maintenance technician

sanitation worker

quality assurance technician

shipping and receiving clerk

assembler

Brakebush Brothers Inc.

Lack of communication, confusion, disorganized, chaotic - sometimes 2-3 people would come by and tell us the exact same thing, other times we were all wondering what was going on and NO one would tell us. Too many people trying to "be the boss" and telling others what to do. Often, conflicting instructions from 1 person to the next or from 1 day to the next so you were always being 'corrected' and never sure what the current protocol was.  Many policy, safety, and production violations ongoing, and a LOT of 'horseplay' of the kind where anywhere else would be immediate termination (and it is written in the policy manual) but certain people are 'exempt' because of favoritism and nepotism, given innumerable chances/warnings.  A LOT of favoritism and nepotism and cliques. There are supervisors who are related to those they supervise - making them 'exempt' from correction or disciplinary action - but they'll retaliate and go overboard with correction and write-ups if you dare say anything against their relative who is blatantly screwing around or violating policy. Very 'small-town' and 'high-school' mentality and 5th-grader behaviors.  Everyone starts on 2nd shift: 3-11:30.  There were times they kept us until 1:00am.  There were innumerable times we were sent home between 9-10:30pm.  Once after only 2 hours!  (policy manual says they will guarantee 2 hrs per shift). There is ONE break during the 8 hour shift, 30min unpaid. 
They will send you to break at random - even if it's only 2 hours into your shift and you ate before work, so you will then have 6 hours straight with no break.   Machines were always breaking down, daily - several times per day, sometimes for hours.  1st shift always got their 8 hours in regardless, but 2nd shift often got sent home early (shorted hours on paychecks) if they couldn't get machines running within a couple hours.   Pay is barely enough to sustain a single person but is the highest in a 40-mile radius (plant is literally in the middle of nowhere, town is dead with no other gainful employment available).  Everyone starts as a line-worker which is the lowest paid position but actually physically works the hardest! The other positions spend most of the shift standing around, talking, horseplay, pushing a few buttons or taking a few temps and recording. Line workers are in constant pain and muscle aches and cramps.  Room temp is 35 degrees, stand in rubber uninsulated boots on cold bare cement floors in one spot the entire shift - no anti-fatigue mats!  It is so cold your nose runs all the time, but to remain 'sterile' you have to wipe the snot on the inside of your lab coat collar. Your fingers and toes go numb.  Line workers handle frozen chicken at temp of -40 degrees with no insulated gloves.  Work is typically VERY fast paced for line workers without break (lowest pay, hardest work - while watching all other positions standing around laughing and joking = low morale).  You don't know what job you will get once they hire you - you start doing one thing and at any point they will re-assign you, sometimes daily or part-way through the shift.    Attendance policy is VERY strict.  Cannot clock in 1 min early or 1 min late, or will get written up (6 in a year=terminated). 1 min late also costs you an hour taken out of your vacation pay.  If you go home sick, call in sick, or otherwise have to leave due to emergency you get a write-up (6/yr max).  Many people live 20-30 min away, and during -60 degree winter temps and 4ft snow blizzards, they would get written up if they could not make it in to work (even when interstate, state highways, county and city offices, schools, and post offices were all shut down!)  Plant operates no matter what, and even when the highways are closed for weather and employees must leave to safely make it home, they will get a write-up (6/yr max).  Morale is low, turnover is high - mandatory Saturdays 3x/mo.  Low life-balance, difficult for couples or families because of 2nd shift schedule, which also makes it very difficult for singles to take a 2nd job to make ends meet.  Dead-end, hamster-wheel lifestyle.

The job culture was mostly young high school graduates or older displaced workers, uneducated and cliquey. There was a lot of gossip, backstabbing, foul language, horseplay and favoritism. Some people continually violated work and safety policies and protocols that were in the manual as "grounds for immediate termination" and never got disciplined because of who they were related to. Morale was low, management inconsistent and directions unclear and often contradicting what another had said.  PPE is provided, but you will either be working in very hot (oven) room or very COLD (38 degrees with a breeze from the ventilation) for your entire shift, standing in one spot on cold cement floor with no anti-fatigue mats.  Fingers and toes go numb with cold, nose runs but all you can do is wipe the snot onto the inside of your smock collar.  It has been 5 months and I still suffer from painful tendonitis in my wrist because the last month I was there I had to stand in one spot boxing 5-6lb bags of frozen chicken quickly, repetitively with one hand the entire 8 hr shift for the last month I was there!  They were short staffed so could not do station rotations.  When I left, morale was so low because summer had finally arrived but overtime on Saturdays became mandatory, with only one Saturday per month off.

My first year there was enjoyable but the company changed hands and that brought about a lot of ridiculous policy changes that even the best employees have a hard time adhering to. Attendance policy is unforgiving and will leave you watching good employees being walked out. Everyone is so overworked and stressed out that the entire place feels like a constant battle zone. Management gossips and spreads rumors faster than the hourly people. No matter what you're told, job advancement is based on popularity with the who's who of the plant but you'll be told it's based on seniority during orientation. Women are considered less desirable than men here and are offered scraps as far as company advancement  Daily harassment is a thing across the board. If you work here, please know that your life will revolve around your work schedule and you will be too tired to do anything but work and sleep for work. Environment is hostile and uncomfortable and you will be expected to work mandatory Saturdays after being told about them on Friday afternoon when it's almost time for your shift to be over. 

The good: Pay here is pretty decent and there are bonuses. 45 minute lunches, the food in the breakroom could be better but there is a good selection of drinks and there's also free coffee. Diverse group of coworkers. Promoting from within is encouraged. You get most major holidays off. 

The bad: Most of the training here is poor and varies greatly from trainer to trainer. No matter which area you work in, you will be cold. The gossip and childishness rival most high schools. The expectations are often unrealistic. Overtime is usually mandatory. You may know a day before, you may know the day of, or you may find out when you clock in on Monday morning before the plant even has a chance to run. Departments are pitted against departments and shifts are pitted against shifts. The attendance policy is not very forgiving, and you only earn 2 hours of PTO per week. There is no separate paid sick leave. Management has made it abundantly clear that they do not care about their people, only the numbers. The best employees are overworked, the worst ones get spoiled. 

I'll be honest, I would've given this job a good 4 stars a while ago. Unfortunately they put all of 3rd shift sanitation on a 6 day work week (Sun-Fri) 10pm-6am. But usually you would be there until 7, 8, or 9 sometimes in the morning just to get right back at 10pm. They also would add "mandatory Saturdays" for production, making 3rd sanitation work 7 days a week. And give one you one day off a month. If you wanted a day off you would have to take a PTO day, and then they'd give you an occurrence. Then they would have a higher up come in and tell us how we need to work harder and they might give us more days off, like we were the problem for being half dead coming into work. Also with how unforgiving with their late policy, punishing you for being sick and using PTO, and not caring about you spending time with your kids, I would not recommend working here. Not until they actually start giving more consideration for their workers, but that's a stretch. It's not worth losing your health for $17 an hour.

come in once clocked in you have 15 minutes to get to the floor so that will give you enough time to change into your boots and proper PPE also use the restroom if needed

once on the line depending on where exactly you work you will have to get to the office to pick up your essentials for the day including clipboard and table and required forms 
once product has started running onto the line you will verify ingredients and product and keep track of progress. If on the line you would verify certain test and perform some yourself throughout the day you will need to put that information into a computer 
if any problems on the line come up you will notify lead supervisor and possibly even managers if it gets serious enough.

Pros- good pay, Healthcare center on-site, love my co-workers.

Cons- you are only a number and a body to this plant.  A limited number of leads/supervisors care but the majority do not.  Their attendence policy is terrible and they will not feel an ounce of compassion when they are firing you.  There have been times they tell you on a friday that you have to work saturday. Constantly people getting fired/quitting and steady stream of new people coming through the doors.  I have been there a number of years solely because of the pay but I don't know that is worth it anymore.  It used to be a great company to work for but now number 1 priority is Quantity over Quality.   I would highly consider other options.  

If you want to work for a company that does not understand life. You get sick on the job. They take your vacation and write you up. If you call into work, they take your vacation and write you up.and If you have a family emergency, they write you up and take your vacation. If you can't make it to work because the weather you get a rite up and they take you vacation Bottom line, if you have a family life outside of work, I would not apply because you will not have a family life.
You won't have the vacation to go do things so if you normally do plans in the summer with family you won't be able to and if you do get a job here don't let the money control you life is to short and you can't get that time back not spending time with family before you know it your kids grow up and you lost that time

Truly the worst place I've ever worked. If you want to go home with anxiety about having to come back the next day and feel extremely unaccomplished, under appreciated and unheard this is the job for you. The only reason I'm giving this place 2 stars is due to the pay. Management doesn't listen to your needs whatsoever they could care less as long as they get what they need ran, ran. Even then u will hear no thank yous no good job absolutely nothing. Currently working most Saturdays so if u also have no family or things to do youll love it. The outside of the plant smells like a sewage plant most days. Truly hate having to walk into this place every day and it's just getting worse. Management is getting worse theres no positives. Good luck and take my advice. Look for a job else where. They pay just isn't worth it. 

I personally don't enjoy the place much but it has great pay for the area and is a good place to work if you don't mind actually working. 

My position as transport is miss leading by name in the sense i don't drive a truck. Transport in the factory is a position where you stack and move product in the plant, generally includes updating order confirmations for products, printing shipping tickets, moving boxed product, and preparing for the different products we run throughout the day. 

My opinion of how the place is run isn't the best run so I'll skip that part.

The hardest part of my job is the physical labor, currently I work on the fastest line on the plat that can run over 100k lbs worth of product in one shift, which has to be stacked onto pallets in a timely fashion.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Maintenance technician 14 salaries reported	$34.48 per hour
Sanitation worker 8 salaries reported	$22.13 per hour
Quality assurance technician 9 salaries reported	$23.77 per hour
Shipping and receiving clerk 10 salaries reported	$23.91 per hour
Assembler 4 salaries reported	$19.87 per hour

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