material handler

assembly technician

inventory coordinator

assembler

technician

Avantor

Initial training on programs and systems was really good, but you only get to take one or two calls and answer a couple of emails before you go live. After that, you have "TEAMS" chats to ask questions for a week or two, then you have what's called CSR ?? where you have to wait and wait for someone (a supv or lead) to respond to you and then you're told "Look for the Knowledge Article in Salesforce". Well, sometimes it was hard to find a knowledge article and when you find it, it doesn't necessarily address exactly what you're looking for. The goal was one call resolution but more often than not, it required follow up, so you'd have to leave the case in "pending" for whatever reason. Maybe trying to reach out to a vendor, or waiting for some type of approval. There is NO sense of empowerment. You were always at the mercy of someone else, so your case load would just grow and grow. You were given 30 minutes a day to follow up. One call, one case could take 30 minutes alone. You ask for more follow up time because by now, you've gotten MORE cases. They would then schedule you an extra 15 minutes later in the day or the next day. Work just piled up more and more & then they're on you to follow up even if you just email the customer to say "I'm still working on it." You are never told "Good job". It was ALWAYS negative. You get literally ZERO product training and with this being a medical/life sciences company in the middle of a pandemic, we had to offer suggestions to hospitals, universities, etc on possible substitutions/replacements for something that is on global back order/shortage (including chemicals) so we didn't lose the sale.  I was only there six months. Probably five months too long. You are nothing but a number! I saw a lot of turnover in six months. (No wonder even "seasoned" staff had to search for and read knowledge articles to try to find the answer for us newbies.) There is a reason for that! Worst mistake I've ever made. I've worked for large corporations in high stress, high volume call centers for 25 years and I've never been sorrier in my life than when I accepted their offer. Customer disservice! It wasn't Customer Service. 

As a material handler we are treated less then nothing considering the fact that we are a dime a dozen. The VWR company I work for is the only one with a Union... a weak union at that! We have two Tears, Tear 1 are the $22 hr rate and Tear 2 is the $12 hr rate and our max out rate under this new 5 year contract is $17 hr. Now I know that dosnt sound to bad due to this ecanomic crisis we're in but they constantly hire and fire and there's no job sercurity or advancements what so ever with this company.
Your work ethics don't matter with this company, you could be the fastest, strongest, and hardest worker in the company but they dont go by how you work, your job is based on their number system. YOU MUST have 100% EP and a 75% OS, sounds easy right... WRONG cause your numbers change everyday, one day your at a 105% EP then the next your at a %80 EP and now your job is on the line cause you didnt make your numbers.
To much politics and rumors go on in this company and even the best workers are fired for no apparent reason at all without the union to back them up. Management has no clue what their doing and thats what effects the job and company the most. Everyday theres new rules such as assigned breaks and lunches and if your a minute late you must write up a delay log on why otherwise it becomes a write up.. Incase your wondering how thats possible we have turn style doors in which you use your badge (time card) to swipe in and out which also keeps records of your time threw transactions.
Don't get me wrong the job is so easy and the co-workers are cool and out going people but its the company and management with their rules and regulations that make it so difficult to work for them.

If you can handle a heavy workload and enjoy working on the phone talking with customers without physical social interaction then this job may work out for you.

Training was suffice but did not cover everything you will encounter on a day to day basis. Coworker moral seemed very split. From long term employees who found their groove to new workers, overall moral was low amongst new employees. You are very micromanaged and monitored, which makes sense, but managers can be hard to find when certain issues arise and you are kind of left to crash and burn where customers/ sales personnel would either yell at you or hang up.

The basic workday mostly consists of sitting in the same place and answering calls while working with SAP/ Salesforce for 8.5 hours. If you prefer to work interpersonally and enjoy face to face interaction with people this job is not for you. I felt I spent most of my days fixing issues from upset customers.  Overall, I personally could not handle sitting in one spot working with disgruntled callers. You need thick skin and need to learn in real-time. If you possess those skills then give this job a shot. 

Benefits are 1st day, with paid two weeks of training, as well as appreciation for workers work life balance. 

Either way, any call center job can be very tiring, stressful and sedentary, it’s up to you whether you believe you can handle this in the long term. Best of luck.

I think VWR was a great place to begin my career, but I'm ready to move on. They have difficulty retaining young talent, most move on within their first few years, and some departments have much higher turnover than others. Opportunities for advancement are limited, and there is no clear path for advancement with the company. 

Resources seem constantly limited, and higher turnover only makes this worse. It also takes a long time for management to fill a vacant position. While there is always something to do, it makes it difficult to balance work and home life when in the end, it all has to get done. 

I do enjoy the culture and have supportive management, but certain parts of the culture, especially concerning retention and benefits, should be reevaluated. My coworkers and I get along great, but we have all shared similar frustrations and thoughts of looking elsewhere to advance our careers or increase benefits.

VWR does have a good education compensation package, but as with most companies, you owe the company so many years after you take the reimbursement.

The Wellness committee is very engaged. There are free exercise programs, including yoga and strength training, a free gym, an annual 5k, and wellness seminars on various subjects. 

One last note - there are no scheduled holidays between New Years and Memorial Day, so everyone burns out in the Spring because vacations are saved for long trips or for holidays.

A typical day at work for me is starting with a maintenance meeting. From there I start on my daily/ monthly preventative maintenance tasks. Sometimes there are more pressing matters and those become priority. Throughout the day I usually perform electrical and plumbing jobs as needed as well as inspections on equipment and machinery.

I have learned some different troubleshooting techniques from other co-workers. I've also learned to prioritize my jobs-to-be-done in order of safety and importance. 

The management of the maintenance department is poor. The supervisor sounds knowledgeable, yet has a hard time troubleshooting a problem and often asks his employees to solve the problem. He is not easy to approach for help or guidance. 

My co-workers are knowledgeable and experienced. Two of them like to work alone, the other is a team player. I can work in either scenario. 

The hardest part of my job is finding proper help through my maintenance supervisor. As stated above, he is not easy to approach and often grows frustrated when he can not solve the issue or fails to find help for his employees with an issue.

The most enjoyable part of the job is diagnosing and repairing a problem for a production worker. They seem to genuilly appreciate the work that you have done. I believe keeping up good relations, and talking through a problem builds trust and knowledge between the maintainer and the operator.

I wish I had written a review after my first year there. It would have been a glowing review, best job I ever had. It would have been a good contrast to this review, which is far less complimentary.

The big change is twofold: I fell out of favor, and management ignored warnings and had to lay people off.

For the former, there are people who are in favor and those who aren't. For the first year, I was in favor and the job was great. Then, I fell out of favor and the job sucked. There's a bunch of different ways to fall out of favor, and I think what made me fall out of favor is an unwillingness to go along with their dog-and-pony shows. Management is big on dog-and-pony shows because by and large, they tend to lack actual managerial competence. There are a few exceptions, but people seem to be promoted more as a result of personal relationships than actual performance. 

I believe this led to the second issue. Despite multiple months of warnings about low booked orders, management blithely ignored things and continued on (see earlier comment about dog-and-pony shows). This has led to at least one plant closure and two layoffs I'm aware of; it wouldn't surprise me if there are more I'm not aware of, or more upcoming layoffs. Since the majority of the production staff are contract or temps, well, easy hire, easy fire as the saying goes.

So, again, in short, maybe use Avantor to get a few years experience, and then find a safer place of employment.

VWR is not a terrible job if you have no intention of having a career. If you do just do not work here. It is the very definition of a dead end job. They have a high turnover rate and only replace people with temps if they are replaced at all. Be prepared to take on the work of 4-5 people on top of your base duties with no additional pay and also deal with rampant favoritism where long time employees will take advantage of you and expect you to do their job for them too because they don't feel like it and be obnoxiously rude to you about it on a daily basis. There are no raises, benefits, or paid time off due to them only hiring temps. They love to pat themselves on the back about high growth in revenue but constantly cut corners and refuse to treat employees like they are actually a part of this growth by providing any incentives whatsoever. Management is horrible and uncoordinated with little to no communication. If you have a problem they will not do anything productive about it. If you try to bring up long time employees being rude and dumping their job onto you then they will simply lie to you, have you demoted and moved to another plant. Then you will find out your new role has nothing to do with what you were told and you will get no communication about anything from management. If you attempt to have the temp agency act as a mediator to find out whats going on, they will terminate your contract.

It’s a job with very low pay. Management turnover is high, even with the new owner (recently bought out by Avantor). 
Even though they are constantly hiring they are reluctant to let you switch shifts. Although they call them rolling shifts to avoid paying a differential (start times are 5,6,7,8,9,10,11am etc). Some days can be long. My shift is the middle of the day making it hard to get anything done personally & spend time with my family. I’ve been asking for a morning shift, instead they fill those positions with new hires. You’d think they’d want to keep good employees with good attendance happy, but supervisors won’t let us go. 

We were told in June no one would be approved for vacation in the summer (if you hadn’t been already) due to the high workload, middle of summer with lots of parents so of course this caused a lot of sick call-ins. Short-sighted because it resulted in a lot of unexpected/unplanned worker shortages, when if they would have allowed vacation I think people would have been less likely to call in.  So a lot of long days. 

There’s an option for OT on the weekend, but I never do it given my shift keeps me from home 9am-8-9pm most days. 

They do have good benefits. Medical, dental, vision, plus 4 week paid maternity/paternity leave. 
You only get like ~1 vacation day/month. Plus a few sick days.

I got caught up in the web they weave. This was my first job out of school and I spent the next 20+ years giving everything I had to this company. Through location changes, ownership changes, name changes. I stuck around and gave my all. They pay well and have a generous benefits package. Near the end, I was in a management position. I had a life change and moved several states away. The company offers remote positions. Yes, not management, but I understood & accepted that I would not be paid the same. I just wanted to keep my “seniority.” I applied and was allowed a virtual interview for a position I knew I was overqualified for and even explained that I understood the “downgrade.” I was willing to accept because I moved away from any in person locations. Not even a call back. No email. Nothing. I attempted to follow up which resulted in more nothing. That outweighs all of the 20+ years of reviews I have for this company. You are nothing. Your loyalty means nothing. They micro manage in most group settings. I’ve been followed to the bathroom and told I go too often. I’ve been told I’m not allowed to be “friends” with employees below me. Like any large corporation, decisions are made by people who have no idea what you do on a daily basis. I would not recommend a job with this company to anyone I cared about. I was young and they hooked me with the pay & benefits. Do not be fooled! There is more to life!!

The most enjoyable part of the job is working with associates who genuinely care about their jobs and are willing to help each other when possible.  I enjoy the stability of the workforce, especially on my team.  I have 10 folks who work for me and at least 4 of them have 10+ years of service with our company. 

I take the time to appreciate my associates by giving them the recognition that they deserve and making sure that we celebrate their birthdays with their favorite cake. I sincerely believe that appreciating our associates' is the key to the success of our team.  

Managing people is not an easy task, however if we work along side  our folks while they are completing their tasks periodically, I feel is very essential for making sure that they are doing their jobs safely, accurately and efficiently. The associates' in turn will appreciate the attention and assistance.

We are in the business for providing our customer with all of the products and services needed for them to produce their products, which are microchips for phones and computers and other equipment.  If we treat our associates well, they will in turn provide the best customer service for our client.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Material handler 3 salaries reported	$19.81 per hour
Assembly technician 226 salaries reported	$20.98 per hour
Inventory coordinator 5 salaries reported	$24.02 per hour
Assembler 1 salary reported	$74,800 per year
Technician 9 salaries reported	$21.46 per hour

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