Many of the people I work with hate their jobs but are too scared to quit and have decided to follow the 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't' approach. I find this sad. If you think about it, how much worse can anything outside of 3M be compared to what we have to deal with currently? I was scared as well but once I realized it couldn't get much worse than this, I started looking. I wish more people would do the same thing for their own good.
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"Starting over at ground zero and having to prove yourself all over again when you're already weary from the 3M grind gives one pause. I think it's easier for less senior employees to start over if they're not as entrenched."
This is it. When you're worn down from constant change fatigue, it's hard to envision choosing more change (although, of course staying doesn't mean less change, either). But, yes, everyone I know who's left has not regretted it.
There is a world outside 3M. It includes customers too. There was an old Dilbert Cartton, which featured an engineer contemplating leaving his company. His management told him it was a dangerous world out there. Nonetheless, gathering his pluck he went out and interviewed. The company that he found said "My goodness, you are an engineer? Come right in. Here is a job, a bonus, a car, you get to meet the CEO and you will be valued."
I retired last year, but have to believe 3M Center probably has a lot of open parking spaces, especially on Friday. It wasn't that long ago that if you had a doctors appointment at 8 am and arrived after 9, you parked way out in the boonies.
3M Center is like malls. They used to have packed parking lots where you often had a 7 minute walk just to reach the entrance of a building. Both have seen better days, and with work your way or whatever they call it, you can probably get front row parking if you get to the complex by 730.
Happy to be out of there given the madness but loving the pension.
Re: Yeah, a lot of 3M people have this weird hang up about the world outside of 3M and being afraid to step outside their bubble at 3M Center.
I think the weird hang up for many of the long-timers was the pension. The thought of leaving that security blanket strikes fear into the heart of many. Others are "comfortable" at 3M, have made names for themselves and have solid reputations. Starting over at ground zero and having to prove yourself all over again when you're already weary from the 3M grind gives one pause. I think it's easier for less senior employees to start over if they're not as entrenched. At a certain point though, it is no longer worth it to stay. It is up to each person to decide for themselves when the risk outweighs the benefits. Given how people are dropping like flies lately, lots of them are risk tolerant!
3M had such a great reputation when I was coming our of school in the 1980s. 3M Center was considered a utopia compared to some of the oil companies and GE that routinely went through purges every few years. As a chemical engineer, it was an easy decision. Of course, being stuck in a freezer for 3 months wasn't so great (plus a Halloween blizzard, in case anyone remembers that day) but the pay was very good, GESPP was amazing, benefits were excellent, and the culture pretty open and friendly. Maplewood was even a nice place to live.
That pretty much remained the norm as companies that used to be places for lifetime employment fell victim to wall street mindset of quarterly earnings and started laying off people if the quarter was a disappointment (but not 3M), if only to show WS that it cared more about earnings that employees.
3M was consistently in Fortune's best places to work through the 1990s. Then something happened. That something was the ill-fated decision to bring in a GE superstar (McNerney) to "maximize shareholder value" and the irreversible slide to Hades began. Thankfully, some of us 1980s hires at least got pensions out of this to take to retirement somewhere a lot warmer than the Twin Cities. But what Mike has done to put a ribbon on the Titanic is incredibly sad to see and experience.
3M Center went from being a happy utopia to an abode of passive aggressive hellions. Won't be long before some of those buildings house non profits and maybe even some pot stores.
Yeah, a lot of 3M people have this weird hang up about the world outside of 3M and being afraid to step outside their bubble at 3M Center. It’s partly brainwashing and partly risk aversion. Nobody I know who left 3M regrets it, myself included.