Pros
There were many wonderful, hard working folks I met while working at ADM. By now, most have moved on to better opportunities at other companies or have been affected by the RIF in February 2012. ADM was known for its dedication to employees, but as the Andreas family has moved on, the dedication to employees has disappeared. In the past, professionals would start and retire their careers at ADM due to the stability and family-like environment; therefore, employees were proud to work at ADM. I hope for the greater good and sake of the company that the stability and commitment to hard working employees will return soon. With good internal connections, there is ability to move cross-departmentally and change careers.
Cons
Unfair compensation (especially for women), poor work-life balance, long hours for exempt employees, no development plans for the majority (a select few are chosen for management development programs but there is no set plan and much uncertainty so trainees leave before or shortly after completing the program), no promotion track, subjective ratings/reviews (even if a professional completes all goals and has gone above expectations, the employee is rated as "meets" at the most), very low culture or diversity, located in the middle of nowhere, high turnover, corrupt acts created mandatory trainings and tests for all employees - which takes much time out of one's work day, too many initiatives that are not related to the job are enforced (much of the working day is spent on initiatives and after hours may be spent on catching up on the day work), unbalance of workload (there are many folks who cruise and waste time while other hard working professionals pick up the slack, especially middle management - who are known as "working managers" – has to do their direct report's work and their own work), reported harassment and discrimination cases may be reviewed but are rarely in the favor of the plaintiff and result in an unjust conclusion (many times the employee that was harassed or discriminated against was later demoted, asked to seek external opportunities, or nothing was done to resolve the issue), sr. management continues to shift from their ever changing plans, very unstable with no clear direction or focus, always cost cutting and then spending money where there are no returns, the service groups are treated poorly compared to commercial or profit centers, stock price continues to slip even with sr. management's initiatives (RIF, cost cutting contests, etc...), and downsizing continues to happen today.
