Vantaggi
- Health Insurance - Paid time off - Holiday pay - Dental insurance - Consistent schedule - Optional overtime - Cafe in the break area - Ability to cross train. - Can be a very friendly work environment - Ability to work night shift or day shift - Occasional work events (Paintball, poker, luncheon, etc.) - The company is open to teaching those without experience in the field - You can have your earbuds in as you work. - If there is a problem, there are usually people around to help solve it. FR Conversions has relatively nice benefits. These include holiday pay, paid time off, a yearly raise, health insurance, and dental insurance. There are a lot of really great people that work there. If you have a problem, there are a plethora of people willing to help. Personally, I haven't had any major conflicts with any co-worker. I've always felt like I was a part of the community. The company does occasional events such as a luncheon, paintball games, and sometimes a free lunch. You have the ability to learn multiple stations, which can be a great way to keep things interesting. Earbuds are allowed which means you can often times listen to music or audio-books while you work. There is a cafe in the break room area that has really great food and is run by a wonderful team. The break room is spacious and a nice area for workers.
Svantaggi
- Work can be dangerous. There will always be risk involved when working with the machines. - Jobs can become repetitive. - There have been instances where there is not enough work for everyone. - Work schedule is not flexible. - Work environment gets very hot with all of the machines. - There are some machines that break consistently. The company often does not fix them for quite some time. - Feels like there's a lack of trust in the employees from the managers. - Company shut down for a week and urged employees to use their PTO for it. - Need to buy your own uniforms. - Work environment is very dirty/messy at times. - Pressure and stress can be high in some cases. - Lots of manual labor such as lifting things. It feels as though there is a lack of trust between management and the employees. There will be meetings where the team is praised for the amount of work that was done- followed by the managers reminding you that the cameras are always watching. They do this a lot. They are always reminding everyone that they are being watched. During one meeting, they threatened to lower the pay if certain workers didn't take out the trash. They once said that if anyone left anything in a certain area, the person would be fired. Since I had started working there, they have closed off the office to plant-floor workers, making it feel less open than it once was. During my time there, many co-workers of mine decided to go piece-rate. This is a system in which you get paid for the amount of work you get done, rather than the hours you work. The system has the ability to be profitable- but the problem is, it doesn't always work out. Each item is worth a certain amount of hours and if you get it done faster than the hours specified, you can make more money. Once workers switched from hourly to piece-rate, they were not allowed to switch back. It traps you in it. The work environment quickly became hostile when there were too many piece-rate workers and not enough jobs. In many instances, piece-rate workers worked more hours than they got paid for. (For example, a co-worker of mine worked 8 hours and only got paid for 4 hours at one point.) When a piece-rate worker lacks the parts to do their usual job, they're left scrambling. Managers will help them find jobs outside of their line of work but they are often times not as profitable as their usual jobs. When a certain job had two piece-rate workers, it often caused conflict because there simply wasn't enough work for the both of them. This caused a lot of tension. When a co-worker of mine brought the problem up to management, it was dismissed. This problem has times where it is not always prevalent and will have periods where it improves before it gets worse again. One thing that sticks out to me is how FR Conversions often lets it's machines run until it breaks. When a problem arises in a machine or material, the worker is urged to keep using it. One machine had issues for months, with it getting to the point where it would crash daily. Despite management being aware, no permanent fix had been done. Even though it could prove to be a hazard. (This machine had caught fire at one point. Another time it had shattered a drill bit- which could have hit someone.) It's very common for employees to joke about this fact. I am unsure if this happens every year, but last year there was a period in which the company shut down for a week. Only a few workers were selected to come in to do inventory, while the rest were told to take the week off. (This was around Christmas time) The company urged workers to use their paid-time off for this time. Each meeting, we were reminded to do this. Workers that had just started and did not have any paid-time off did not get paid during this time. What I later learned was that it was possible to get paid through unemployment for the week the company was shut down. This was not communicated to us in any way. Other things to keep in mind is your schedule's flexibility. The schedule is set and you must make sure your time off requests get approved before you can plan anything. The plant floor can get really hot at times. You must buy your uniforms (though you do get some free shirts when you hit your one year.) Many of the jobs can be extremely dangerous. I have seen a lot of injuries, both big and small. It's important to know the risks. Personally, I do not think there is a lot of room for growth. (Both learning wise and promotion wise.) .