I worked for a Fortune 100 corporation that employed around 80,000 employees world wide and there was no union. The table or organization was incredibly flat — the goal was no more than four pay grades between the CEO and the lowest pay grade employee. Needless to say the pay range within a pay grade was wide — very wide. The open door policy extended all the way up to the CEO but seldom ever needed to get that far to get a mutually satisfactory settlement. The Executive Dining Room was the employee cafeteria and there were no carpets on the floor in the executive suite until the engineering areas were carpeted (as a dust control measure). The CEO had essentially the same benefits package as every other employee except bigger stock options. Almost all of senior management came up through the engineering ranks. The division I was in took pride in delivering more than the customer asked for, on schedule and under budget. (No we didn't always make it but that was the goal.)
It was a great place to work and our accomplishments were without parallel. The company took pride in giving workers all the rope they needed to either succeed — or fail. That lasted through three generations of management and into the fourth. Some where along the way the Board of Directors decided their customer was Wall Street, not the person who bought our product. Eventually nearly ⅔ of us were sold off to other companies - a substantial number took early retirement. I understand it is still a good company to work for but not the great employer it once was. My point is a really big company can be a really good place to work if, and kit is a big IF, Management does not isolate themselves from the rest of the company.
