Whats your take of what Honeywell has become? We weren't here as employees 100 years ago but how about 30 years ago versus present. Positive or negative comments welcome. It may actually give us a view of what we missed out on and as well, changed for the better.
16 replies (most recent on top)
07/05/2022
My family and I also attended those wonderful Garrett AiResearch Family Christmas Parties at the beautiful and enormous Shrine Auditorium, and they were highpoints of each year.
The whole AiResearch family was invited, the entertainment featured a wide array of variety acts, and holiday musical selections for sing-alongs were included.
Each child went up on the gorgeous stage to receive their goody-filled red mesh Christmas stocking and nicely-wrapped, "age-appropriate" gift.
My family looked forward to this warm and welcoming event every year, and we children each had brand-new dress-up clothes to wear to the marvelous party.
It was clear that the employees and families loved being part of the Garrett family while Cliff Garrett was alive -- and my mechanical engineer father always spoke admiringly and fondly of Cliff, the fellow engineer who hired him straight out of USC.
I remain forever grateful for that so-positive corporate culture and its impact on my childhood expectations.
Daddy was proud to design for Garrett, and I was proud of him and his commitment to honor and quality.
Thanks to each of you for sharing your memories of our childhoods and our parents' careers at AiResearch.
Best wishes to all!
Really? So you think nobody believes their employer gives a shyt about them?
Don't forget this 2019 list that Honeywell was not on (and competitor Garmin was):
https://www.forbes.com/best-large-employers/#14505e75fb3e
As always, reminiscing the years of past conjures feelings of ‘it-was-better-then’ nostalgia as compared to present. As we try hard to hold onto those memories comparisons are quite normal but the sad fact is that times does change and with it the working conditions and expectations changes. It is an unfortunate eventuality but needed change to keep up when Honeywell started to be driven by the insatiable hunger for profits of wall street brokers.
I do not and have not heard of one single company that had their employee actually praising the present in terms of employee benefits or well-being when compared with the yesteryears.
Conclusion: s— it up and get on with it. Its no point thinking back of the old days and ways when we’re all still common salaried employees.
@3xre is probably too young to have worked at a corporation when there was mutual respect. Sadly those days are for the most part gone. It’s all about maximizing profit at the expense of employees and even the country. The same can be said about politics too. It’s now party ahead of country.
@3xre, if those posts disturb you, why do you continue reading them? Let them go, and be at peace. Everyone posting or reading the posts will acknowledge that being an employee is always about the job. Nobody hires on for parties, nor expects parties. I believe your snarky comment demonstrates that you miss the key point which posters are raising. That is, there used to be mutual respect and bilateral loyalty between employees and the company. Employees (and their families) sacrificed for the company, and the company tried to take good care of its employees. Let people experience the catharsis that comes from sharing their experiences with one another, even though you might not have been able to share them. Someday, you'll have yours to share, for these days are the good ole days of tomorrow.
SO SICK OF THE GOOD OL DAYS COMMENTS......
Hello.....this is the company of today. They didn't hire you to a party, they hired you to a job.
What makes you think you "deserve" a party? Talk about "entitlement" you didn't pay for the party, don't expect it. Retire now....old timers are just that.....OLD.
Leaders today don't care about you or the company. It is like a real life version of Shark Tank - show me what you got, if it's good, well then I'm taking it. They just want to use the company, including the workers, to get as rich as they can. They are trying to make deals, where they get a good cut; they could care less if the company fails - as long as they get the cash.
@wyt+16GmGiRO mentioned that we did have a awesome HR department quite true. Again as a child during the 50s and early 60s of a Airesearch employee I attended that annual children's Christmas party. Cliff Garrett would give a speech at the Christmas party usually commenting on milestones reached during the year and how big the Christmas bonus was gonna be. Sadly he passed away in the early/mid 60s.
As another poster mentioned the company took a very serious attitude about helping the less well off people living in the neighbor hoods around the company. Very true. Another reason to feel proud about working there. We had food drives at Thanksgiving and similar adopt a family drives at Christmas. The company even paid OT to the employees that worked on the drives outside of regular business hours.
Retired employee who was part of the company that was headquartered in Minneapolis/ Coon Rapids. Great culture, team building environment. So so very sad to see what it's become.
Don't forget C-sino night, which was very popular. Also open houses. Suggestion program helped helped a lot of people and provided big efficiency gains for the company, big money saver and good for the employees. For the first couple of years I was there they also allowed us to put in for free riides on the company plane to L.A. if they had open seats. You could fly it for free and take your family on vacation there. I flew it once on company business and liked the ATF3 engines they were using at the time, had a lot of power. Also, believe it or not, a truly great HR organization which helped both employees and the company.
On site community college classes which ended up getting me into college,and classes were tuition reimbursed by the company. Great company focused on being the best in the world at their business. I was told that before he retired Cliff Garrett used to shake hands with and thanks every employee at Christmas, and I worked with some folks who remembered that. GREAT company to work for at that time, no where else I would have wanted to work.
In the 1990s, Boeing 777 and 737 hardware and software systems were big drivers in Aero. Everyone worked hard, and there was abundant overtime for all. Engineers got paid for their OT, back then. Honeywell also provided dinners and lunch for teams that worked long hours and weekends. You could call in deliveries from Chino Bandito, or a couple other restaurants, have the food delivered, and sign for it; Honeywell paid the bill. There was an annual family day picnic In April or May which Honeywell provided. You could attend a local water park or amusement center, like Castles and Coasters. Burgers, hot dogs, drinks, and desert were provided, along with entry fee and some game tokens. Everything was free for the day. My kids loved it, and still remember it with great fondness, and they are adults, now. There was also the annual Christmas Disney on Ice show, where kids got stuffed animals, in addition to seeing a great show. Honeywell used to generate a lot of good will with employees and their families while still making a lot of money and being a leader in business and technology.
HBT has turned its back on the North American work force. Looking at the Constant revolving door of leaders and the consolidations that have been going on, it has clearly become a racist organization. If your not from Bangalore you’re career is a dead end.
I can comment on quite a bit of history at Aero in Phx. My father started working at Airesearch in the early 1950s. I was a young child then and joined the company as an employee in 1975 retiring after 39 years in 2014. Believe it or not the company really did care about employees. Many employees knew other employees socially. In fact growing up I knew quite a few of the other employees' kids as we had a lot of social contact in and outside of company sponsored events . Picnics, rodeos, family days at different parks, Christmas party, fishing derbys ( AKA drinking derby LOL) bowling leagues, Golf leagues and I'm sure I probably missed a few events. But you get the picture. Many employees knew many others and a lot had multicipal family members working. there too. It was quite common when job postings went up (pre electronic postings) for employees to ask the hiring supervisor/manager to "look over this application please". Typically from a family member or good friend. It was a real honor to work there then.
It was common for executive leadership say VP level to know by name the majority of people that worked in their organization. So they knew them, maybe some of their family and cared. Back in the 70s if you had 20+ years in it took top leadership to ok a RIF of such a senior employee. If necessary they found you a job. The compensation philosophy was simple. The pay benefit package would always be market leading. And it was! Whatever the typical aerospace firm paid Airesearch/Allied Signal and for a few years as Honeywell paid probably 20% more. We also received additional rewards some quarterly for meeting departmental, organizational and site goals. Did I mention the Christmas bonuses? Nice! In summation: We worked a lot of hours, Had fun for the most part and were well compensated.
Agile cog? The work environment you described almost sounds too good to be true. Truly sad. You pretty much have to sell off your nads or something to even work for a company like that, let alone be able to stay with them. No one stays around for longer than a few years it seems. Very frustrating and confusing. It doesn't ever seem confusing to executives or shareholders though. Perhaps I should apply myself there instead. Seems to be more dignity in playing monopoly with other people's money and hard work than doing any work. Thanks for sharing. Maybe there is hope that there will be some positive change.
The grass is always greener, but the last CEO chose furloughs over rifs where possible during the recession so that we'd come out the other side ready to inovate and grow. This CEO seems to see us as interchangeable "agile" cogs, rif-ing hundreds of years of experience each quarter to make sure our investors make every penny they can now at the expense of our ability to survive when this is over. This company is no longer a sound investment for long term growth.
I made a point to learn our site's history recently. There were good times and bad, but it was a site that at least tried to care about it's people. When I run into elderly former employees, i love hearing about how they used to be treated as people, with compassion. Even ones who were riffed decades ago thought well enough of the company to come back to work for us when things got better. Yes, it was a job, and the company existed to make money, but the employees took pride in the company and the product. Mangement took time to regurally listen to employees and be seen by employees because they came regularly to the sites or were located there to begin with. They still made decissions in the best interest of the company, that's their job, but they were there to see and feel the impact. Now they just hide in the desert and ignore surveys that tell them things they don't want to hear and tell us all to s— it up.
Our site's involvement in our community has shrunk over the decades I've been here. No matter how the local employees tried to keep volunteering days, donation drives, stem outreach going... it seems like the rug kerps getting yanked out from under us by coorperate. Our CEO can sing about the work they're doing in a state we have no history in, but it's at the expense of the communities that built the company over the last century. That hurts.
I honestly love what I do for the company, which is why I've stayed through the eei fiasco, the months of awful bus rides around the protestors, years and years with no raises, decreasing benefits, harassing colleagues, canceled vacations because of cronic understaffing, subpar colleges promoted because of politics not merit... But I've watched how peers are treated better elsewhere during both the good and the bad times, and am realizing that the company i hired into doesn't exist any more, and will never come back under the current leadership.
Do i want to be an interchangable, replaceable, "agile" cog, or a valued technical expert? HON seems to only want the former. I'm tired of fighting to be the later.
Only been with HON since 2009 or so. Ever since then benefits have slowly eroded. First it was the reduced work week for salaried employees. Then they started with furloughs and took away the 401k match.
They partially restored it but started the yearly pay off.
Forgot that we were rewarded with the unlimited vacation.
I think I had two months where I received my agreed to conditions in the last 12 Months.
I suspect they will cancel the match this year and figure out how reduce salaries even further or RIF the remaining employees.
I get the feeling that HON would like to go to a gig model, pay everyone an hourly rate, no benefits. You settle up at the end of the day base upon your accomplishments and submit an invoice for the work. If they need you tomorrow,, they will call you in in the morning.
Your invoice will be net 120 BTW..