Texas Instruments reviews about "upper management"

mid management is a tight network of old timers. Not much for newer employees

* Since it's the only major semiconductor company in North Texas, a lot of people stick around for decades. They are called lifers. This prevents young, ambitious talent from growing into leadership roles. Not all lifers are bad. A lot have great ideas and a wealth of knowledge. But, there are some lifers that are dead weight and need to be removed to make way for fresh ideas. * Politics and Bureaucracy. It's a big company, so it comes with the territory. But, the combination of the two tends to stifle innovative and creative ideas from ever taking root. * "Old Boy Network": some of the lifers mentioned above have escaped layoffs and have landed cushy roles via the network. They always seem to be one step ahead of strategic shifts and the fallout that ensues. Governing philosophy of these types is to hire capable people below them to do all the work, which frees them up to travel the globe on the company's dime. * Lack of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking. Upper management is dominated by sales and marketing types. Primarily a formulaic, sales-driven approach to things, which is odd for a historically innovative technology company. Not enough engineering thought leaders in upper management, which leads to a lack of inspirational engineering leadership throughout the company.

Training and approval for conference attendance has dropped off in the last 10 years. Company is less focused on experienced engineers.

There has been a 'layoff culture' for so long that even my father (older than I want to admit) heard about this when I was just a little boy living in Dallas and had no idea I'd ever work for TI. Managers are often simply going to toe the company line and won't stand up for what is right or ethical (not talking about ethical practices dealing with customers, rather with employees), Seniority is king, doesn't much matter what you do if you've made it into the structure of the company, even down to the operator level. New ideas are usually squelched as 'that's not the way we do it here'. Hard to make it as a newer employee if your manager and coworkers have been there decades. Upper management is simply unaware of very much that goes on and really couldn't be bothered to remedy it even if they took time to become aware of various situations.

Headquarters in an iffy neighborhood. Typical layoff cycles but worse as company is in Dallas with less hi-tech competitors. So annual reviews feels less competitive.

The office politics and good ole boy networks are everywhere. No upward career path at all if you plan to stay in the company long term. Upper management have no vision longer than a year.

- Difficult to move up the chain because not a lot of roles between lowest employee and CEO, and employees tend to stay long time so they occupy management positions longer - Since employees tend to stay longer and people are well connected, difficult to shake off bad reputation if you are viewed negatively by upper management - Employees are secretly ranked and the how behind the ranking is not shared - Lower salaries and raises compared to other companies - Not a great work-life balance available