BASF hires a lot of internal candidates (most are engineers) who have zero leadership or people skills. Most are young and like most engineers, think very highly of themselves with big egos. BASF’s model: “No management experience - no problem! “
BASF also a lot of these “development/leadership” programs where the majority are not remotely high potential but someone’s “favorite”.
BASF boats a culture of “speak up” but for many, hotline calls go completely unanswered. The ethics and compliance team handling these cases is a joke. A coworker of mine put in a hotline call and two months later - nothing.
My experience, BASF holds employees accountable, but rarely leaders which was new for me coming here.
For being the largest chemical manufacturer in the world, it is shocking how “mom and pop” most sites are. There is a lot of family and friends working at most sites. As such, favoritism runs rampant.
I never used the word “toxic” to describe a place I worked till I started working for BASF.
One quarter they are rolling out a new pay strategy and “pay for performance” is the motto and within 9 months, performance ratings are eliminated. Every quarter it seems something is changed so there’s no long term consistency with almost anything with is exhausting.
It’s like there is little communication going on between the German headquarters and North America. You’ll find yourself constantly in reactive mode.
In my time at BASF, I have never worked with such incompetent “leaders”. Because they are incompetent and untrained, a lot (not all) use gaslighting and manipulation to “manage”. Most have no business being in their role.
Overall, the worst professional experience I ever encountered. The best takeaway from working here was a lesson in not what to do.
I expect BASF in North America to see some changes over the next few hears with the new CEO.
My best advice, find another place to work. There are not many opportunities opening up in the U.S. except for backfilling - that should tell you something.
