doing internal work, you could use it as a good opportunity to hop on a lot of different projects early on in your career. If you're in sales...may not be the best.
Tell me you are bias without telling me you are bias. Seriously, your judgement is so misguided. Still blaming on DEI? Really? DEI for decisions made by white men? I’m so over these blame DEI sh-t.
Own your own misery.
I tell you, Rockwell WAS a great place to work, but now if you are the wrong color of skin or gender, you aren’t qualified to do a damn job and just got it because you fit a “box”. Seriously, that mentality of employees that are still bitter is what also makes Rockwell an awful place right now. Besides the d-mb decisions of leadership.
Just look at the history, 4 CFOs in the last 5 years should tell you something as a career starter.
Generally, if relocation and cost of living are not factors, most would pick the company offering the highest salary.
You would need to tell us your race, gender, business unit the job is for, if you would be in one of the early career programs (LDP, EIT) and the type of role (i.e. Engineering, Sales, Management...) for me to predict your future.
Hint: If you can check multiple boxes on the DEI checklist, get into the LDP program on the Management path, you can go far even if you don't know what you're doing.
Also, I blame the Covid aftermath and putting the shareholders first as reasons for the current state of the company.
No one has to tell you anything, especially when you demand instead of ask.