process engineer

chemical operator

senior process engineer

customer service representative

tanker driver

Evonik

I was contacted by a contract company to work as an ESHS librarian at Evonik. I was told by the contract company that I would be contract for 3 to 4 months, and then be hired.

From the date of my interview to the day that my employment ended, I was there for exactly three years and four months. It was necessary for me to work 40 hours to complete all of the tasks in my job. I was repeatedly told over the three years and four months that I was employed there, that my job was viewed as not worth benefits. 

No 401(k) match, no bonuses, no Christmas party, no on-site gym use, no company emails, no health insurance, no dental or vision insurance, no life insurance, nothing. None of the bare minimum things given to each full-time employee who works there.

I really, really enjoyed working with my direct manager. She went above and beyond to see that I could receive what she was able to secure for me. I have no complaints about working with her. 

The day-to-day job and people I worked with I enjoyed, based on my skill set, and the mostly data analytical tasks I was doing. Unfortunately, Evonik refused to provide me with the bare minimum benefits, even though I had worked 40 hours a week, for over 3.25 years.

As a contract employee, you are made to carry around a different badge with a yellow caution stripe on it that isn’t included on the Evonik employee badges. Your name isn’t shown on the TV screens as a new hire throughout the site when you start. You have a different email address than full-time Evonik employees, and you have, “External,” next to your name, at all times while using Teams, for everyone to see, every time you chat, or enter a meeting, or even work by yourself. 

Evonik makes sure there is always a CONSTANT reminder, in your face, of how you are not included, and it makes you feel less than. It’s like carrying around the scarlet letter. And as time goes by, and you have these reminders thrown in your face over and over, the frustration builds until you boil over and question why you’re even wasting your time.

Manage and direct daily operations of production. Coordinate all scheduling of shifts and personnel for a 3 shift daily system, 5 days a week, currently
	Prepare and organize 7-8 fulltime reports that operate a reactor and mixing and packaging area
	Operate reactor as needed, so no downtime for production goes against OEE.
	Input all Process orders into SAP and see the products through by checking each phase of the production process
	Perform interviewing and hiring of all contractor and Evonik employee, production personnel
	Develop monthly and weekly reports for the Plant Manager and Quality Manager, for production numbers and personnel issues
	Maintain a safe and injury free work environment for all personnel and consistently enhance the plant for safety and for production
	Observe and Maintain Best Practice Standards in Quality and EHS.
	Develop PSM and other plant procedures and enforce the same.
	Helped to implement all facets of production and SAP, here at the Portland site.
	Supervise and maintain the production site in all quality and maintenance related shutdowns/projects.

Work-life balance
If your hours are lower than anyone, you will be forced overtime. There is lots of strategy that is used by experienced employees to control when to work and when to take vacation.
If you don’t want to work. Turn off your phone to not get called.

Pay & benefits
Total rewards are great for both contractors and Evonik, though Evonik employees get generous benefits such as tuition, reward cards, free medical checkups and flu shots, gym discounts, and matching 401k and stocks

Job security and advancement
The lab will train its own. This creates its own culture. There is no tests that involve complex training so there is no training required with the exception of general safety meetings and first responder training.

Management
Departmental managers are great. Plant managers and high level are terrible. Management has silo-ed departments but lower level employees such as operators and quality have strong mutual trust between each other.

Culture
Fatigued, micromanaged by the plant manager at times, the frequency of tests places lots of physical demand on employees.

Overall
The pay matches the job tasks. Griping occurs often but we all have families to feed. Communication and trust can always improve. If a lab offers budget pay, they get budget work.

Yes, I am very much enjoyed my lab technician position here working with managers and co-workers well.  I have worked here @ Huels, Degussa, and Evonik for a total of 26 years.  Mostly I worked in our Acrylic Monomers group for 17 years at Piscataway site in NJ.  I have a good understanding and practical lab experiences in the solution polymerization and emulsion polymerization using various methacrylate monomers to support our applications especially for automotive coatings (clear coat resins) business.  My character is good, polite, loyal and honest as a employee should be and I learned to work hard to overcome difficulties to complete tasks under supervision's instruction.  I search for a good fit for an open R & D lab tech position that can provide good experiences in sampling outside, testing samples in the laboratory, R & D work is most favorable.  Your consideration and help are greatly appreciated.

Evonik was a wonderful place to work. I started in 1999 and worked for the best group on site. My supervisor and my entire group was absolutely good to me. We were like a family and looked out for each other. There was stressful times but I still enjoyed my job. As long as you did your job there were no problems.  No one looked over your shoulder. You knew what your task was and you did it. When I retired even the others that I worked with over the years and had left Evonik were there for me. Even the very first boss I had in 1999 when I started was there. I loved working there and they loved me.  I would still be there today if my Mother hadn't needed me more. Recommend Evonik to anyone looking for a job. Just to end this when my Mother passed away every one in my main group was there for me. I did not expect that because I was no longer there.  So I guess I must have been a great employee.  Loyal, dependable and dedicated.

This company is actually the agglomeration of many different companies that have been acquired over decades.  The culture of the group with whom you work will be very different from the culture in other businesses and regions. Some businesses are quite open to working as a global business (true MNC) while others prefer all decision-making to be made in Germany with R&D outside of Germany only being "contracted."  Even within a business line, the site location matters a great deal; some sites are very relaxed and have supportive and collaborative colleagues, while other sites are more complicated politically.  Across the board, there are highly skilled, extremely intelligent chemists within this company.  If you can find them and get time with them, you can learn a great deal.

When Evonik acquired our company in January 2017 there was a warm welcome, the promise of jobs for all and an overall impression of honesty and transparency.  My expectations were high, but the reality has been disappointing.  

Training was poorly planned, inadequate and disjointed.  Migration of data from one system to the other has been quite messy and has resulted in excessive work hours for many.   The general consensus is that those at the top are focused only on $ and are oblivious to or simply don't care about the impact on the people tasked with clean-up.  Decision-making is unfortunately multi-layered and overcomplicates the process, making the company less nimble and efficient.

Competitive salaries and benefits and talented global colleagues are a huge plus, but it does not make up for much of the rest.

I really enjoyed my time at Evonik as an engineering intern. Evonik has a serious stance on safety, which made me feel good working there and contributing to the company. The managers were very intelligent and respectful, I appreciated that they wanted to get to know me personally and help me better understand the work and engineering concepts I was learning. Evonik paid very well for being an intern, I felt, and gave me paid time off just like a regular employee. I got to work on very interesting projects while at Evonik and interact with many very kind and smart engineers. This experience at Evonik helped solidify my desire to work as an engineer long-term and to aspire to become as knowledgeable the engineers here. Thank you for the experience.

The organization lacks clear direction and consistent leadership, which creates ongoing confusion at both strategic and operational levels. There is a significant communication gap between executive leadership and plant operations, resulting in misaligned priorities and unrealistic expectations. Goals and objectives are often unattainable due to insufficient resources and limited engagement from executive leadership. While employee feedback and input are frequently requested, concerns and suggestions are rarely acknowledged or acted upon, leading to frustration and disengagement. Overall, the lack of follow through, support, and transparent communication makes it difficult for teams to succeed and sustain performance.

A typical day at work here consists of taking samples, troubleshooting and fixing broken equipment, cleaning up and making rounds. I've learned (as far as the people aspect) here that no matter where you go, there will always be inequality between how the workers are treated. I've also learned about and how to work on different equipment that I've never been exposed to. I also learned how to diagnose different issues and what makes the the place operate the way it does. My co-workers generally have all the same attitudes and we work as a team most of the time. That does not apply to all shifts, though. The hardest pat of the job, judging from what I see go on around me, is moving up. The most enjoyable part of the job is working with people who know how to enjoy work even when things arent going so well.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Process engineer 1 salary reported	$117,950 per year
Chemical operator 4 salaries reported	$28.86 per hour
Senior process engineer 1 salary reported	$140,344 per year
Customer service representative 8 salaries reported	$80,275 per year
Tanker driver 4 salaries reported	$100,000 per year

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