One giant dictatorship. Everything is their way or you're out the door, but not really. Bad employees are just recycled and passed off to other departments to become someone else's problem.
Bullying is the biggest problem. People get yelled at, made fun of, berated in front of others and your job will be threatened. I have watched as people have been brought to tears on some days and other days I have personally "gone on a walk" just to keep my sanity. People will constantly throw you under the bus, stab you in the back, take credit for your work, gossip (maliciously) and lie right to your face. And all of this is encouraged. No one is held accountable and often people just shift the blame to someone else. You will be talked down to, bullied and made to feel like you don't belong. It's part of the good ol' boy society here.
Training doesn't exist. You will be thrown into the thick of things and be required to produce instantly. Human Resources is also a joke. They back everything that management says, so the employees have no support system or voice whatsoever. Even with the off-color jokes, the sexual harassment and the constant put downs about sexual orientation, it's a huge surprise that this company hasn't been sued yet. Employees are so scared to even mention the word, "union" because of what they fear their managers will do to them. Management has also made threats that if the employees want a union, they'll shut the door and move the jobs to China. I'm not pro-union but after being here for years, I'm to the point where I feel like I've been beat up so much that I would gladly welcome one and take my chances.
If you are salary, you are expected to work long hours and sometimes taking a lunch is frowned upon. This is a very negative place. People who are positive and enthusiastic are eventually broken down and learn to accept that no effort beyond the bare minimum is the norm. I personally witnessed a person get lectured by her manager for taking her lunch, telling her that she needs to ask to take lunch and she needs to adjust her breaks because everyone else works through them.
Salaries are a huge fallacy. Upper management's salary is among the highest for manufacturing but all other salary personnel is in the bottom 1-5% of their respective fields in the Greater Seattle area. There is no room for prosperity (1-2% raise every year, unless you're "capped" and then you will not receive a raise - this happens often).
This is a career killer in the Aerospace industry. A recruiter has informed me that other Aerospace companies automatically discard a candidate if they see this company on their resume and has informed recruiters to not send anyone who has Vaupell listed on their work history. Instead, recruiters recommend listing Vaupell as "Confidential" due to the negative reputation they have in the industry. I have friends at Boeing and even they laugh when I tell them about working for Vaupell. But the management team at Vaupell lives in their own world and think the opposite, telling people that they are a leader in the industry. I've tried to get out and unfortunately being tied to this company has hurt me during each interview process. Once you're here, you get sucked in and your only hope is to switch to a different industry.
