After previous mill experience, where do I even start?
I started as a temp hire here, and almost IMMEDIATELY regretted it,
The first week I started, the place was a disaster, a complete mess. Employees where expected to work 75+ hours a week on the floor, and from my experience, I hardly could even get lunch breaks at all (is that even legal?) This was the set expectation.
A huge thing about this company, ( a world wide, "huge and capable") company, is that the hard working workers, on the concrete floor, were absolutely, in no such regard, not rewarded, or compensated, for their hard sacrifices they made for this company, even with promised "spot awards" for full weekend work, missing time with their family completely.
The atmosphere was very exhausting. Several coworkers shared how difficult it was to maintain any sense of work-life balance, and it was clear that the strain affected people personally.
Leadership marketed themselves as supportive in team meetings, but was absolutely minimal at action. Significant mill & HUGE mill inefficiencies (of which I've NEVER, seen before) issues would go unanswered (for weeks, months, or just ignored) leading to frustrated workers, downtime, and customers with unnecessary escalations.
Job stations have gone from 2-3 men crews all down to one, due to upper management wanting specified jobs stations to be so, only worried a out numbers, leading to humongous safety concerns for us people on the floor.
Meanwhile upper management never left they're air conditioned floor to walk down the mill, get an eye perspective on what really was going on, and how this creates a serious unsafe work conditioning by overwhelming a single person doing the job of 4 people.
Requests for guidance were often redirected to peers rather than addressed by management. While positive feedback was occasionally given about handling pressure well, it often felt like being left to manage difficult situations without adequate support.
Again, from previous mill experience, the choice of mill equipment is the very cheapest, that demands more labor introducing unnecessary downtime.
Property site development and site planning decisions clearly weren't thought out as the place was developed right next to residential buildings that complain about the smell of paint and fumes on a daily basis and with the amount of trucks on the road daily.
And don't forget that the building is a "zero emissions site"........"zero"....
That sacrifices worker's health to keep emissions trapped inside the building with nor proper ventilation for worker's health.
Now, trying to see beyond the already, hazardous worker's health, lets again take a look at compensation.
There isn't.
This site is also nonunion.
Weekly heath insurance (for such a dangerous and hazardous facility) is highly, expensive.
The newly, incorporated "bonus" is absolutely laughable compared to other companies.
Micromanagement is very alive in a very inefficient manner.
Instead of solving real, actual problems, company time and energy was spent on self esteem by pointing fingers the second a problem came up.
This "new & state of the art facility" is very unorganized and a complete mess.
The building itself isn't even design for a mill.
Logistics are a mess,
The company and site are a mess.
So after you drive past the "great place to work" signs, posted towards the front of the building, ask yourself,
"Do I trust what they say, or should I do my own research?"
Because trust me, the company is very good at (keyword) - marketing.
In the end it wasn't worth it.