Middle management and layers were mentioned heavily leading up to cuts at corporate back around April/May/June. This sounded great, but seems like many cuts were to those on the front lines that knew stuff and did things, and there is still too many layers of e-mail sending pacifists, which make daily operations and execution as bad (often worse) than before the cuts. It seems to have missed the target (or intentionally misled what it was) pretty badly. It is done, so how does the company move forward again with so much knowledge lost and hands-off roles kept?
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I am in a Director level position and I bring in about $250 k per year. I have zero direct reports and I am supposed to commercialize a product which has been in development phase for many many years. Of course I contributed zilch towards the technical aspects of the program, but I claim "leadership" when it comes to presenting this technology to the outside world.
My primary job is to make pretty Power Point slides and meet with customers and tell them how cool this new technology is!
Is there another company in the world which is as good !!! Why leave eh ?? Any other questions about my role here !
Interesting enough my division (which is small like >100 people) saw 5 people laid off. 1 was our director, who was replaced by another middle manager in our division. The other 4 were not managers/supervisors, but the ones “in the trenches”. My ex director was the only person I know about in middle management who was actually cut, seems like all the other people who were cut were the worker bees at the bottom of the org chart.
Guess the major cuts will coincide with the hard spin off timeline. That's when they will mask out the headcount reductions.
Layoffs are not done, Corporate staff is cutting to the bone, or people are leaving. Over and out for this 12 year 3Mer tomorrow. Watch your backs folks and I wish ya'all the best!
Upper management needs an army of people to do their horsework.
Middle management happily obliges, while bringing in a hefty salary while doing a cushy job !
Do you mean JG 13 to 17?
Are you sure about that? A T4A is a pretty powerless individual.
Senior Supervisor ( equivalent to T4A ) to Senior Director ( equivalent to T6A)
What job grades or ranges would be considered as middle management in 3M?
I suppose it depends on what "middle management" means to them. Middle managers can be very important to an organization -- translating the executive team's vision to the front line workers and ensuring their teams have the resources to get the job done. Their purpose is not to make power points or excuses. But you need experience and skills to do the job right. Maybe this later wasn't the problem
Honestly, Monish already mentioned ‘slow growth environment’ in reference to 2024, while there is a spin and PFAS exit to execute. I think the path forward looks like using whatever is left for resources, and probably more change, reorgs and restructuring to come; I think there will also be a CEO change as well in 2024. I would expect emails, presentations and buzz words out of corporate- this seems to be what ‘middle management’ will always do for self interest unless there is a culture change that focuses on the customer and execution
I was cut and it seemed scary, but so far it was actually a good experience on the outside. I hope others that been or will be impacted get a similar result. It has only been about six months, but only knowing 3M made it scary at first, but after the transition, it is nice to know that not every experience is like 3M, and there is probably more happiness than you may realize when dysfunction is not the norm
3M is a resume builder built for turnover for newbies, and the remnants of a multi-generational legacy for many clinging to great company that was passed on to them (this group is retiring (or leaving) and there doesn’t appear to be a generation of backfills that stayed). So, many well-earned retirements and 3-5 year employees are what is holding the place together. Unfortunately a lot of knowledge needed to turn 3M around is gone. So turning it around is probably cuts, spins, divestitures and bankrupting what is left. That leaves a lot of timing and some luck to stick it out. I say take what you can in experiences and relationships and move on (they will do it to you if you are still there) - trust and good will are long gone.