Plant is 60 km away from the main city (where most engineers live), so commuting time is an issue. Forget work-life balance. You are expected to work for long hours. The facility is old. Renewal of critical equipment is hindered by excessive bureaucracy; don't expect this to change soon. Every two years or so a new management fad comes in (six sigma, operational excellence, lean, 5's, you name it) and this takes its toll on your productivity.
Horrible working environment with backstabbing, toxic people and incompetent leadership in middle-management. No coaching or feedback, aside from annual performance reviews forcing you to fit into a preset normal distribution. If you are a top performer and can work on yourown, there are chances that you will be ignored by your busy boss. Few chances for growth and development: you may stay for 15 or more years in the same position.
Terrible, nonefficient production planning. No support from the local H.R. department - if you're in trouble with your working buddies, you're on your own. If you complain about an incompetent manager blocking everybody else's job, then sit and wait: nothing will happen. High levels of stress because there is no common direction to follow and everyone is putting out fires instead of working together with a common objective.
Most valuable people has been fired or is retired, leading to a lack of know-how. In the old Ciba times we all new whom to ask, we had experts, we had knowledgable people, we had support from Basel, but this is gone now. Indifference from upper management: in seven years, the CEO never visited the site.
