Heath Ceramics Reviews

Some of the downsides of working at Heath in the production factory are part and parcel with some of the benefits. The union confers decent protections, but comes at a cost. The workforce is diverse and interesting, but there are underlying tensions that reflect greater socioeconomic and racial issues in the Bay Area. I was a production employee at Heath for 2 years, and the union seemed great at first, but after a while, some of the issues regarding the union start to crop up. First of all, background: the retail team, design and marketing team, and the management team are all NON-union. The production team (i.e. laborers) almost without exception have to be in the union to do the work. Everyone on the production floor pays union dues. So, the labor union is kind of redundant and sometimes harmful. The union supposedly offers protections and representation for the labor staff. That's true with respect to healthcare, and setting rules and boundaries for things like getting paid on time, as well as taking disciplinary action. However, I genuinely felt that the union representative did not do a good job. He was this blustering, two-faced manipulator who works off site at the union, and then every once in a while he'd come in whenever he feels like it and stirs things up. At first, you would think that, as a union worker, you'd want someone loud and confrontational to represent you against an evil management body, right? Well, if the management at Heath were actually evil, then yes. But they're not. Here's the thing. The union representative for Heath puts on two different acts: he would be very chummy and professional towards the CEO of the company. Then, he'd give the Human Resources department (a team of genuinely professional and reasonable people) a really difficult time. He doesn't listen, and he's only out to get it his own way, whatever that may be. On the occasions when he'd come into the factory to speak with the union workers he represents, he'd often try to convince the factory workers that the management is up to no good, that they're the enemy, that they're greedy capitalists who are not looking out for you... he paints a picture in which it's always workers vs. management. He thrives in conflict. Even if you're a union worker at Heath, and you try to tell him that he's wrong, he'll try to convince you that YOU'RE wrong. Now... all the union workers pay union dues out of their factory salaries... union dues that pay for this dude’s salary... so that he can come in, push people around, and tell the production workers that they're silly and naive. After working in production labor at Heath, I personally believe that the management team, while flawed, isn't evil. Heath isn't a charity, and Heath isn't an artists' studio. It's a FACTORY. Of course it's interested in the bottom line. But, I really believe that the management team makes a decent effort in looking out for the welfare of the laborers. That's a difficult thing to balance, and at the end of the day, it's impossible to make everyone happy. Heath provides its non-union workers (management, design, marketing, retail associates, etc. etc.) pretty much the SAME benefits as workers who are in the union. I think the biggest difference might be a couple of union-mandated holidays. In a liberal state like California, there are many labor laws that provide the same protections to non-union laborers that the union provides. Given that the Heath management is pretty compassionate, and given that non-union Heath workers get more or less the same benefits, and given that the union rep is a liar and a fool, I think that union representation is not necessary. The other "con" with the labor union is the wage schedule. Everyone is put on a wage schedule, which depends on how long you've been at Heath, what job you do, and the skillset that your job requires. Your wages get increased on a schedule, barring any big issues regarding productivity or disciplinary action. That means that the lower-skilled jobs are kind of protected from wage decreases and wage stagnation. However, slightly higher- or much higher-skilled jobs, which also exist on the production floor, suffer from wage stagnation because they’re given raises at the same rate as everyone else. Oftentimes, when one person grows and works much harder than another person, barring extraordinary circumstances, those two workers still get their wage increases at the same time at more or less the same rate of increase. So the only good reason to have the union around is to level the playing field and to protect workers from favoritism. But that comes at a cost. The union wage schedule protects the "lazy union" workers, but really puts a cap on the earning potential of the hard-working union workers who go the extra mile. Is that cost worth the redundant protections that the union sells to its workers? That's a matter of opinion, I guess. In my own opinion, no. The Heath production floor relies heavily on a few of the hardest working staff members to go the extra mile and to compensate where their lazier co-workers fall short. This happens in any company. But the problem is: the union "prevents" those hardest-working employees from getting rewarded for going the extra mile. So at the end of the day, employees who are content doing the same bare minimum continue doing the same bare minimum, while outstanding employees get a pat on the back without the compensation to reflect the quality of their work. Another "con" is that Heath is a medium-sized company that's still suffering from growing pains. And by growing pains, I mean that positive changes come hard and slow. Management, engineering, and maintenance staff are stretched thin. It's an old factory, so things break down very often, and there aren't enough resources allotted for those issues. The higher ups want a focus on growth and forward movement, but that forward direction takes resources away from day-to-day maintenance and preventative care. If a machine breaks, there's a team that can fix it, but they're super busy working on a new project and trying to meet the deadline for that new project. Granted, new engineering projects at Heath are generally well-thought out and important in the grand scheme of things. But they really stretch resources. Not to mention, because of the size of Heath, there are lots of bureaucratic hoops to jump through in order to get even the simplest thing done. They'll get it done, and they'll get it done right, but it'll take a while. So, at the end of the day, if you need something fixed, or if there's an issue or idea you want to have addressed, you have to have loads of patience. Lots of patience. And, the onus is on you to advocate for yourself and for others. This often leads workers into believing that the management doesn't care, or that they're not listening... which puts everyone in a difficult place. Good change takes time. And at Heath, it takes a VERY long time. One of the other "cons" that need to be addressed is the racial divide in the labor force. The vast majority of the production floor is comprised of minorities, many non-English speaking, Hispanic and Asian ethnic minorities. The vast majority of the management team (and retail staff, and design team, and marketing team, etc. etc.) are white. Now, to be fair, while it's difficult to find labor for the production floor, I think it might be just as hard to find skilled management that's willing to work in the context of a ceramics factory in the Bay Area. After all, there are probably plenty of other white-collar management jobs out there. The management team comes to Heath because they love the product, they believe in the company, and a lot of them love pottery, and have studied pottery/ceramics. Having said that, there are undeniable tensions that arise because of the racial/socioeconomic divide: the production staff doesn't feel like the white managers understand where they're coming from, and can't relate to them. There’s a certain lack of trust. There's also a huge language barrier that often doesn't get addressed. A lot of safety training is conducted in English, and while there are people on the production floor who CAN translate, there's no will or urgency from the managers to ask them to do it. It's kind of seen as a waste of time, not good use of resources. I don't think the racial or language divide is anyone's fault in particular: to be a manager, you need to have a certain skillset with computers and emails and documents, and you need to be able to conduct yourself in meetings, and give presentations, all that sort of stuff. That tends to mean “white” when you’re in America. This is not a Heath specific issue, but it has to be addressed. One small issue I had with some of the management is that they're all kind of young, white, 30-something year olds with a lot going on. Many of them went to the same ceramics program in San Francisco, so they're all classmates. Some of them work well together, but you can tell that there's tension between some individuals... I'm not sure if they just have bad baggage, or if they're competing against each other for bigger opportunities, or if they just hate each other. They're also quite young and inexperienced to be managing such a large operation. There have certainly been times during meetings when the “fragile white male ego” has lashed out when its authority is being checked by the employees. They're young, they have a lot going on in their lives, so they're gonna drop the ball and make mistakes more often than a seasoned vet. At the end of the day, they do a decent job. It's a little bit concerning that there's not more diversity in terms of background and experience among the managers, but then again, Heath is a very niche company doing very niche things. Another small issue I had was the distance and the tension between the design team and the engineering team. Everyone involved wants the best for Heath. However, the design team has a history of demanding certain things out of production that are very pretty and fun in concept, but often impractical or just stupid to mass produce. And engineering is tasked with trying to make that happen. To give an example, some of the lowest-yield glazes that Heath uses on its ceramics desperately need to be re-formulated... and they've needed to be re-formulated for a long time. However, the design team just really likes those colors, exactly the way they are, and so the engineering team isn't given the green light to make things more practical, more profitable, and just as beautiful. The engineering team has to move heaven and earth, over the course of YEARS, to convince the design team that what they're asking for is impractical, and that their demands need to be changed. And those changes have gone into motion, but it took way too much effort. I think there can be a much better and more efficient working relationship between design and engineering at Heath. But because Heath lauds itself as a "design-driven" company, oftentimes the engineering aspect, and the execution of efficient, profitable production methods (that still yield great results) get sidelined for silly design ideas. I mean, to give an example: the 2019 summer seasonal collection involves using white slip on top of a manganese clay body, then glazing the whole thing one color. It's a huge pain for anyone to execute, and it doesn’t even look that nice. And if we're gonna talk about low yields, we should talk about the Chez Panisse line. The Chez Panisse bowls were meant for studio production, not factory production. If Heath wants to run itself better, the design of the CP07 foot needs to be re-evaluated. Otherwise, money will just keep hemorrhaging out of the factory. The only other cons I can think of: - Managers spend a lot of time sitting in meetings, and not enough time on the production floor solving problems. - Wages are OK, but can't keep up with Bay Area cost of living. But this is NOT a Heath-specific problem. - Career opportunities are limited, mainly because it's a factory setting, and mainly because it's a very specific style of factory production. - Morale CAN sometimes be an issue if you're not used to repetitive physical labor. Sometimes, experienced ceramic artists or potters enter the production staff with the mindset that everyone's an artist, and that Heath is a socialist Nirvana. It's not. It's a factory. You do the same thing over and over again. For myself, and for many others, this is fine. But for some individuals with wandering minds and wandering eyes, when they get bored with the work, they get really focused on what others are doing, and they compare themselves with other staff members, and they look around and nitpick at the stupidest things. It's one thing to be constructively critical about management, but sometimes, the most immature members of the production team become very nitpicky and militant, they become very outspoken, and they waste a lot of people's time spreading their misery around the labor force. My advice: just focus on yourself and your own work, and be kind.