shift leader

forklift operator

security officer

order picker

merchandising specialist

Boar's-Head

I usually don't write reviews about my past jobs. Given my year experience with Boar's Head, I feel it's right to write a detailed review about my experience.  This review will be broken down in sections. The sections will be Overview, Day to Day Experience, and Final Thoughts. 

Overview:

First, you are not working directly for Boar's Head. You are working for a third party distributor. The owner is the overall manager of the whole distribution. His management style is reactive, not proactive. When challenges arise, he yells, curses, and blames the cooler works, instead of solving problems within the warehouse. He pits departments against each other (i.e. Cooler Workers vs. Route Works). His tactics in dealing with HR concerns is dishonest (i.e Taking away PTO time to fill in reduced days during the Pandemic without notifying workers). He plays favorites with the Route Workers (i.e letting certain people come punch in late for Truck Day). The assistant manager is lazy, attitudinal, and a nasty woman. She is very slow in dealing with HR issues, and slow to help others. The Truck Drivers behave like a bunch of high school frat boys. There are were only FOUR Cooler works for the whole warehouse. Two people scan and verify the orders. One lady worker who verifies the orders is foul-mouthed, nasty, and moody. The other worker is a more passive guy. I was one of the TWO cooler workers who picked the orders. The other guy who picks the orders thinks he's a good worker. He is lazy and a wannabe gangster BOY who lives with his grandma. I picked an average of 12-17 orders a day, while the other guy picked his share of orders. Each of the orders contain 80-100+ items, 2-4 pages in length.  Everybody in the cooler was always at each others throats, because of the shear mismanagement. The order crew constantly over-order items, thus plowing the store coolers with product that is not needed. Turnover is very high, because of the dysfunction, and constant verbal abuse from the manager and assistant manager. Since last October, 11 people (both rookies and experienced), left the company less then a year. Keep in mind, this warehouse is small, and formerly employed 20 WORKERS. PTO was challenging to take because of staffing issues.

Day to Day experience:
 I was scheduled to work Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday on reduced hours (due to the Pandemic). Tuesday, Friday and Saturday were my days off. Described below are the days worked, the number of orders to pick, and the miscellaneous task performed throughout the day;

Sunday: Shift starts at 5:00 A.M. 17 orders were picked between me, my younger coworker, and one of the order makers. After each order was picked, we had to pull EVERY SINGLE ITEM off the bottom wall to get reader for Truck Day. My other two coworkers scanned the orders. The warehouse was cleaned up. The day usually ended at 12:00 P.M. or later.

Monday: Shifts started at 3:00 A.M.. The Route Drivers were present to help us unload, split, and stock freight on the bottom and top selves. Two to FOUR trucks total were unloaded. after only two hours of work, the Route Drivers go and pick mini orders called "Shorts". The cooler workers were left alone to stock the rest of the pallets, plus clean the warehouse floor, BEFORE picking 25-30 orders.  Me and my coworker picked as many orders we can, before the Route Drivers returned from finishing their route. The Route Drivers helped us pick the rest of the orders. when the orders are picked, The warehouse was cleaned up. I had to help the my two other coworkers with wrapping the orders. The day end at 2:30 P.M.-4:30 P.M.

Tuesday-Off

Wednesday: Shift started at 5:00 A.M. 17 orders were picked, plus 7 orders for the next day. Some Route Drivers worked on this day. Again, me and my coworker were left alone to pick all of those orders. The few Route Drivers helped us with the rest of the orders. The warehouse was cleaned, and I stayed behind to wrap the orders. The day ends at 3:00 P.M.-4:30 P.M.

Thursday: Shifts started at 5:00 A.M. 17 orders were picked. What made this day challenging was the fact the Order Makers took a VERY LONG time to make the orders. This never happens any other day of the week. After the orders were picked, I swept and moped the whole warehouse floor. the orders were wrapped. The days ends at 12:30 P.M.-2:30 P.M. 

Friday:Off

Saturday:Off

Final thoughts:

There were a TON of factors that influenced my resignation. First, the training was NON EXISTENT. Second, the pay was not worth the aggravation and verbal abuse from management, and my coworkers. Third, the favoritism was on another level. Fourth, I got tired of dealing with the laziness from the younger coworker. Fifth, I got tired of being handed orders at the last minute, before leaving for home. Sixth, the assistant manager was a constant pain to deal with everyday.  I gave almost a year to this manager, and all I got was verbal abuse and lies. Plus, they tell half truths and lies in the interviews. If you got this far in this job review, I applaud you. Don't work for this guy. The company itself was great.

Boars Head is an outstanding family owned company.  Nearly all aspects of the business whether they be Manufacturing, Distribution, Sales or Finance are run well thus leading to products, i.e. meats, cheeses, etc. that are arguably among the best in the deli market.

However, the IT department is not as good as the business by a stretch.  Just deploying tested software is a nightmare process that takes place without support unless it is grudging support.  As an example, there was a layoff that took place just before 2020 ended that was completely premature.  In migrating from an on-prem infrastructure to a hosted solution, people were laid off before the migration actually took place, thus reducing the IT workforce and making it less possible to receive support on deployments etc.  With the lessened IT workforce, there is just not enough time or resources.  We have 1 DBA as a chilling example for the department.

IT leadership values the opinions of project management in lieu of technical leadership.  This is because the PMO tells leadership what they want to hear, making technical opinion an aftersight at best.

When I first started working at Boars Head, everyone told me its a family like and very friendly environment. I didn't believe them but I soon came to realize that they were right. My first few months there were great, amazing even. Recently however, there was a change of management. Things started to go downhill from there. Employees have been bounced around from department to department so much, a lot of people are unsure what their pay rate should be and what their department is. There's also barely any opportunity for advancement, I had to wait four months for a hour forklift training class. Also, hours have been getting cut. Its a daily task trying to get to at least 8 hours a day but to no avail. Back to when I mentioned Boars Head is a friendly environment, maybe its a little too friendly. Its very similar to high school, word travels fast and everyone is always in everyone elses business and drama is everywhere. Even if you don't get too involved with your coworkers, rumors will fly and people will talk about you, people you don't even know. Its not a very nice environment for me anymore. I would not recommended working here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Boy said overall is a good company. However, each boar's Head distributor is independent. Some are better than others. Unfortunately the one I worked for was a small independent and wasn't very good in my book

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part was actually working in the cold, especially when the products came in for storage. Working in a freezer when it's ice cold if you used to it. Great if you're not and you going to be cold.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The overall environment of an independent contractor it's touch and go. That's the best that can be said.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day depends on what role you play as a driver. Your day starts at 5:00 a.m. goes until when you're done. You have to constantly keep an eye on everything. Supermarkets and delis do. Cuz 90% of the times they don't rotate their stock and you have to do it for them. Or else you wind up with a piece that's going to expire and then the company winds up eating it so to speak.

Boars Head is a good brand with great products unfortunately the management within the company & the culture and environment they create is another story. Most of the people working there have been working there 10 years or more in my experience it’s like you have to become part of the “click” or good old boys club or they will fire you rather quickly. I cannot speak for Boars Head overall as a company but the Midlothian / Richmond office is highly unorganized, unprofessional in scheduling, communication and training just to name a few things. Pay is average to below average the only way you make money is if your getting 10-15 hours a week of overtime so if your interested in making real money then stay far away from this job you will typically average only between $550-700 bucks a week not much more than a typical grocery store job . Benefits are really the only positive part about working at Boars Head they do have a fantastic benefits package that’s rather cheap to the employee but definitely don’t consider working for them for only that reason you will regret it.

Like others are saying they don't train you at all.  They will work you to death with 3 or 4 pickers in back for your line and only 2  people on each of the front lines.  Meaning boxes will come nonstop the whole 10 to 12 hours putting you behind pretty much the whole night until the lazy line leads help you after you done worked yourself to death to try to keep up and get to far behind.   All in all the money is descent because of all the OT but who wants to work 6 pm to 6.30am 5 days a week????.  I am happy I quit now I make 5+ more a hour with a doable shift and hours.    They will hire just about anyone,  they call themselves family meanwhile they watch you bust your butt knowing you  need help but they're to afraid to get their hands dirty.  I use to be a supervisor myself I actually helped my Co workers.   Bunch of lazy leads! Being a lead is more then being able to smooth talk your way outta work.   Only work here until u find something else fast!

A good part of my day is spent on the computer working on contracts, doing change order management, and processing payments, and assisting with project scheduling. I also spend quite a bit of time in the field coordinating issues, managing subcontractors, and problem solving. In terms of meetings, we have bi-weekly meetings with our department and weekly meetings with subcontractors, foremen, and the owners. Each day, we also often have five or six smaller meetings to plan, coordinate, and manage our activities.

It is a daunting task to ensure project is successfully delivered. It is really important to get organized despite of the chaos around us. If  I do not have clarity of what needs to be done and talking/email to right people and getting things done; project management will becomes a difficult game to play.

I enjoy traveling to local and distant stores and dealing with the many different customer personalities as well as the differences in each location and management. I enjoy the merchandising aspects and training of customer care to employees at each store level. I also like dealing with the corporate "brass" and blue collar workers as well. I also like seeing the many different computer programs to help in every day life. The hardest thing to accomplish in a job would have to be perfection , but its fun trying and keeps me on my toes trying. Each day is a challenge, but a challenge welcomed because all it does is make you a better person to help in your normal life. Working as a team whether your working by your self or with others is what it requires to ensure great customer service as well as getting the job done correctly and ensuring most profitable ways and maintaining the image of the company you are employed by.

Typical "good old boy club". There were only a handful of good people there. They work you like dogs and the atmosphere pits everyone against each other. Way too much shift animosity, if you ain't first your last. Even then if you weren't Kraft you probably don't have a chance. Unless you are the drinking buddy of the boss, then you find yourself promoted to manager even after coming into work drunk. Found that ops managers were the ones to go to cause they actually saw that you worked and werent "lazy". Plan to work your life away literally. 60 hrs a week is a slow week there. Expect to be talked about behind you back and to play way to many stupid games. They fired the one guy that took care of everyone so it's probably gone complete Lord of the flies. Good luck to those that don't heed this warning. After leaving I have actually become better friends with a couple of guys there. Hope they make it out soon.

What is the best part of working at the company?
it’s like working with your own family. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
i don’t have a lot to be stressed about. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
up beat. no one ever is frowning. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
get to a store, say hello to everyone. clock in with a app and do your check lists on a app. set up a table. cut up some meat, cheese & anything else you might need. grab some of our retail items, display them neatly and make sure it’s up to standards and snap a picture. you ask people to sample your products. they try them & if they have any questions you answer them. get a break to eat lunch then back at it. when you’re getting close to time you clean up any dishes you’ve used. dry them then pack your table & everything else up and go home ! it’s such a good work environment. getting to travel to different areas of our stores that we sample at.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift leader 4 salaries reported	$25.33 per hour
Forklift operator 4 salaries reported	$23.92 per hour
Security officer 2 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Order picker 2 salaries reported	$23.55 per hour
Merchandising specialist 2 salaries reported	$21.58 per hour

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