retail sales associate

maintenance mechanic

truck driver

laborer

maintenance electrician

Basic American Foods

The work is not hard but it is enduring. Those that aren't use to working 12 hours shifts will have a hard time at first but if you can stick with it its not bad. There is a bit of a learning curve with the programs we have but nothing too difficult.
 Management is good for the most part, always training us, trying to find ways to make our jobs easier, keeping us on our toes by presenting new and fresh ideas. Things are always changing every year and those that do not like change may not cope with it.
Ive learned to be organize, maintain constructive relationships, initiative, lead by example and be a team player. The training that has been presented to me really paid off as I am able to utilize it to both work and everyday life.
They have safety topics we use everyday can be used both for work envirement as will as every day life outside of work. I have only worked for one crew for the most part so as far as work culture goes as long as you do your job and be a team player you'll enjoy working here.
The big drawback is the work schedule. It is not family friendly and its hard to balance out your life. They changed it in hopes that it would be appealing for potential new hires. Most of the veteran employees did not want the change and do not like it at all. Its hard to enjoy your days off when you are burnt out espically from the 4 days/nights in a row.  You only get one weekend day off. You do not get a lot of time inbetween with the little free time you have during the work days/nights, as you try to balance the need to eat, shower, sleep and/or anything else you can squeeze in before its time for work. Working graveyards does pay $2 extra but it is difficult to be able to enjoy your days off if your trying to turn back around to being awake during the day (If you plan on being a night owl for your days off then its great!). If you have a custody agreement it may be difficult to work with it.

Basic used to be a great place to work with amazing people, a culture of making things better, and a leadership team that cared about the employees.

The last several years have been tainted by political back-stabbing, nepotism, and a lack of knowledge in the functions leaders are asked to lead.

The professional turnover has been very high as highly capable, knowledgeable, and qualified individuals have been laid off, fired, or pigeon-holed.  Most of the good ones who remained have already left, or are in the process of leaving.

There are still some really good people who remain, but those leading the company, especially in the supply chain, are doing great damage to both morale and company performance.

Leadership will not take responsibility, nor with they focus on the actual process and equipment issues, but instead blame everyone else with no actual authority/capability to make the needed changes.

Much of the daily activity revolves around trying to manage issues (i.e., 1: talk with people about their job...again, 2: have maintenance come out and fix equipment that broke...again, or 3: talk about how no one is trained...again) with little to no method of changing the recurring condition.

Ironic how executive leadership preached about being an employer of choice, but they definitely do NOT treat their people that way.

Just to be clear, I was not laid off, or fired.  I left on my own accord to pursue better opportunities after seeing the company I once loved to work for become something I no longer recognized.

Caveat Emptor

Basic American is filled with great people but they're all leaving. The turn-over rate for middle management is extremely high, mostly because of a lack of advancement opportunities (unless you want to take a lateral move with a pay cut- that's what they deem an "advancement opportunity") and a lack of feedback. The Blackfoot plant in particular is extremely competative and has a back-biting culture where if you don't work a 50 hour work week, you're looked down upon. There is no work/life balance, you're pretty much married to your job whether you like it or not and don't expect yearly raises of more than 1-1.5%, if you're lucky enough to get that. It's very much a place where hard work will NOT get you ahead, instead it's who you know and how well they like you that gets you a promotion. Upper management rarely sticks to a strategic plan long enough to see it through and their "bonus" program for hitting company goals is a joke at best and an insult at worst. The biggest problem with Basic is not the salaries, benefits, or work. It's the culture of competition and uncertainty as to where you stand with HR and upper management. Every day is like walking a gauntlet of judgement and cynicism.

Great benefits and okay pay for the area. Used to be one of the best paying jobs around and people stayed 30 - 40 plus years but over they years they have refused to give workers a proper raises or even an adjustment for cost of living now our turn over rate is threw the roof .  Work life balance is good . Down side is upper management are clueless and are in no hurry to get one unfortunately most of the plant is in disrepair due to company not wanting to spend money on proper maintenance or upgrade equipment we literally have equipment from earlier 1970 that they are still patching up to run . They nickel and dime there employees . Unless you have a college degree upper management will not listen to you no matter how many years of experience you have working there but any one with college degree doesn't matter your major you could have a degree in music and no experience in a food production and they will let you make major decisions . They don't appreciate their employees especially the ones that have been there long periods of time . Company culture sucks but you can thank our management for that. company party's are a joke at best . They say it's flat company and you get a say in things but that's far from the truth .

You're workday will begin with daily location assignments, equipping PPE, Washing your hands, and making your way to your station. 

You work typically 12 hour long swing shifts on the floor. There is little to no AC and limited ventilation, especially near the industrial ovens and you will end the day wiping mashed potatoes or various spices from any exposed skin, including your face.

If you are female, I would recommend not working here or you may attract unwanted attention.

The pay was very good, but the work is very demanding and can easily become dangerous if you lose focus or come into contact with the wrong thing. 

It will be extremely difficult to have any work/home balance and your shifts may not allow for a healthy circadian rhythm at first, but better positions with more reasonable hours do open up if you stay long enough. You have to start at the bottom and work your way up.

Take your onboard training seriously and stay safe.

My typical day at the end of my career there were M-F 7 to 330. So great hours. 
Things I learned were that it didn't matter at all if you worked hard, it was all about favorites.  If management didn't like you it didn't matter how long you'd been there or how hard you worked.  I had hard work instilled in me from my childhood, so it was extremely frustrating to see lazy people be promoted over top of me because they were someone's friend. 

Management was very biased and had their favorite people.   The only time there was any accountability is when there was a violation or an accident.   They focused on the negative very much more frequently than the good. 
Work culture was ok for the most part. 
The hardest part of the job was dealing with the shorthanded times and the hot Temps when there were problems.  

The best part was the feeling of accomplishment when I gave it my all and did a full day of top quality work. 

Seven day rotating shifts do not provide employees with a work/life balance. Management cared more about production than employees. This led to an extremely high turnover rate which left inexperienced people performing critical sanitation and production duties. Additionally, the plant rarely had enough employees to complete all necessary tasks. Many mistakes and re-work was the result.
Advancement opportunities were always talked about, but rarely did employees actually realize movement. On occasion one might get an opportunity for a lateral move. Basic American Foods suffers a great deal from highly qualified employees leaving the company for positions with organizations that value their employees correctly.

For the area it is amazing pay, and the schedule is great compared to what it was when I first started. But once I got to line owner that's about where I will stay cause not really anyway to go higher. They are hiring people to be the managers from outside the plant so they have no experience working there at all, but they were in the military so that automatically makes them qualified to be a manager apparently. If I did it all over again I would go higher then an operator, cause for the added stress and responsibilities the line owners get, there isn't much of a pay difference, only line $1.50. Some upper management care but others treat you like your below them and throw you under a bus the first chance they get if it will further them. But like I said earlier pay is good for area, just don't expect to move up past line owner.

I have been working at BAF for over a year now, I run a line and I have coworkers that I'm close to. Management and HR don't care about us floor grunts, the pay might be nice but you also have to deal with the fact that they don't listen to what their workers have to say. We are understaffed on the crew I work on and that alone takes a toll on those of us that care about what we do every shift. I used to be happy to go to work but now I dread it, nothing runs correctly, maintenance doesn't know what to do half the time, and management doesn't seem to care in the least. All that company cares about is having products go out the door, granted that is what they do. But they promised us a good work environment, that means listening to the needs of your people. They don't listen nor do they care.

As  bracket 2 you do a lot of cleaning with high pressure water guns and vacuuming depending on the area you are working. It a hot place to work. You do a lot of independent work and some team working.Hardest part of the job is the heat and going behind others who didn't clean as well as they should have. I loved cleaning on the second floor its a wet area but I truly enjoyed just cleaning each piece of equipment and knowing that I did my job correctly and it didn't have to be redone by someone else because I did my job right. I felt that management needs to listen to the employee more they are the ones running the equipment not management.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 3 salaries reported	$17.93 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 11 salaries reported	$28.98 per hour
Truck driver 5 salaries reported	$22.34 per hour
Laborer 3 salaries reported	$17.31 per hour
Maintenance electrician 8 salaries reported	$34.17 per hour

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