I haven’t been here long but I've already noticed I’ve come to another company with a cliques culture. I thought it was only present in much smaller companies, such as the one I left.
Honestly, I was very surprised by that in Pepsico. I thought the culture here was much better. This company, as I imagined it, is a diametric opposite to what I'm experiencing in reality.
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At Frito I am disappointed at - Sharepower ( free stock options gone ) , Commission sales ( gone ) , Accrued sick pay payout end of year ( gone ) , and now frozen pension in 2025 !
How overrated PepsiCo’s innovation and brand building skills are...
- At Frito, we haven’t launched anything truly innovative in over a decade. Just a bunch of flavor extensions. Meanwhile, Marketing thinks they’re this group of brand geniuses. Yet, every successful brand we have was bought from someone else. Every attempt to create a new brand has been an abysmal failure. Geniuses, for sure.
The fact that firing decisions often exclude the POV of the actual manager or even their Sr. Director. The perception of the SVP’s is everything. Lived through a layoff where the SVP and a small number of VP’s made the calls without any input from their team. I must be crazy to think the people most familiar with the work and workers might know best. What do I know?
Point being.. if you want to be successful here, kiss every sr leaders a–. Integrity alone won’t cut it.
Age discrimination.
Ageism, favoritism and the cliques. PepsiCo is extra deceptive in how they carry it out. Of course they cover their a** well when they have their periodic "culls".
Its all who you know and which manager will protect and promote you. R&D for example. I'll always be amazed at the same group of protected, arrogant long time product developers which they keep around. Especially when all that gets turned out are regurgitations of the same old stuff. If ever there is a group that needs to be refreshed, its product development.
The lack of honesty and transparency about everything. Even my managers were always blindsided by every set of layoffs. They were left scrambling to meet deadlines with suddenly diminished workforce EVERY SINGLE YEAR. The senior dork management designed every department to fail so it could be outsourced and they could get their yearly "goodest boy" cookie.
The discrimination. I was on a call with some senior directors sometime between 2017-2018 and they completely ruled out working with someone just because they had had mental health issues in their past and were quite open about it.
Senior directors not knowing is a flat out lie. When I was “outsourced” in 2019 they had the positing up THAT DAY. It normally takes up to a week to have the posting active so the “caring” Sr. Director was well aware way in advance. And he/she acted so sorry. Liars, frauds, cheats and cowards.
The outright dishonesty of senior directors. They constantly claimed they had no idea who gets terminated until it happens. That’s not only a lie, it’s illegal. Who was making these decisions if that was the case? Was it people who had no idea what people’s roles were or their performance. When challenged they will admit these approvals were done weeks before terminations. Let’s be honest, people are selected based on age, income and demographic. They are still walking around saying they don’t know who will be cut. If so, how is it they keep moving into protected roles just before the cuts. So sad.
The favoritism and lack of equal opportunities for promotion. Most things are about "who you know" and leaders are highly subjective, giving promotions out to people they favor. The other challenge are the diversity requirements, wherein 2021 objectives in my group have specific goals around hiring promoting "diverse candidates", including women, blacks and hispanics. Nothing about qualifications or competency, and we've seen that borne out, where a double-minority woman with 0 years of experience in an area is promoted over a white male with 15.
It's terrible. Get out before you're laid off.
The college hire program is a morale k–ler. The company also wants to to be Social Justice Warriors, and take pride in not treating employees equally.
The blatant double standards and hypocrisy
The products are perfect. Exactly the right amount of each ingredient purchased at prices sufficient to barely keep vendors in business. No one is interested in your new idea. They want you to get along and not make waves.
Sugar water in a can is marketing.
Promotions are not fair. Being smart or experienced makes no difference here. Nepotism, youth and tattling on your co-workers will get you far. Notice how it is always the same people over and over moving around?