Thread regarding 3M layoffs

Ok captain obvious

As someone who only joined 3M at the age of 45 after working for other large corporations I cannot recommend 3M as a place to work. Someone mentioned getting rid of all 3Mers who have worked at 3M for over 30 years. Obviously, that is extreme. However, I definitely recommend 3M no longer promotes people based on their tenure at 3M and/or their race or ethnicity. I believe in DEI but if someone is known as a toxic leader they should not manage people no matter how long they have been at 3M and/or their race/ethnicity.

3M also needs to think globally. The people in St. Paul act like the world revolves around St. Paul. The “old timers” who lead global teams in St. Paul still mandate that their direct reports show up in person if they are in St. Paul. New hires need to be from MN or be willing to move to MN. A truly global company is not focused so much on forcing employees to move only to be on Teams Meetings with members from all over the world.

The “old timers” also hate those hired into managerial positions from outside of 3M and do their best to sabotage the success of these new employees. I keep a very low profile since I cannot leave MN and recognize at my age it will be hard to find another job at my current pay grade. Other new hires, however, want to prove their value by recommending changes to the way things are done. In some cases, making changes is part of the job description. Sadly, doing anything that makes the “old timers” look bad means the new employee will be subjected to abuse, gas lighting and/or harassment.

3M cannot grow without recognizing it is a global company and allowing new hires to bring new ideas and diversity to 3M. We should not focus on employees based in MN which makes it impossible for high achievers to get leadership positions without moving to MN.

as a 32 year old who has been with the company for five years , i have to say thank goodness for the older heads, experience is needed now, I am still learning so much from my mentor and thankful that I am still here due to him building and crafting my skills.

No risk of the old 3M coming back. I look forward to more layoffs, less growth and more incompetent hires coming into 3M. Love the new 3M.

Never ever bring back old 3M. And please get rid of all 3Mers with 30 years or more. They are such a dead weight

@Bring back the old 3M

This is not the old 3M, and quite frankly, good riddance! Wonewok and (to an extent) Tartan Park promoted the "good 'ol boys" mentality. They were perks most employees rarely used (or got to use), and were eating up some of 3M's profits. Selling them to shore up our balance sheet (or spend on R&D) is the right thing to do. Think about it; about 70K employees worldwide and roughly 8K at 3M Center. Having those non-profit generating resources serving less than 10% of 3Mers (assuming only a small fraction of 3M Center employees use Tartan regularly) is not a smart use of resources.

And to those who think 3M now hires cr-p employees, you are mistaken. Some of the 30+ year olds that I work with now are some of the best I have come across. Much better than some of the dead weights that used to be here!

So, 3M culture is definitely different than 10-20 years ago. No longer a large small company, but more corporate-feeling (not a positive). But the innovative culture lives on. Now if we can only get rid of WYW ...

Talent is not what they look for anymore. How do you promote your image in Yammer and LinkedIn defines you. It is very disturbing to see the company R&D culture deteriorate.

If there's one thing the Roman Empire Reign of Error taught people, it's this: never ever pick up more work from the people who were let go. This only encourages MORE layoffs since the "leaders" see that fewer people will work harder and longer.

Mcnerney got away with this because people feared getting let go and mistakenly thought working longer and harder would save them. But Mack simply queued up the next round to "beat" Wall Street estimates. Then he took his bait and switch game to Boeing and ruined a 2nd famous US corporation.

The 80s and 90s were a great time at 3M (unless you got spun to Imation). Tartan Club was a fabulous treat for employees to enjoy activities, meet a future significant other or friends, and build two way trust.

Shame of the leaders who threw away the gem that McKnight created.

History repeating itself. Pulling another McNerny style shell game will only get you so far.

6cmi+1ulJernu

Well said. I want to add that we lost many of our most talented employees as a result of the layoffs, poor leadership, constant budget cuts, legal mess, etc. Where I work we have a toxic manager that only got hired because they have been at 3M for over 20 years and is friends with the decision maker. This person will never leave but the people who work for this manager are leaving.

Pahleeze… folks talking about “Mother Mining” roaring back and such… Mother Mining took care of her employees and we gave our all return. That relationship has been abandoned by the company called 3M. Not Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, simply 3M, a number followed by a letter that stands for nothing now. It’s just a job, and not a very secure one. I see the most talented young employees going elsewhere as many of those not yet gone or laid off received a pay cut days after BB arrived. Roaring? Hardly.

10% was laid off and that is a big number. But there is no way that the 10% laid off possessed more than (about) 10% of the innovation/commercialization knowledge. From where I sit, our division continues to do just fine. Business is good, people are travelling, we are allowed to spend so budgets are just fine.

At the beginning of the year, the company was projecting 0-2% growth in 2024. At Q2 earnings report, 3M posted 1% growth. Don't know about the rest of the divisions, but Q3 is typically our strongest quarter so I am anticipating a good year for 3M (I think 3% growth is achievable/realistic).

If BB is true to his word and re-prioritizes folks working on PFAS exit, that will help resource more NPI projects as the next 6 quarters unfold (total PFAS exit by end of 2025). And I hear rumors of hiring. As I have said before, mother mining is starting her roar!!

I work for a large plant and saw many technical people being laid off for past 5 years and not replaced. There is a huge gap in technical knowhow to develop new products. In fact for the operating plan next year, we are directed by the SVP to assume 0% flat growth for next year. Basically innovation is dead.

You can't lay off as many people as were laid off and then think you can just pick those projects up again.

Simple Math. $12B for PFAS and another $5B for earplug. And we own 20% of Solventum…. So how do you pay this? 1B inventory reduction not enough. Growth products will take a long time (BB says too). Strategy May be share buy back ( to inflate price), workforce number focus, shrink the size of the company, focus on few businesses etc

The company can't even put out a Q1 AIP estimate and we're almost at the end of Q3. Yep, everything's going swimmingly.

For those who still remember the Golden Step Awards, this program is still alive and well. You may not know most of the new 3M products, but NPI launches continue. There is now a HoF level for Golden Step awards for new products achieving >$100M in sales in less than 3 years.

Do we need more NPI launches, undoubtedly. Is the 3M innovation engine broken? IMO, that would be a big no!! And as resources from PFAS related projects are redistributed to product development, growth will accelerate.

Revenue is growing, profits are up, share price is trending up, employees are allowed to attend conferences, see customers and even travel internationally (to and from the US) for meetings. Those no longer at 3M do not see the leaner company regaining its former glory.

Not saying mother mining doesn't have its flaws, but it is a different environment compared to 2 years ago when all the layoffs were happening. Things are looking up.

There was a decent gap between when Nick G left and when he joined Rockwell from what I recall. When he left it was announced as a "retirement". Always more to the story when the important people are asked to leave.

Share price is not controversial when the end of your nose sees no further than the end of the current quarter. Without investment in the future, you’d better sell fast.

Future growth sectors. AI, battery powered vehicles, Quantum Computing, space force. Let’s pretend it’s 1990 and put our technical best on it for products in these future growth sectors. Deliver a high quality product, at a premium price that our customers can be assured they get what they pay for and customer service to back it up.

It worked for us before; innovation “3M is Science” slogan. Let’s get back in those labs and running trials in our factories.

The outsourcing jobs/ contracts to lowest cost, cutting to the bone demoralizes the workforce. The acquisition strategy, just has not been working.

Let’s do this BB.

I think you are all helping make my point. Dungeon, Precision Optics, ear plugs were some of the bad acquisitions. But that is in the past now. BB is at the helm reportedly because he has a track record of making good acquisitions. One of the reasons why 3M is starting its comeback.

And stocks like GameStop and AMC (and other meme stocks) are the exception. The rest of the S&P500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 live and die by good earnings report and future projections. Look, share price being a reflection of the company’s performance is NOT a controversial opinion. 🤦‍♂️

Took over Dyneon for fluoropolymers

And Cuno for a $1 billion and Precision optics for $600+ million and more and more…

Ahhh acquisitions. Remember when we bought that ear plug company for a steal?

Tell me when was the last major NPI new launch? Versus major acquisitions of other companies? I bet there were more of the latter

There will be brighter days ahead when some courage is shown on investing for the future.

100% agree with Making Sense. Stock price is always in line with company performance & press releases are always 100% accurate.

Look at GameStop if you don't believe us. One of the most important companies to the US economy over the past 3 years.

The people on Wall St. are geniuses who always get it right. They know 3M better than you insiders.

Press release on June 3rd 2020 stated Nick G retiring from 3M. He got the job at Rockwell 8 months later. Unless someone on this board knows Nick G's situation personally, I choose to believe the press release.
https://news.3m.com/2020-06-03-3M-Appoints-New-Chief-Financial-Officer

Sales, profit, FCF, BV, etc all lead to share price. Share price and credit ratings, while not perfect, do paint a good picture of how a company is doing. Of course there are exceptions due to a few bad apples who hide/make up numbers to prop up companies, but companies like Enron are the exception.

Deny all you want. Mother mining is doing well. Brighter days are ahead!

Correct fact that Nick G. resigned from 3M, not retired.

Great analysis from Varys.

没得救

Cutting your way to prosperity is not sustainable. Get busy working on new and improved products.

Nick G. left 3M and became the CFO of Rockwell Automation (ROK).

Monish left and BB hired a long time confidant in short order. No search, no waiting, etc. It sure looks like Monish was shown the door so BB could bring in his guy.

@3xfk+1ulJernu

There are a great many better metrics. Stock price, and by extension market cap, is basically the averaged subjective option of bankers. It is also subject to gross manipulation, as Inge and Nick G. clearly showed. Anyone who thinks the stock markets are really a "free market" in an economic sense simply does not understand the meaning of the term.

Among the better metrics by which to judge company performance:

• Sales (and growth)
• Gross Profit (and growth)
• Book value
• FCF (the number, not the % FCF conversion)
• EBIT
• ROIC

Bond ratings are even worse. They are quite literally some small group of bankers' subjective opinion. There is quite a healthy list of firms that were rated BBB+ or higher until weeks (or hours!) before bankruptcy. There are even some that went into default only days after having various 'A'-class ratings.

Lastly, 3M is not out of the woods on PFAS by any measure. Fairly or unfairly, various governments worldwide are going to take many billions of dollars out of 3M for damages.

As I've said before, I sincerely hope 3M can pull out of this tail spin. I just don't think it will happen.

If stock price is not the best metric (in the world's most efficient free market economy), what metric would you propose? Is there a better metric?

IMO, Monish left because he got passed over as CEO. He has hit his ceiling at 3M so looking at another way to move up (perhaps ADM offered a better pay package?). The CFO prior to Monish, Nick G, retired after 13+ years of service. 3M's financial health is just fine. A good way to determine financial health is to look at its credit rating. 3M is rated BBB+ which is better than companies like General Mills, Dow Chemical, Ford, AT&T, etc.

No question 3M can be better, but it is a far cry from the company it was in 2022-2023 when there was massive layoffs and huge litigations hanging over her head. All I am saying is mother mining is on an upward trajectory, and going up somewhat quickly!!

Think about it. If things were going well for 3M, why would the recent 2 CFOs left within past 5 years? They would know the financial health of the company.

I'm not sold that stock price is the best metric for company performance. I'm old enough to remember Enron.

Everybody has opinions, but the folks on wall street are voting with $$. 3M is near its 52-week high, so more than a few believe that mother mining is on an upward trajectory. The echo chamber on this site clearly contrasts with wall street.

3M is growing once again (still below GDP, but better than in most MR years) and the margins are more of typical 3M. Growing sales, higher margins, 52-week high ... how is that not 3M starting to roar once again?

And by the way, there is near zero chance 3M breaks apart further in BB's tenure. Only way that happens is if the company needs $ for another > $10B legal settlement (which can happen, however unlikely, just not in the next 5-7 years given how fast our court system works).

Saw the note from Procurement chief Kelly about restructuring. Does anyone has rough figures how many were laid off this round?

Inge mortgaged the company to boost the share prices to scare off the activist investors who went after Dow, Dupont, etc. That has been shared already from people in the know who were told by Roman that the "strategy" was make it nearly impossible for activists to raise the cash to force a breakup.

Guess what? The breakup is happening anyway. Brown clearly was brought in to make 3M in to a bunch of 1.0 and 0.5 Ms.

If you have GESPP shares, sell now even if a loss. It's better than the 90 it was earlier.