Pros
I'm supposed to put 5 words here.
Cons
Where to start? No breaks would would be the #1 downside. Once I get out of my car, I don't sit down until I get back in it 12 hours later. The heat in the summer is unbearable. When it rains, you have water pouring down on you - even while working on 480 volt weaving looms. They preach SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY, but when you point out something that's unsafe or that you don't feel comfortable doing they simply tell you to do the best you can. Especially if it's going to impede your job function. They talk about BBS (Behavior Based Safety) and they push it in your skull all day every day. One example of BBS is - USING A FREAKING CUT GLOVE WHILE USEING SCISSORS! Seriously? Is this kindergarden? They have turned the whole BBS system into a game that makes even the most menial tasks complicated. Common sense goes out the window while you try to remember the new way you're supposed to do the same things you've been doing for most of your life. They change policies to suit their needs almost daily. Just recently changing their mandatory overtime policy so that someone taking a vacation day the last day of their schedule can still be made to come in on mandatory OT on their off day... EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ON VACATION! Vacations are another thing. If you PO your supervisor, good luck ever getting a vacation day off. They will tell you every time (w/o even glancing at you or a calendar) "Sorry, got too many people out that day, can't do it" I have never used even 1/4 of my vacation time there and it doesn't roll over. They keep staffing to a minimum. Most people that are on jobs that used to require two or more people are being downsized to only one person. Meaning that person will never be able to go to the bathroom or even think about taking a break. As far as breaks, as far as I know, only the Beaming Dept. gets a scheduled break. As a Weaver you don't get breaks - Period. You run +-20 machines and they are not allowed to sit for more than a couple of minutes at a time, which some jobs run so badly it's pretty much a "whack - a - mole" process of running from one loom to the next as they shut down for various reasons. There are many times you will simply go from one machine to the next to the next to the next - FOR 12 HOURS! I'm not kidding one bit. You can't wear even a simple wedding band. Which to me is terrible. My band is my promise to my wife and to God and I'm not allowed to wear it. "It could get caught on something and take a digit or limb off". BUT, as a weaver, I keep a pair of snips on the SAME finger that is basically like a ring with a pair of scissors hanging from it. Quite a bit more there for a machine to catch on and rip my finger off, but they don't see that. I wear that thing more than my wedding band. To the point I have a permanent rusty looking "ring" on my finger from where I sweat and it rusts the snips. My wife jokes that I'm "married to Shaw" and that is exactly how I feel. The supervisors are vindictive when you get on their bad side or go to HR about something they do, they will make your life an even worse nightmare than it already is there. While they themselves sit in their offices most of the night with their feet on their desk playing on their phone. If you go to HR, personnel there will tell you straight up, they are there to back the supervisors. Not much of an HR. In 6 years, we've had 2 raises, but the insurance has gone up or changed every year. There is no advancement there. After 6 years I have no idea what steps are required to move up the ladder there. They have "fill-in" supervisors there that the only requirement that I can see from observation, is being the supervisor's pet. I'm not being sarcastic or exaggerating any of this. I would be willing to take a $4/hr pay cut if I could find another place to work.