Pros
Location is easy to access and near many local restaurants, pay and hours are reasonable, nice people, an intelligent workforce, parking, bike lockers. The current CEO has good intentions but lacks the experience and stomach to make the necessary personnel changes at an executive level.
Cons
In recent years the Portland office has begun to feel like a sinking ship. Major product patents are expiring and our leadership has failed to guide the development of new products and business transformations that are needed/valued in the marketplace- significantly compromising ESCO's ability to remain competitive over the long term. Over the last 12-18 months, talented people have been leaving the company at an alarming rate. Leadership has grown arrogant and out-of-touch with reality. Nepotism is rife - an absurd number of managers' and executives' children and relatives are hired and promoted ahead of others, regardless of experience or ability. Constant reshuffling of managers/executives has become the default smokescreen to dodge executive accountability and avoid the fundamental problems within the leadership team. There continues to be a lack of accountability at an executive level - despite the company strategies and countless reorganizations failing to gain traction, the same group of under-performing and inexperienced executives remain at the helm. The bulk of the Board of Directors is too inexperienced to be leading a company of this size and global footprint. Unreasonable financial targets make bonuses unlikely. Product innovations have been minor and uninspiring in recent years, with engineering stuck merely developing new versions of old product features rather than delivering meaningful value to customers. Most critically, employee development is an elusive and exclusive club - there is no transparent process, information, or communications regarding options or guidelines for employees seeking training and individual career development. Unless they wish to play the political games, the good people are left with nowhere to go. The Human Resources and 'Organizational Effectiveness' department is not being held accountable - or responding appropriately - to the company's recent dismal performance in the "Great Place to Work Survey. "