production operator

night team member

maintenance technician

electrical technician

maintenance mechanic

Charter Manufacturing

If you want paid, want to work overtime, hate spending time with your family or having hobbies, and are a workaholic, don't want to have time to go to school, this is the place for you.

Under normal working conditions, the job itself is already tiring and tedious. Worker comfort is a very low priority to management, who cares little about the human element in comparison to NUMBERS. Management has a way of making you feel like dirt when you mess something up, when they are already expecting a great deal from you, and do little to acknowledge or recognize what you do actually contribute. Management, one in particular, they will question why you did something, and how you can fix it in the future, talking to you like a child, and then never ask for your input again when it comes to making vast changes to your everday routine or what can and can't be done.

On normal working conditions, you work an average of 44 hours a week without overtime, it's not bad, assuming you can put in 60 hours over a 40 hour stretch, climbing, and no or little sitting time between then. You might occasionally get asked to work an extra 12-36 hours a month, which is doable...

However, right now is not normal working conditions. There is an agreement, than many workers are more miserable now than they ever have been at this job, in part due to the currently expected work hours, and in part due to recent management changes who feel more like a corporate oppressive machine than it does the family ran business it claims to be when you start.

What are these expectations you ask? Well, after having shown how much employees are valued during the heat of covid by eliminating nearly 100 positions and reminding us that job security is only valued as far as we have orders to fill, suddenly once the business is booming, everyone, and I mean everyone, is expected to work anywhere between 1-12 days of overtime every month, which when you work 12 hour days, is a alot of time. Working 84 hours a week, for 2 weeks straight, because management made a mistake, makes it hard to want to work for the company. If you complain about it, management will tell you "You signed the paper, you knew what you were getting into" and then when they can't keep new hire's due to it being a buyer's market so to speak at the moment once they see how miserable everyone is, they expect everyone else to make up for it instead of owning up to their mistake.

If you want to feel trapped, like you have no control over when you will be allowed to go to school, pursue your hobbies, or move up to a better department, then this is the place for you. At least you can enjoy a decent retirement if you make it that far, but you will have to sacrifice whatever management deems fair without being able to have any say in the matter.

Also the summers are miserable. I'm talking +110 degree work places for 12 hours a day, and you are only encouraged to take breaks by supervision when it doesn't affect numbers cause "wE ArE bEHinD BeCAusE wE mIScALculATeD" As if they expect you to care about their numbers when they have already shown they don't care for your position, experience, or your own contributions. Some of those people who were laid off had decades of experience... but NOW the numbers matter huh?

Management makes terrible decisions from an employee perspective. Projects are being worked on without having the right tools or people making sure it is flawless and operate in an actually useful way, and they try to bite off more than they can chew with expenses so they have something to show corporate. While the average worker feels vastly ignored and their wants/needs mostly forgotten.

supervisors there are. we had a new intern who was working for HR. one of the supervisors were going around talking smack about the girls name ,how she looked ,acted and more. as he was listening to this so called supervisor (who we are suppose to respect id rather spit in his face.)  make fun of her name and say horrible statements a guy at work decided to let hr know... wow what a big mistake that was. this guy wrote a letter that I read ,in fact I was there when the supervisor was talking smack I just kept my mouth shut. anyway he wrote a letter gave it to hr ,they sat all the people down individually to talk about this  supervisor that was causing grief. now just so you know this supervisor has had nothing but problems and negative reports from people in the whole plant his whole career. from harassment ,to bullying to calling people names. now we all did this interview and this supervisor got nothing but negative feed back from almost everybody people who were scared him which he loves.... after we did this feed back we thought OK now he will begone cause he had way to many chances ,nope they give  him nothing and push it under the rug. now we know he did wrong because then human resources made him write a letter to all the workers and read it out loud, to tell us and the employee he harassed sorry ,it wont happen again and my bullying will stop... hahahah what a crock of sh**  if that was me id be fired i wouldn't have a job but that's were it pays to know people at this place cause him and the other two supervisors had his back and wouldn't fire him. now the reprocuction of this was the employee that wrote the letter lost his job because they were all after him to fire him after he got the other supervisor in trouble so they kept harassing the guy that wrote the letter . The reason why they knew this guy wrote this letter is because Hr told them who wrote it after it was suppose to be private. They bluntly said in front of everybody after he read the letter who wrote the letter, this guy almost fainted the look he had was priceless. until he just didn't show up.. this also led one of our best supervisors we had in shipping resign because he could not believe how corrupt it really was and still is.

Best "go nowhere job I ever had".  If you are hourly, there is NO Job Work/Life Balance.  After a couple years, you begin to feel owned.  You work 12 hours a day/night with a 5-2-2-5 schedule.  Low seniority will enjoy lots of overtime each Summer, making you're schedule 9 days on and 5 days off, not 5-on, 2-off, 2-on, 5-off.  Mandatory meetings will add another hour and a quarter to your day (13 1/4).  Off days you will likely have team meetings scheduled.  Compensation/Benefits are pretty good.  Job Security: You're only as good as your last day.  Advancement: Excellent if you have relatives there.  Otherwise, it's not very likely.  There's only so many positions, and lots of relatives.  Good work only gets you more repetitive good work.  Management at the lower levels is pretty lacking - "I'll get back to you", is a popular catch phrase.  Making matters worse, you're supposed to follow an ill responding chain of command to get things done.  Communication flows one direction only (down), even though they pride themselves on an "Open Door Policy".  Culture:  It's a rat on your neighbor system.  You need to know who's related to whom, and who is actually your friend before you speak.  When they ask for any questions at the end of meetings, be careful choosing your words.  Management doesn't like to be on the spot.  (It's easy to do).  I survived twenty years.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Co-workers are great and the pay is fair for the market.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
A lot of the higher ups have constant tantrums and/or treat hourly or low level salary employees like garbage

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Stressful. Charter constantly talks about culture but writes people up or tries to fire people for doing the right thing. A few examples that come to mind: 
- an employee was written up for correcting a safety issue
- another employee was looked into when they were injured, the company was trying to fire them since they had multiple injuries 

Training is also non-existent. You're told your position and are sent on your way because so many departments are either short staffed, or full of incompetent people. As soon as possible, you will be overloaded with tasks outside of your scope of work

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Coming in there are constant meetings in the morning, but none at night. There is a big disconnect between shifts.

The company is constantly booking meetings and lunches that could easily be a phone call or email. Even when my calendar is fully booked for the entire day (I never get to take a lunch break), I am still expected to complete multiple other tasks and responsibilities. 

I consistently work overtime every single week.

One family One team is their motto. Yeah right!  As long as you play the game and keep your mouth shut. I survived more than 20 years with this company only to basically being forced out. 
   The management over the last, I would say 8 years got more self serving, disconnected, and even sometimes, I feel, disgusting. The “good ole boys “ network starts all the way at the top and goes all the way to the bottom managers. If you think the top managers in the corporation care about you, think again. If you think you can go to the H/R department with issues, think again. 
   You are on your own. It’s every man / woman for themselves. The faster you realize that the better off you’ll be. They love to push their open door policy. It’s a fraud. For example 
  I approached the CEO (“open door policy”) during a company event to discuss the morale or lack of it, in our plant. That conversation was used in a write up I got.
   All I can say is enter at your own risk. If you’re salary you will enjoy parties and meals. If you’re hourly you will enjoy new rules.

You can not advance your career at Charter unless you are a member of the good old boys club, or have family working there.  If you are fine with not advancing and can ignore the rhetoric it is a decent paying job with decent benefits.  If you think your opinion matters or you want to make positive changes or improvements, don't try, you'll get no where.  The perks are good but things are getting taken away and not replaced.  The schedule is nice but mandatory days are more common so be prepared for that.  Recent supervisory and management selections have been a joke to the people working the floor.  If you have a poor attendance record, poor safety record, poor work ethic, yes you can advance, if you are good at your job, get good reviews and show up for work you will be stuck, they won't want to move you.  Management talks a good talk but they do not follow the culture they are trying to promote.  I enjoy working with my peers.

Benefits are great. Work is usually steady. Take your vacation time when you need it. Only one call in day, attendance is based off of point system. Most of the time there’s OT. 12hours can get old quick. Hard for families to work nights. Management or office is heavily divided from the floor personnel. Very relaxed atomosphere but at same time can get pressured to get something out if it’s hot. 

High turn over rate, but most long term employees are highly knowledgeable. 

No ac on the floor. Gets warm. They do provided flavored ice, water. Ect. Safety is number one.

Nightshift premium is a joke, and vacation is based on hours. You can take either 8 or 12 but if you take 8 you will lose the 4 hours of pay. If you take 12,you lose on vacation days. Double edged sword.

Family owned company, not family orientated.

It is exciting working with such large kf product and equipments, operating cranes, forklifts, etc. 
Good company outings. 
Overstrict with time off and doctor visits. 
Absolutely no accommodations for those with disabilities. If you request an accommodation, they don't have anything to offer, so they ask you what you could use. And you sign a form, and nothing ever happens. 
Terrible payroll department, mistakes made often and they're going to pay you next week regardless of how many times it has happened or that it is their fault. 
They offer much criticism, but refuse to own their own mistakes. 
Upper management is top-notch, none better, but floor management is full of gossip and angry speech, tempers, rumors and the like- felt like highschool. 

my typical day included prepping outgoing freight for the morning and receiving freight all afternoon while loading outgoing freight prepared the previous day. then picking and prepping for the next's days tasks.

i learned how to properly prep outgoing freight and load sometimes challenging loads

my manager was very hands on and informational

the work place culture was decisive and extremely happy to help complete tasks that made the overall system run efficiently

the hardest part of the job was keeping up with the constant changing requirements of the customer

the most enjoyable part was the relaxed atmosphere that having well trained staff and hands on training created

I worked as a Safety Intern for Charter Wire for a few months, and I felt like a respected member of the team almost immediately. The management is engaging, involved, and demonstrates the core values of their company very well. The employees on the production floor are very knowledgeable and easy to work with as well, demonstrating the company's commitment to safety and quality.

As a Safety Intern I worked under the Safety Engineer, working directly with management and production employees on the continual improvement of safety issues and helping to ensure regulatory compliance. Being a steel manufacturing facility, there are many challenges, but it gave me the chance to learn how to analyze issues and develop creative solutions as a team. 

Wonderful people, wonderful place to work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production operator 122 salaries reported	$23.30 per hour
Night team member 4 salaries reported	$24.63 per hour
Maintenance technician 14 salaries reported	$25.29 per hour
Electrical technician 23 salaries reported	$35.63 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 6 salaries reported	$39.63 per hour

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