service technician

forklift operator

order picker

machine operator

inventory associate

American Woodmark

Working at AWC was an experience. The floors and shifts are clique-y to the point of being comparable to a high-school, with endless bickering and no shortage of backstabbing or even full-blown intentional sabotage of workplaces. The highlights of my day were clocking out and getting out of the chaos. I had friends, sure, but the pseudo-politics are as exhausting as they are inescapable. You can't just ignore it, it's everywhere. It felt like a high school.

Overall the hours weren't terrible by any means, but you can expect to work a lot of unannounced downtime during the summer. If you're on first shift, that'll usually mean coming in as much as three hours early(rarely), and if you're on second shift you're pretty much guaranteed 10-12 every night. The distribution of those hours is pretty terrible though. There were a lot of times when management would have first shift coming in at normal time and forcing second shift to work all night long, and it's not like this is the kind of job where they don't know they're gonna have a giant workload at least a week in advance most of the time. They just don't plan for it at all--which is probably mostly because, again, everyone has their little social groups, and supervisors on opposing shifts tend to hate each other too much to bother communicating at all.

Everything is also incredibly time-sensitive at AWC, especially in finishing. Finishing's all one big long assembly line, and so you can get a pretty good idea of how long it takes parts to get from one end to the other. That being said though, the entire line comes in at once, so if you're at the very end you're going to be sitting there bored out of your mind with nothing to do for the first 5+ hours of your shift, pretending to clean the same few surfaces over and over again. A few weeks before I quit the upper management finally came down to the floor and took away a bunch of the cleaning supplies because they were tired of watching on the surveillance cameras and seeing the guys down at 2nd sand(the last spot on the line before offload) stand in one place and pretend to use them for their whole shift.

Of course, then they complained when 2nd sand stood and did absolutely nothing, ignoring the fact that they're responsible for both the fact that their shifts didn't line up with the assembly line(which was responsible for this massive downtime in the first place) and the fact that they're the reason they didn't even have anything to pretend to do anymore, either.

Of course I have to mention the security cameras, too. They wired up the whole plant with a bunch of security cameras, claiming it was to make sure that nobody was walking out with company equipment after a couple flashdrives or laptops got stolen or something, and had this whole meeting where they assured everyone that management wasn't just going to stand around watching those cameras all day waiting for someone to slack off, and that most of them wouldn't even have access to the security feeds if they wanted to unless they had to check footage to resolve some dispute.

Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that was one big bald-faced lie. You'd think they'd at least use that information to figure out how to fix some of these problems, but nope! Instead of actually looking for where on earth peoples' belongings are disappearing to, or noticing why so many people at the end of the line have so much downtime, or who kept sabotaging paint booths and ovens every few days, or where all the contamination on parts was coming from, they just sat around and looked for people slacking off during downtime. I'm pretty sure after they put those cameras in I saw my supervisor and leads less than I did before, which I didn't even think was possible.

They also have one of the absolute worst HR departments I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. They're real great at conveniently misplacing important papers, usually FMLA and funeral leave ones. Of course, then it's always your fault when the papers are lost, and that's pay you'll never get!

If there was one good thing about the place, it's that if you can somehow stomach everything else for long enough, you've got a lot of job security. They're actually even pretty good about hiring back former employees, provided you left on relatively good terms, and there really is actual room not only for lateral movement but even advancement as well. You really can make a career here, as long as you accept it for what it is and throw out any foolish ideas about it changing for the better. Pay's pretty great too, especially with all the overtime.

Work M-Fr (8-5pm) for a typical week.  I manage 20 Home Depot stores within my territory.  I set my own weekly schedule with very little micro-managing.  My day starts with email and any customer service challenges.  Communicating between accounts and customer care.  I plan different sales techniques and product knowledge appointments for each store visit depending on the area, experience of the store's team and sales tools our company invests in.  Relationship building is the top skill to have when starting at AWC.  You must be able to build relationships and listen to your account's people.  Help them finalize sales while assisting with customer challenges and logistics.      

Management is always there to assist with any issues or challenges to be addressed in a timely manner.  We are privy to many great tools to help manage and increase sales while establishing the best customer service in the industry.  

The AWC culture at AWC is second to none.  This is by far the best company I've worked for regarding culture and a team atmosphere.   Management always has our back and works to assist in all facets of our job.  

The biggest challenge is dealing with unforeseen issues with customers.  Reps must be assertive when needed while building relationships while treating all with respect.  Customer service is a huge part of the business to help build a relationship with accounts.  You must be organized and communicate in a timely manner to be successful.    

The most enjoyable aspect is the relationships you build with clients.  Working together with stores to help homeowners complete kitchen and bath projects with quality products and first class service at an affordable cost.     This job is fun while offering the autonomy to set my weekly schedule.  We meet many people and build trust with our accounts.  Reps have very few "emergency issues" that need a response within 24 hours.  We have the ability to gather facts and solve challenges without needing to drop everything.  We have a phenomenal customer care team that works jointly with reps and accounts to inquire on issues and solves those issues quickly and precisely.  For those and many other reasons, we are a top kitchen and bath cabinet manufacturer in the world.  

Enter at your own risk is my opinion and solely my opinion. Certain types of individuals will thrive in environments such as AWC.  I was one of them as well until management was overhauled for the hundredth time and our Maintenance dept. And HR dept as well ran out of fortune and luck and finally got less than component  management. I can only speak very highly of the maintenance supervisor I was under the entire employment term he was a awesome individual and till this day he still is and I had about 2 or 3 other great techs who were competent and would go to war for you and with you.  Sadly a couple of those guys have also found greener pastures like myself as well, Management should understand any great racehorse will always leave it's current pasture of dead grass and quickly become tired of being surrounded by inferior horses in said dead grass pasture when not kept content and feed adequately 10/10 times they are hopping the fence every time in this racehorse type of environment that our current lack of quality techs in demand in any industrial industries.  We are a dying breed you can't expect a stallion to do fairground horse tricks when the stallions are self aware of its ability. Other than that if your a tech roll the dice see how the fit is for you. In this current maintenance tech employment environment it's nothing to just load up and roll out if you don't like the vibe that's why tool boxes have wheels for ease of loading, never forget that it's easier to just find a better job that fits you than it is trying to manage a situation that you don't enjoy to be apart of once All the good management saw the light much earlier and rolled out, Without even cutting the lights out in the stables for us racehorses . 

I worked for American Woodmark in Orange, Va for 10 years. I started as a material handler in the yard, moved up to heavy forklift operator. I did that job for 5 yrs then went to maintenance where i was minor repair forklift mechanic and a mechanic helper in the plant.  I also was trained as a  saw operator on the production floor. my other jobs were a back up lumber stacker operator and a back up dry planer operator. I was laid off in 2009 due to the housing market shut down,  At that time management was great, from the plant manager to the leads on the floor, it was a family atmosphere and everybody got along and helped out when it was needed. I went back in 2017 and found out that most of the people i worked with before had quit or retired because of the management that is in  charge now. There is no team work there anymore, and if there is an issue with anything management won't lift a finger to help, instead they will be quick to write someone up for anything including bathroom breaks ( if they thought someone took too many), the 2nd time I went back, I applied for a job I had experience in and was pushed away from it only to watch someone with no experience get the job, then get told by the Superintendent in charge " She would recertify me when SHE WAS READY.  American Woodmark is not the company it used to be. My last production supervisor was great, he came to us from another company. He would work along side his crew at what ever job they were doing, and if he did not know something we would teach him.  I left the company in 2019 due to bad management.

It's an assembly line type production facility (cabinetry).  Like most such places, you will mostly work very hard with no air conditioning and loud noises.  

It's repetitive, tedious, and very physical in most cases.

Unless you have a college degree or suck up to the right people, you will not advance further than a lead.  One of the biggest complaints from employees that had worked there since the plant opened was the hiring of new college graduates that had never had a serious job as managers.

Frequently they were company yes-men/women that didn't plan on hanging around for very long; just looking for a notch on their resume'.  Communication/coordination was frequently poor between departments unless the employees worked it out between themselves.

Ideal job for a kid right out of high school that doesn't mind hard work, and there are quarterly raises available.  I went from $8.33/hr to $14.40/hr in 6 years.

During weather events, they do not close; they may start production an hour or two late, but you'll stay late, too.  Each assembly cell has a set daily goal, and you are there till it's done; if you get done too soon, you may be taking on another cell's production to catch up.

The point system for attendance is strict, but necessary.  When I was there, after your 90-day probation period, when you hit 9 points, you were terminated.  (You get 2 points in your prob. period).  A call off is one point, a call off before or after a scheduled day off, weekend, or holiday is double pointed.  Lateness is handled in fractions of points.

Full disclosure:  I haven't worked there since 2013, so maybe some things have changed.

compensation/benefits: I was lied to about the pay I would receive for the position. When I received my first check, I was being paid more than a dollar less an hour than promised, and HR would do nothing to fix this issue.
culture/values: The employees that worked in the department made most days bearable. The companies culture and values were strictly based on the bottom dollar and not the welfare of their employees.
job security/advancement: If you are a hard worker, you never have to worry about losing your job. I never once thought I would be without a check. The opportunities for advancement were limited. I did work my way to line lead, but was never given any compensation for the increase of my responsibilities.
management: The management was a revolving door, and they never seemed to promote from within. In one year, I went through 6 or 7 different supervisors. Most of the supervisors quit. I do not remember any getting fired if that tells you anything.
work/life balance: If you want overtime, it is to be had. My department was mandated to working 6 days a week. We did not work the same hours every week. Some weeks we worked 6, 8 hour shifts, some weeks we worked 6, 10 hour shifts, and some weeks we worked 6, 12 hour shifts. I really had no family life because of the job.

I worked there as long as I could stand to. Many of my friends worked there as well as some family members. They also left as soon as possible. I would never recommend taking a position at the particular plant I worked at.

I worked at AWC in assembly for four years before returning to school to fulfill my bachelor's degree. Personally, I enjoyed working there, but there are some caveats to working in a factory/assembly setting; there is room for advancement, but as an hourly employee on the production floor, changes/advancements in position are more of a step sideways than a step up, since the primary goal remains to efficiently produce in a cost effective manner, no matter your skill level/pay rate. That being said, higher skill level jobs do pay more (and the rate of pay there is quite good). One great part about working for American Woodmark is that the benefits are excellent, and the scheduling is consistent. Ample vacation time and pay scale raises are earned by employees who take their jobs seriously enough to show up on time every day and go above and beyond. 

The general attitude of the hourly employees sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. One might hear a lot of complaining about management and company policies, and it is sometimes difficult to get through to fellow employees, and for them to see the value of dedicated teamwork, something that makes a company like Woodmark strive. Overall, it is a good place to work for someone who likes physical work, and to work hard and at a steady pace. The pay and benefits are great, and as long as you show up to work and do your job, it is rewarding.

What I hate is been there almost 4 yrs and have put job placement bids in for higher or better jobs. My work performance 100% no cut say otherwise I've put in for eleven or twelve jobs denied on all but one I miss maybe two days a year do more teamwork then 20people and always on top of quality. I am certified electrician was a supervisor for seven years elsewhere 10yrs warehouse exp top it off associates degree in business management a guy in charge is a pill addict another one in charge has two cfis and leaves work when he is stressed with Co workers he's a lead. Another was there for six months and knew one job but moved up before me I know 18jobs in allegany plant I can't move up wow and why. Im a hard worker and they are making me go elsewhere so I can move up thanks alot American woodmark.you have crushed me and lowered my self esteem to an all time low don't ever say your family oriented and you give credit where credit is due cause that's a lie so thank you for making me feel like im worthless you have accomplished that. A close friend killed himself because of that place so is it a good place to work if upper management likes you  it's possible you may move forward but I honestly think it's just a regular job and no better then working at McDonald's or Burger King or some crummy place like that.

-55-60 hour work weeks, no matter what they say in interviews. NOT worth a salary in the low to mid 30's/vehicle/task bonus. Other cabinet companies are paid $15K-$20K more annually, plus bonus and vehicle.
-People in Home Depot and Lowes both HATE RSI and their products. RSI products constantly arrive at the stores damaged, and DM's have to deal with the damage on a daily basis. RSI management says that "Other vendors products arrive damaged, too." NO, THEY DO NOT. That's why designers/expeditors prefer to sell American Woodmark, Kraft Maid, and others.
-District Managers are the most micro-managed "sales people" in retail.
-Continuous tasks that make absolutely no sense(Lowes Dare to Compares). 99% of people have already seen this presentation. DM's are also forced to beg people in stores to sign a piece of paper that says they received a PK.
-RSI management continues to use a business model that they used when Rep groups took care of their products. They had to keep track of time spent on RSI products, vs other Rep Group products. They now have their own employees, and they should focus more on increasing sales, not collecting the same data every couple of weeks. The STUPID people that run RSI focus on time spent in stores, in specific data sheets, rather than increasing sales.

Pro:
Co-Workers
Really easy to learn

Con:
1) I worked 3rd shift and what every 1st shift left behind I had to clean up (and there was a lot) I really didnt mine that but when it got to the point where I was getting blame for there mistake I didnt like that. I ask for something to be done about it. Nothing happen....
2) Like every other review I have read I have to agree with this one MANAGEMENT was one of the big problems with this company.
3) When they add the rule for my area, where you can only mess up on a certain amount of door (4) the whole entire time you work there. At first I was like that no problem I can do that. But when they had me doing my job by MYSELF, and my job is a lot for just one person to do by themselves. And I started to mess up on doors trying to keep up with the line. I rarely got help.... in fact i was told the reason why I wasn't getting any help was because of the rule.
4) Drama
5) The layover days 

But was the line for me. The reason why I left this job was because HR when I told them about my problem I was told that it was alright for me to be treat that way because that was the rules. Would I recommend this job? No I would. If you going to still apply here I would say go for something that is not on the line because when your working on the line you don't get treated right.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Service technician 20 salaries reported	$22.95 per hour
Forklift operator 11 salaries reported	$18.73 per hour
Order picker 6 salaries reported	$17.31 per hour
Machine operator 2 salaries reported	$19.50 per hour
Inventory associate 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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