Pros
In the time I've been with Eaton, it's gone from a 7 billion dollar company to a 21 billion dollar company. Sandy Cutler and the executive leadership have a proven track record of knowing which areas of the business to focus on in order to maximize growth. Eaton has moved away from trucks and automotive in order to focus on electrical products and services, data centers, and energy efficiency. All companies will claim to be honest and ethical, but Eaton is dead serious about this. The corporate culture is one of integrity and respect. If you think you can get ahead by lying and treating people poorly, think again. Eaton will not tolerate bullying and you will be terminated. Even when disagreements arise, I've never felt disrespected by any manager or coworker. You will be treated like a responsible adult, and you won't be micro-managed. Depending on your job responsibilities, you may be allowed to work from home at times. There is more of an emphasis on getting the work done, and less of an emphasis on where or when you do it. Work-life balance has always been pretty good, but you can expect longer hours if you want to move into upper management positions. The company is very charitable, and will encourage employees to donate time and money. They will match employee donations to approved charities. In some cases, I've been able to get the day off to participate in volunteer work. It really depends on your family situation, but benefits are average to good. They are trying to move everyone into a high-deductible health plan, something that can save you money if you can anticipate your medical needs ahead of time and have the savings to cover the full cost of office visits and prescriptions until you hit the out of pocket maximum. Eaton has done a very good job of being creative in an attempt to keep everyone healthy. From healthier foods in the cafeteria and vending machines, to on-site gyms, fitness classes, and farmers markets, they've really gone out of their way to make employees more aware of the role they play in keeping healthcare costs down.
Cons
The company structure is full of middle managers, and getting anything done requires multiple levels of approval. At any time, one manager can change his mind about something and put an entire project in limbo. If a project requires a large capital appropriation, expect that process to take a year or more. I've seen cases in which it took so long to get going on a project that the initial idea had to be scrapped because the underlying technology had become obsolete by the time funding was approved. Even when no money is necessary for a project, the company is very slow and conservative. If our competition ever figures out how to move more quickly, we'll be in serious trouble. For certain functions (engineering and IT in particular), Eaton will try to save a few bucks by hiring in India. Some of this is out of necessity, we are a global company with a large presence in that part of the world, and American workers don't like getting calls in the middle of the night when something goes wrong over there. But in other cases, they've reviewed the cost of American workers and have chosen foreign contractors instead. The turnover rate is very high in India, and I know of several examples where we've dedicated a resource to training employees in India for months at a time, only to have these employees leave for another job as soon as their training is finished. The skill levels of these workers ranges from totally incompetent to decent, but even the best ones I've worked with do not have the skills of the typical domestic candidate. They might cost less, but not when you consider that they take months to complete a project that should take weeks. Management needs to look at opportunity cost, not just financial cost. I've also received a lot of negative feedback from coworkers outside my group, who are used to calling me for help and now have to call India.
