Great coworkers and pay, but Sofidel messed a good thing up.
Pros
There are some truly talented employees that work hard, and will have your back when the need arises. Some of the leadership (especially those who came from the clearwater days) are phenomenal, and will always at least attempt to do right by the employees, even with the restrictions leadership in Italy put in place. Pay on the production level is great. The schedule isn't so bad either. There is plenty of PTO (if you can get it approved). All-in all, I did enjoy my employment here, and it's a good place to work. I sincerely hope it improves.
Cons
Ever since Sofidel bought Clearwater Paper, it's been a downhill slump. Benefits were cut, benefits costs increased, some just "disappeared" because they "weren't being used enough". This was the excuse for getting rid of paid paternity and maternity leave, and HR legitimately said this in a site-wide meeting. The yearly raise was diminished. During "down days" Clearwater paper used to cater food, now you're only lucky to get something hopefully edible on a holiday. Qualification card (proof of training and skill, used for raises) is clear as mud now for everyone, and the maintenance team has the "goalposts" move on qualification cards on a regular basis. New equipment is installed with little to no training for operators and maintenance. Good luck asking the folks in charge of the new equipment project, they don't know either. Bad leaders within management aren't handled as they should be, and heaven forbid you speak up and those same leaders hear about it; retaliation is alive and well (I can only speak of these things because I'm no longer there). Leadership in Italy makes decisions without taking any local issues into consideration. They took a well-oil money making business and are beginning to run it into the ground. Good luck talking them into spending money on parts to repair equipment, Their preferred vendor for industrial equipment repair parts is Amazon, I genuinely wish I was lying about this. The logistics side is even worse, trucks fill the roads up coming into the plant, when this was once never an issue. Quality control is a joke, Sofidel will send any awful ting out the door, Clearwater never would have been okay with such lack standards. Myself and most other employees are convinced Sofidel just bought Clearwater Paper for the contracts they had, everything else be damned.
