Job Title: Director
Location: Arizona
Submitted on: 04-Sep-03
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The company that came out of the merger between AlliedSignal and
Honeywell is very much a productivity/efficiency dominated one - more
to the old AlliedSignal side (I understand old Honeywell was more a
technology oriented culture). What this means is that advancement and
recognition comes from finding means to cut costs and/or drive
quarterly financial performance. Six Sigma is something of a dogmatic
religion in the company. There is a huge and costly infrastructure
built up around it, and all employees are driven to become certified -
yet the "savings" from Six Sigma projects are seldom formally verified,
and executives are offered an express blackbelt program which looks an
awful lot like a mail order college degree.
Having started at Corporate and moved into the Business Units, I can
say there is a definite stratification of employees within the
corporation with employees from the old AlliedSignal Aerospace unit the
most valued (outside of Corporate Execs), followed by AlliedSignal
Transportation Systems, Honeywell Aerospace, Allied Signal Specialty
Materials, Honeywell Automation and Control, Corporate non-executives,
International non-executives, and all others. Outsiders can get hired
in at high levels and promoted quickly at the less valued units; it is
rare to impossible at the three most favored units. Promotion from
within occurs only up to the SBU President level - recall that the last
3 Honeywell/AlliedSignal CEOs have been brought in from other companies
(GE, old Honeywell, and TRW).
Most of the fast track employees at Honeywell are under 45, work an
incredible number of hours per week (60-80), travel constantly, carry
around numerous communication devices to stay connected to the office,
and relocate about every two years - all of which is next to impossible
in a two career couple with kids, so most either have stay at home
spouses or no kids. It is quite possible to build a long professional
career with Honeywell staying in a single location, working under 50
hours per week and keeping your business and personal time separated -
just don't expect to move into the upper echelons. Speaking of upper
echelons, Honeywell is very much chain of command driven. Few, if any,
decisions are made below the Vice President level - the lower level
professionals and execs gather the case and make the recommendation,
but virtually any decision will require at least a VP check off.
Spending limits below the VP level reinforce this by assuring that
virtually no money can be committed at the lower levels.
At my Honeywell location, and at every one I've been to other than the
Corporate office, the dress code is business casual - golf shirts and
khakis. (If Six Sigma is the dogma at Honeywell, golf is the true
religion - virtually everyone plays.) So long as you are not desiring
the fast track, Honeywell is quite flexible with work hours - work at
home, come in at noon, leave at 2, all are fine for professional
employees so long as you make the occasional office appearance and
accomplish your objectives. Benefits are reasonably good, pretty
standard big company fare. Pay can be exceptional - accomplish your
objectives and switch jobs every few years and your pay can easily
escalate at over 10% per year. If you make it with Honeywell for 8
years or more, I can almost promise you'll be making at least 15% over
local market for your job.
Lasting 8 years with Honeywell can be a challenge because Honeywell is
ruthless with layoffs which occur every Fall. Executives deal in a
massively political world where a single change near the top will
result in 50+% turnover at the VP and Director level at a given
location. For those of us not at that level, the annual layoff means we
have to consistently try and drive our work toward the most visible and
profitable business lines, while avoiding any overt political faux
pas. The annual layoff also means you are very much in competition
with the folks you work with and that the back-biting grows to an
almost fever pitch just ahead of the layoff.
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