AAR reviews

One particular manager is single handedly going to shut down the MRO. All of the good technicians and team leads have fled the company within the last 3 weeks due to his mismanagement. Our planes go out weeks late and when they go out they come back the same day with problems, which are usually unethically and illegally jury-rigged. Pay is very poor for the field. Managers and supervisors seem to be unhinged, emotionally unstable, unpredictable maniacs and are either your best friend or at risk of physically assaulting you at any given time. Verbal abuse is the norm. Forced mandatory overtime and 12 to 14 hour days have burnt out the few people who actually cared about their work. In addition to the Duluth facility losing 20-30 of their best employees of maybe 300 some employees, a handful of career ending injuries and heart attacks have cost even more. I wouldn't be caught dead on an Air Canada or United plane... well... I suppose there is a really good chance I'd be dead if I ever flew on one these disasters.

The company has been around a long time and shows with very archaic management styles. Also in many ways it’s very much an ol’ boys club and if you’re not on the inside you’re likely to be passed around. I’ve heard remarks from upper management that are borderline harassment and unappropriated for a workplace. Employees have been called idiots by management. Titles are thrown around among management. Everyone is a director or VP of something. Employees are expected to work 9 hour days. Even if you have nothing to work on you are expected to stick around. Management is so concerned to see butts in chairs they will ditch out early and come back in or call just to make sure their employees are still in the office. Management has no respect for their employees’ time. Meetings are juggled constantly. Sometimes expecting employees to come in early or stay late then eventually cancelling the meeting all together. Working weekends is also common is some departments. There is a severe lack of leadership. Any true leader either has their authority handcuffed by upper management so they eventually leave or let go. There is so much turnover and restructuring that it's normal to have a new manager at least once a year (I've seen up to 4 times in a single year). There is no employee engagement. There are team members that have very little or nothing to do at times. There is little done to challenge them or help grow their careers. People are brought onboard and then their skills are never fully utilized. Because they deal with government agencies the company has some huge securities in place. It’s above and beyond anything I’ve dealt with to the point where you need to go through the help desk and get manager approval to install anything. Even if it’s critical for your role. Security by obscurity. The company has entrenched themselves in a legacy oracle system. They are so deep in it that it would be too overwhelming to try to modernize it. This coupled with pulling resources from IT causes many headaches in new developments. There is little to no training. The company has online courses you are required to take to cover ethics, and the organization’s history, but not much beyond that. I personally did not receive any training on the industry or on the projects I was working on until I raised a concern. Even then it was well after that knowledge would have been most useful. In my position I’ve seen management treat sub-contractors very rudely. Expectations are unrealistic and when they are not met (not surprisingly) discussions get very heated. Very unprofessional. The company wastes money. They are constantly making new acquisitions and out sourcing projects where they are paying way too much for the final product. The irony is that they could bring those projects in house from the beginning, pay a fraction of the cost, and get a better product. I never understood why they are opposed to investing in their current employees and infrastructure. I saw the negative reviews before joining and thought it would be different for me since I was joining a brand new department. It was not. This is not a good place to build a career, period. Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!