Corporate lab groups got whacked today. Sorry to those impacted. Clearly employees are not indispensable.
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Just heard that eight in the Canadian r&D lab are being let go beginning of March.
That su-ks.
If they move on from axing the glass shop to also axing internal machine shops, that removes any faint shred of doubt we might still have about executive stupidity.
The glass shop was such a a great resource! You couldn't buy the stuff they could make, and such good quality work. Wonder about the machine shops now. They made so many custom parts, tools, etc
Glass shop in CRL shut down as part of this reorg. All technicians working there are without a job in about 2 weeks.
This was an invaluable resource for many, esp chemists, at 3M over many years.
Once again peasant class pays dearly for ruling class mismanagement.
@3pcl+1r5Wq9iz
You are aware that CRL is (was) a global lab? It is not about North American jobs. Actually other locations were much more affected by the restructurings.
Especially CRL China which was closed completely at the beginning of Advanced 3M.
The whole restructuring wasn't about eliminating jobs in America and rehiring them abroad.
I am no surprise cuts in corporate labs. There’s no big ideas or projects driving from corporate. All they do is to support division. I think they all should be allocate to divisions head count to make real contributions and growth business
What CRL does even today is way more useful than most middle managers contribute to 3M. Fire them first or tell them to get back to the benches and do something useful.
Two basketball players from Minnesota went to California and found their way to Stanford playing more basketball. They decided to be room mates and continued to play basketball. Then they came back to Minnesota and became the R&D leaders for a large company and what happened then? The large company became small and then?
I'm well aware of what they are doing and, you're right, you didn't use the word unskilled. I'm not sure if you noticed, but that's what the company ends up with when they outsource the jobs of highly skilled technical employees to save money. An incredible amount of knowledge and skill has been lost due to the GSC model and it's a shame. It seems the only people who benefit are the people at the top. The corporation itself certainly isn't and neither are the employees or customers.
I stand by what I said. Working remotely doesn't mean that any schmuck with zero knowledge of how this business operates can log in and perform the job that's needed of them, but that is exactly what they're doing. I can assure you, coming to the office and pretending you're more valuable because of it isn't going to save your job.
I never said unskilled in India. Largest English speaking country in the world with many talented people, and a low cost of living. I hate to see jobs leave North America…..but this has been happening to manufacturing for years, and work your way opens the door for salaried ranks to source employees globally now.
Here is a quote.
The global manufacturing giant 3M Co. announced they are making their fully remote-work policy a permanent feature of employment. The company wants 3M to access a broader global pool of talent, not confined by geographical boundaries.
Link.. https://thinkremote.com/manufacturer-3m-canada-doubles-down-on-remote-work/
At least when corporations manufacture offshore , we have the tool to tariff those goods coming back to North America to help even the playing field.
Sourcing employees globally to perform work in North America……how do you tax that to level the playing field and prevent job losses here in North America?
Jobs in my location have slowly been chopped over the past couple of years. The Canadian head office was sold off and they only retained one floor for meetings.
Sorry to those that got the tap this week in the labs. 25 plus years ago the lab guys were the rock stars to me. Coming out with new products and experiments constantly. Since that time our plant stopped growing and began to shrink due to outsourcing. The lab employees turned to more of a support role of existing products as capital and new products were focused overseas.
So your theory is that since a job can be performed remotely, that means it can be easily outsourced to an unskilled worker in India? That's not quite how it works but I suppose that seems to be the thought process of senior leadership. Maybe you should apply for a leadership position, you seem to have it down!
It is apparent that JB didn’t do anything. Why the heck you need a CTO . All he did is to bring his buddy MK as SVP if CRL( BTW he never did anything good for 3M ) Nepotism?? May be too nice here
I am no surprise cuts in corporate labs. There’s no big ideas or projects driving from corporate. All they do is to support division. I think they all should be allocate to divisions head count to make real contributions and growth business.
Some insider scoop:
CH knew the writing was on the wall. His job was mostly keeping the international labs running for Banovetz, but with international labs on the way to near total shutdown his job was not long for the company.
Most CRL staff were in the office most of the time. If I had to guess a number is would be around three-quarters in the office on any given day. It is sort of hard to do lab work without an actual lab. I don't know about the rest of CRD and their in office percentage.
Why are you shocked? Work your way ….resulting in most to work from home, only gives your manager the evidence that your position can be done remotely. Eventually a low cost employee from a country such as India will replace your position.
3M did this in the manufacturing sector in early 2000’s and accelerated the practice in 2008. North American manufacturing jobs were outsourced to low cost labour countries such as Mexico and China.
Make yourself valuable…..show up onsite…..just my two cents. 32 year vet here who witnessed what corporate America is all about.
These cuts are related to "stranded costs". I feel for those affected, and I truly hoping this means no more layoffs for the next year or more given some divisions actually have reqs.
In CRL affected people are about a dozen. Rest of CRD is affected but to what extent, I don't know.
Recall that Cordell H , VP in CRD, left 3M for Cargill late last year. He was in the know about this reorg and hence his departure on time. His position won't be back filled.
I never quite understood what he did anyway other than running some DEI initiatives, which could have been run by a capable admin assistant. Not sure you needed a VP for that.
Hence for CRL impact is relatively low. However psychological impact is huge ( layoffs every year, no new NPIs in division, zero to little interest in divisions to start something new, resources stretched razor thin etc.). Morale was already down and now it is indescribable.
Meanwhile CTO and other top dogs are concerned why IP stats are going down every year for CRL ?????
Sounds like maybe smaller cuts, but constant and feels like trying to avoid headlines. Hoping it is not like some of the small cuts in the past where small groups cut early in the year then strung along most of the year to help train outsourced replacements. 3M name is already destroyed and small cuts in between big cuts feels like the new norm as spins, divestitures and liquidation takes shape.
Post ID: @1lej+1r5Wq9iz
Can confirm a handful of EHS employees including at least one sr mgr. What could possibly go wrong with stretching safety & compliance resources even thinner?
The “Three Stooges” poster you reference is from the group known as The Potbelly’s. Their goal is to spread disinformation, manipulate the up/down votes, etc. Shameful group.
200 - really ?
We had a layoff in pad 3 months ago and nobody said boo
Howdy, I am your friendly B.Com undergrad executive running the finances.
I just did a bit of house cleaning in CRD ( they were due since everyone needs a bit of tough love once in a while) and looks like people are unhappy and whining big time.
Can someone please explain why we need R&D in 3M. I have been to quite a few lab visits and poster sessions by now, but heck I still don't get why we need any R&D in the first place.
Anyone got a confirmed number yet?
If it is really 200 out of CRD that would be what, a quarter? a third? It would be a very significant cut
If it is really tens of people, still bad for the employees, but not as dramatic.
We've heard just a small number. Heard 10 through one source, half a dozen through another source. No confirmation through management, of course, which is hardly surprising.
It is odd to me that they would choose to lay off such a small number, small enough that it wouldn't really have much effect on the financials of the organization, yet one more solid whack at the group's morale. I predict more small cuts in the future, as they come to grips with the impact of the spin.
I've heard cuts are a great strategy for improving organic growth!
Heard 200 impacted in Corporate R&D were notified yesterday.
Corporate EHS|PS were also impacted. I really worry how the next few years are going to play out
Just a rumor. No layoffs. Don’t worry all jobs are safe.
I'm in CRD and haven't heard any information beyond that layoffs are happening - does anyone know what labs were affected?
The clown who keeps posting those "funny" Larry Moe & Curly posts over and over in every topic thread is so annoying. Probably the same guy whose posts always use those "funny" nicknames for executives. JFC write like an adult, we're trying to have a conversation here.
Why would you follow any of these leadership and high level managers? They do anything to protect there own and preserve the highest paying jobs. What are these a-s clowns going to do when there are barely any people left to make anythong or launch new products. 3M is already at the point when there almost as many managers, psycophants then an actual workforce. No wonder this company is swirling in a drain.
the clowns (all CRL VPs - SVP - JB) who never delivered anything to the growth are perfectly 'safe'
How many impacted from corporate lab?
Sorry to hear that
Major restructuring in CRD. Many people will be affected.
And yes VP,SVP positions are all safe. They always are.
Folks posted last month that there wouldn’t be anymore layoffs. Ridiculous assumption indeed. The slow death continues … get out while there are jobs to go to.