Pros
- Good Pay at entry-level manufacturing positions that require minimal work experience. - Accommodating Attendance Policy - Three Stars for the earning potential. As this seems to be diminishing, I consider myself to be quite generous in this regard.
Kontras
- In manufacturing you're required to work most weekends. During peak production this is usually a 12 hour shift. "Forced" overtime is largely unpredictable, making it difficult to plan for activities outside of work. - Lack of incentive. A result of stagnant wages, disintegrating benefits, a hiring process that undermines the culture of the workplace, management "discretion" that supersedes company policy, and the company's uncertain outlook moving forward. - Temp-to-hire service is extremely over-accommodating in regards to who gets hired. This allows poor work ethic to establish grounds as a workplace standard and places unqualified individuals into positions that exceed their abilities. Management's failure to address this issue has displaced a portion of the workload on to other employees. - Management takes an indifferent stance on most employee concerns, asserting a "just do what you're told" mentality. They contort company policies to comply with their own interests practicing what they refer to as "discretion". In some cases management blatantly makes decision and sets standards based on favoritism and relationships they have with certain employees, completely disregarding the accomplishments and work-ethic of the remainder of the employees. - Benefits are unpredictable. Benefits (401k match, pension, health assessment refunds, and profit share bonuses) disappear only to be implemented later on at a less value. - The pay scale is being compressed resulting in cases where a "promotion" does not allow for a wage increase since the employee has exceeded the "base wage" of the position through annual raises at their previous position. This was mitigated by annual raises being granted to only certain employees at less than 1%. A .5% raise can hardly be considered a "cost of living" adjustment by today's standards. - Company's financial future is uncertain and management's lack of transparency does nothing to ensure long-term job security to it's employees. Equipment is failing and the roof leaks. Equipment is rarely replaced or fixed in favor of some shoehorned alternative that serves as a temporary solution. In some cases may introduce safety hazards that are indiscernible to the employees. Management (most of which are less than 10 years from retirement) is aware of these issues and their long-term consequences. There blatant failure to take efforts to resolve such issues is indicative of the fact that the metaphoric ship is sinking and there aren't enough life-boats for everyone. While working for the company is not a downright negative experience, I would definitely not consider this a valid career path from which you will ever be able to retire.