Caterpillar reviews

Let me say I'm writing this from what would be a middle management perspective. I started entry level and have worked my way into a global team level. So, when I started with CAT about a decade ago, one of the draws was the hybrid schedule. Two days from home, three in the office. CAT is doing away completely with that model as of June 2025 via the executive office. Additionally, leadership has clearly demonstrated through actions that they don't care about the employees anymore, only the bottom dollar. Employees are regularly screwed on job performance reviews because they can only give out so many "above expectations," per group. I exceeded ever only of my goals by more than double this year, and got a "met expectations," because our group didn't have enough to give out. The company has also been screwing employees on STIP bonuses (yearly bonus) by cutting STIP factors dramatically when time comes to pay out. Jobs are outsourcing rapidly to Brazil, Mexico, and India, while US based employees are expected to pick up the slack those moves create, AND to fix all the problems created by inexperienced offshore resources. You constantly live in fear of "Will I have a job next week," since leadership regularly have program directives like "Project Dolphin," (real thing) that aims at reducing headcount, regardless of how many people might actually be needed. I watched them a month ago, just out of nowhere, cut a guy on his 20th service anniversary. What a reward for 20 years of service. More evidence that the company doesn't care is seen in the day-to-day, They can't be bothered to provide free food, coffee, or any small amenities in the office. In fact, they go so far as to way over-charge for these things. The offices are lifeless and dull with an extremely corporate feeling. Huddle rooms and conference rooms are a joke with "calling from a bathroom stall," vibe and only offering 1/2 the tech you need, forcing many to have meetings from their noisy desks. The expectations are to give your life to them, be at their call at all hours, and they return that by trying to find ways to get rid of you for a cheaper option. Caterpillar used to have a good culture and you felt valued. I strongly encourage folks to stay clear of this one. I hope the new CEO changes that direction, but from what I've seen from him so far, I'm not holding my breath.

Workload is not distributed equally across groups. Some have multiple projects and NPI going at once while others sit with one project per year. For a company who supposedly champions work-life balance, the amount of micromanagement and expectations to be available after hours does not reflect that. The "Executive Office" (whatever that means) has made a unilateral edict to return to the office full time with no exceptions. Citing "collaboration" and "we are always better together" even though most of us don't work with groups in our office locations and have to have virtual meetings most of the time. Management refuses to acknowledge that productivity and morale was improved when there was a work from home and hybrid work model, in some cases almost a 50% productivity improvement. Who you know seems to be more important than your skills and experience when selecting candidates for positions. Seems that if you haven't played the office politics game you have no ability to move up in the company. Global service specifically has made the decision that they will not be doing any more promotions in place. Management has decided that rather than encouraging workers to improve in their current positions and grow in their abilities, they want us to move on to different positions across different areas of the company. This decision seems to be short sighted and has already resulted in lose of good competent workers with no backfill, causing higher stress and workload on those who haven't left yet.