No work life balance – Upper management stressed the importance of work life balance, yet they heaped project upon project with unrealistic, short deadlines. Before you could even move forward on any work, you would be pulled away to address some new unrelated emergency. Then you would often be required to drop everything to attend meeting upon meeting, and conference calls (including calls to discuss the topic for the next meeting). Before a project could be fully completed, management would roll out another project with another unrealistic deadline resulting in unfinished work. To add insult to injury, any manager with a CDL was needed to cover deliveries due to the high driver turnover rate and frequent callouts. When you would return from covering a route, your whole day of incomplete work was there waiting for you. Then, when you thought you might catch up, they would do a re-organization. If you didn’t work 70+ hours a week, you would quickly fall behind and if you even considered reducing the week to 40 or 45 hours to spend time with your family, there were guaranteed consequences. The same upper management that preached about work life balance would demand to know why tasks weren’t completed.
Stress – The phone rang day and night with employees calling out sick at 2 AM and employees calling to complain about their route at 7 PM knowing you were awake since 2 AM that day. Managers would call day and night to complain that a merchandiser or driver didn’t fill something properly or didn’t remove out of date products. On 3 or 4 occasions, I received work related phone calls / text messages from over-zealous managers when they knew I was on vacation! Vacations were like a punishment because you would come back to hundreds of emails, voice mails and piles of unfinished and new work. I have more gray hair and the stress probably took years off of my life.
Failure to acknowledge talent – Many of the most dedicated people in lower management, those who achieve results through hard work and long hours, are not recognized or well compensated. Supervisors are salaried and, whether they work 40 or 70+ hours, they only get paid for 40. The salaries are low compared to other industries and increases are well below the rate of inflation. The only way to see more than 2% or 3% is to get promoted and that usually only happens when you are in tight with the right people, or the owners. I worked many hours away from my family (lost of time and experiences that I’ll never, ever get back) trying to make an impression on upper management, then only to be passed over on several occasions by candidates with less experience or qualifications. Companies like this often lose their best talent and are perpetually trying to run a business with inexperience and endless trainees.
CDL Driver turnover – It is no mystery there is frequent driver turnover in this business. New drivers start out without comprehending the long and labor-intensive type of work expected of them. The typical day for a driver starts very early and begins with stress as they learn they have 20+ stops, many with time window restrictions. There are delays and, in order to avoid refusals, other stops need to be moved out of the way and completed out of order. The driver must put the product on the shelves at many stops and work at a fast, steady pace for up to 14 hours. With callouts and turnover, drivers often work 60 hours per week and on weekends. At this pace, accidents happen, and drivers are held accountable. They do not earn as much as other drivers in other industries and, as a result, their attendance suffers, and they quit only after a few months. This puts additional strain on their peers and managers alike.
Although many of this reflects on experiences at TCCC and its subsidiary companies, it also reveals wholistic facts about employment in the food and beverage business. I’m posting this to inform anyone who might consider employment in this industry so they can avoid the same mistakes I made. Plan on not seeing much of your family, plan on being stressed out, plan on never completing home projects, and plan on being a lot less happy and less healthy. You will be held accountable for things out of your control and you will be a miserable, mean-spirited person. Oh, and to add to your stress, you will also barely earn enough to make ends meet and will likely fall into some form of financial debt. Otherwise, if you like what you see above, then this is the right employment choice for you.
