Pros
Many of GE companies are great to work for. GE Capital, Commercial Finance, former VFS (Vendor Financial Services), etc. Others, not so much. I was fortunate that Jack Welch was CEO for approx. 67% of my career with GE. Throughout this era employees BELIEVED in GE Values, embraced fantastic training tools such as Six Sigma, CAP (Change Acceleration Process), Leadership Training. Customer Satisfaction (referring to internal customers..GE Employees who engaged IT Client Services for support) was top priority. Employees/Teams worked in the office..together..engaged everyday with various teams. I loved getting up in the morning and going to work. Goals and Objectives were established during the first quarter of every year based on solid data. Projects/Tasks made sense. If an employee was a top performer there was no doubt she/he was on a solid, very timely career path. to be continued below.
Cons
Then Mr. Welch left. All GE Capital IT employees were transferred to a centralized IT department under GE Corporate for phase one of the OneGE initiative. A centralized IT group serving all GE Verticals. Only a select one or two small GE divisions (small in regards to number of employees, but extremely integral to GE as a whole), Sigal Zarmi, one of the few female CIO's in Corporate America had the vision and foresight and COURAGE to push back. While the rest of GE IT..now Corporate IT..disintegrated quite rapidly with multiple cost cutting initiatives, outsourcing, so many re-orgs and name changes, team changes..impossible to keep count. Morale of the majority of IT personal desperately treaded water but couldn't hold out. It began sinking and continues to sink to this very day. GE Values mean nothing, Spirit letter means nothing. Don't take my word for it..survey Corporate IT employees. Give them the following list of GE Core Values that drive Leadership and employees to excel. *Strong Work Ethic: Valued employees who work hard and work smart *Dependable/Reliable: Take Accountability for the teams they lead or projects they manage *Positive Attitude and Embracing Change *Adaptable and Flexible: Projects don't always go as planned. Adapt, think outside of the box, and motivate your team. Ask them to rate them in order of importance. Also give them an option to rate ALL of them as EQUALLY IMPORTANT. Now lets make a charitable David vs Goliath bet. Me v.s. Glassdoor. $5000 donated to the charity of choice. I will wager that over 94% will select the option that All of them are equally important. It does not matter how many employees actually rate them. My wager? Less than 6% will reply back that the values listed are important but are NOT the GE CORE Values that are critical to the growth and success of General Electric The real GE Values which truly ARE critical when INDIVIDUAL Goals and Objectives are identified in a one one one meeting with a manger. They are the following: External focus Show imagination and courage Drive inclusiveness, Have expertise Clear thinkers Most teams are virtual, in silos, have no idea what related teams are doing. The teams that were outsourced work in sweat shop environments. They are treated as lepers, beaten with a stick, not embraced as teammates. In my last months at GE, after engaging HR and the Ombudsperson because my boss was a bully, a former Army vet who treated employees as if they were in the Army at boot camp, not part of a team. Sticking up for the team who STRONGLY advised me NOT to go to HR as it is the kiss of death and told me flat out they would plead the fifth if approached. They all advised me to shut up, collect the paycheck, pay the bills, and be grateful I have a job. I couldn't do that. I dreaded going to work each day. I was depressed..desperately searched for another job at GE and FOUND a perfect fit. But it was AFTER I went to HR. I was not allowed to move. I was put on a performance plan. When I was informed by my boss that I was being put on a performance plan (even though I achieved ALL my Goals and Objectives along with additional stretch goals) I explained that I needed a change after working for 4 years on a team that was constantly in flux, no stability, four managers in four years...my manager informed me that I COULD interview for the position, saw no reason why I couldn't move but he wanted to discuss it with HR first. End result, I was NOT allowed to interview..was put on a plan. The rest is history. I could literally write a book about Corporate IT. It would be incredibly entertaining. Solidly backup my claims with data. The scandal stories alone would make it a best seller. I decided not too because I am grateful for the fantastic managers I had in my early years. Grateful for the wide skill set I developed in those early years. And my last 4 or 5 years? I was schooled with 500+ examples of how NOT to lead, manage projects, treat people.