GEA Group reviews

The organization is currently defined by chronic instability. Frequent, overlapping restructures have created a state of permanent transition, leading to a significant loss of institutional knowledge as long-tenured employees are replaced by external hires. Leadership demonstrates a clear disconnect between strategic mandates and operational reality, expecting business continuity while fundamental structures are in flux. Leaders communicate using corporate jargon rather than substantive clarity, leaving teams without clarity. The current culture prioritizes short-term optics and cost-cutting over long-term sustainability. Furthermore, the workload is unsustainable due to lean staffing, with 1 person often managing the responsibilities of multiple roles. Ineffective delegation and a lack of empathy from senior management have resulted in a "top-down" pressure cooker environment with little regard for work-life balance.

The people will keep you here but rarely the leadership. Upper management continues to maintain the positional gap that has existed for decades from one regime to the next. Reorganization is used as the 'patch' for poor decisions in corporate leadership. Employees are smart enough to see that the persistent reorganizations are more trendy and bolster financial numbers more than they are beneficial to the employees. HR seems to have the highest turnover of any department. Sadly they check all the boxes for stereotypical HR always putting the Company above ethics and in some cases violating legal precedent. There is more focus on those who directly "sell" to the customer and less on those who support them. If you are salaried and not in sales or direct customer support then there is no comp time. Watch out for managers who simply don't like someone since without accountability they can and often do make life miserable for an employee. The opportunities for promotion are rare and generally not encouraged unless upper management approaches you first. GEA outsourced their global IT operations to Accenture in India, Philippines, and Romania. IT support is primarily reactive and not proactive. IT seems to have more frequent reorganization than the rest of the company especially every time the German CIO is replaced. Layoffs happen. Layoffs improve financial numbers so a bad outlook is spun positive. The company thrived in 2020 through COVID and later with remote work arrangements. Did they learn of the value of remote/hybrid work arrangements? No. In 2025, as they force a return to an 80% in-office requirement, they are 'releasing' many good employees who don't comply.