Pros
•Competitive pay and benefits. Quarterly bonuses are nice when they come. •Can build close relationships if your in the main office/salary position. Tight-knit family feel. •Kaizen / Op-Ex events are great if you get chosen to participate in a one. Takes you away from your daily norm and get to meet people outside your department that you normally wouldn’t have.
Cons
•EXTREMELY high turnover. Lost count on the number of operators/welders I seen come and go, this was within my first 5-6months being there... •The hours that the supervisors work are suicide. 12-14 hour days seem to be the norm for them. This doesn’t include working weekends which happens quite often. Have seen several supervisors come and go due to this. •Work conditions on the shop floor is very dreadful. Minor improvements have been done but no where near where it could be. Conditions during the winter and summer months are brutal. •Production seems to be the first, second, and third priority; all the other departments come next (maintenance, materials, quality, etc). “Hitting numbers” I get is essential, but seems to be the only important thing to the managers/corporate office. The problem or challenges of the other departments don’t come to light unless it’s made a negative impact on production (slowed them down), which then gets everyone into “all hands on deck” mode. A lot of fire chasing is done rather then taking the time to prevent fires so to speak. •The old school “it’s my way or the highway” attitude runs deep within most of management. Fear and intimidation is commonly used to get things done. The phrase “if you can’t get it done, we’ll find someone who will..” seems to be normal language. Profanity is used surprisingly a lot in meetings... •The overall morale is quite negative of most people, they are either sad, bitter or depressed about something. I admire the few that stay positive despite the situations. The work can be very stressful and for the most part, USUALLY is...you won’t find many people smiling around here unless it’s Friday... •Comfort zone cripples a lot of good people here. Either the fear of change or lack of succession plan keeps people you see that are capable of so much more but seem to be stuck. •The engineering department is greatly under appreciated.
