Pros
Eastman is a stable, well-established company with strong core businesses and technology platforms. The culture tends to be collaborative and supportive, and team members are typically enjoyable to work with. Opportunities for lateral movement between functions (for example, from engineering to supply chain or procurement).
Cons
In recent years Eastman has put increasing pressure on employees, and people are getting really burnt out. Workload is high and the company is continuing to reduce headcount (combining or eliminating roles, not backfilling when people leave, company-wide layoffs, etc). Current “efficiency and effectiveness” initiative is supposed to create more free time for employees but it’s a joke; impotent at best and counterproductive train wreck at worst. Advancement opportunities are increasingly limited, as leadership roles continue to be consolidated/eliminated AND are most often filled with external hires. A common joke (and sad reality for many stellar performers) is that the only way to get promoted at Eastman is to leave. Institutional knowledge is evaporating as teams are stretched thin and experienced employees resign or retire in frustration. This loss of knowledge and experience is evident in the increasing number of operational issues and inefficiencies across the company. Many employees share grave concerns about the strategic direction of the company and integrity of the leadership team, as they are unwilling to heed the warnings of technical experts and pivot from the disastrous course of action they have committed to, choosing instead to hear what they want to hear and allow catastrophically dysfunctional billion dollar projects to proceed.