Prepare to live at your plant as an hourly technician.
Pros
They do pay well for an hourly technician. The medical has gotten a bit worse since I've been here but is still better than a lot of what is available today. The profit sharing is nice, if less than what the people who started prior to 2005 receive.
Cons
A couple things here. First off and most importantly, the rotating shifts are horrible. There is no reason for them. Other than to keep employees from more easily advancing their education or seeking other employment opportunities. They justify it as having interaction with management. If that is important make managers rotate as well. They are not nearly as important to the day to day running of a manufacturing facility than the technicians are. As a matter of fact, there are probably at least 50% too many managers at this site. This leads to an even larger bureaucracy that makes the unneeded layers of said managers constantly trying to justify their jobs. We all realize we are just tools for managers to get their next promotion. Also, they try to sound incredibly earnest and attempt to convey that they are concerned with our safety while at the same time refusing to even have a a discussion involving rotating shifts and excessive over time. Just because we don't possess engineering degrees doesn't mean we are stupid. Please do not insult our intelligence, it is beneath both sides. Work/life balance is non-existent. There is also to much of a blanket over reaction to everything that happens here regardless of it being safety, quality or anything else. Instead of addressing the issue with those directly involved we have to pull the entire site/department or whatever into the situation to "ensure it never happens again". Here is the problem, you're dealing with equipment designed by human beings and other human beings operating it. There is not a possibility of never having an issue. If NASA has shuttles blow up what is the likelihood of us not having no one ever screw up putting a soap in a bottle? Pretty much not possible and it is arrogant presumption to expect otherwise. The real reason behind all of this is that it takes bonus money out of managers pockets and makes it harder for them to get their next promotion. End of story. There is a reason managers rotate to different sites or roles every 3 years or so. It is so they can step on whoever for whatever they need and not have to face those people in the long term. Again, please do not insult our intelligence by assuming we're too stupid to figure this out.
