This company is a fairly bleak place to work. But, I truly liken this place to a dumpster fire. You don’t particularly WANT to have a dumpster fire, but if you were HOMELESS it provides you warmth in your time of need.
Your coworkers may truly be incredible people. On the flip side, in certain departments there might be people who drive other good workers to leave due to their inability (or unwillingness) to NOT disclose personal information about themselves. They may also cause disruptive scenes during work times and have no rebukes from management. In several circumstances they were asked to refrain but they did not change nor when HR was involved did any reprimands come about. These instances were not few or far between. Management was and is well aware of the situation. It has caused several good workers to leave due to the consistent stress they would endure for the sake of less emotionally stable workers.
This is also not a place that supports learning or growth. They are not interested in you learning extra things until you need to me thrown at it because the one other person who does it suddenly can’t. Even if time permits a learning opportunity much earlier. They truly seem to dislike the idea because they are also not fond of raises. This likely gives them a reason to neglect giving (decent) raises and/or promotions.
Their benefits are far below the industry standard however health insurance is accessible (it legally has to be). There is no 401k match system or other retirement benefits. There are bonuses but for the average worker they are less than $400 dollars and they don’t tell you if you’re getting one or not (They’re not addressed in any benefits package or employee meetings). So you could easily be a lucky and not get one... Bonuses happened one to two times a year... PTO and sick time are lumped together and your accrual rate is based on the time you have worked in the company. They do not give you say a week off per year you are full-time. It’s based on the number of hours you have worked overall, and must accrue weekly.
This company does not like to invest in workers or products. As stated before, they don’t really care to give raises, promotions or teach you, so they don’t invest in their workers. They do not really hire to retain, they hire to get the job done. They also don’t like to buy new equipment, like equipment that may help production or worker safety. There is a makeshift fume hood that they allow to be used for large quantities of very volatile chemicals like methylene chloride and hexane, among others. Several workers asked for it to be replaced when the company decided to actually ask if there were things that made employees uncomfortable in the lab. It was not replaced, nor was anything else, even years later. On that note, they are also not transparent about the necessary testing for methylene chloride exposure. You may wear a badge and be tested but they do not divulge the breakdown of results.
There is a high turnover rate in certain departments because of lack of adequate training and lack of transparency in how their scheduling works.
There are a lot of poor qualities but due to them, your manager MAY be more lax on arrival times as long as you are working your 40 hours and completing your work accurately. And ultimately if you get your work done, you do what’s asked of you, you’ll get your paycheck and just continue on. Most of the stress of this job comes from fatigue from coworker harassment, highly disruptive coworker behavior and low pay with knowledge of small raises if any. But it is a steady paycheck. Especially if you are looking for a first job, it could be a place to start but I personally suggest weighing all other options, even if they are part time lower overall income options. But this experience could help you get a job elsewhere later in life. I do not recommend this company to try to create a “forever” career. It’s a job, don’t expect much else.