cnc machinist

assembler

machine operator

machinist

assembly technician

Columbus McKinnon

Keep in mind this review is at the plant level, not corporate, and for a salaried non-exempt position.  The corporate office is an entirely different beast, and, in my opinion after many many years, and many visits there, I really believe it would be a great place to work.  They just do not see/deal with the down and dirty operations side of things.  I worked at the plant level, and the work itself was very enjoyable, although there was zero room for advancement due to very few salaried associates being employed at each plant.  No matter what you do, you won't move out of your beginning salary range unless you get a title change by moving into a different position.  Raises are VERY low, usually 1-3%, and the max for each title is low compared to the market.  Someone had to retire or pass away before you could move up the chain, as usually there is only one managerial spot with no turnover.  So it is a dead end position once you accept a salaried spot at the plant level, unless it is just a really, really bad site and folks come and go like a revolving door (which is rare for CM locations).  There is NO work life balance.  You are expected to stay until the job is done.  I won't elaborate but it is a very 1950's mentality at the plant level, in regards to how various groups of employees are treated, promoted, and viewed, and like I said  corporate is an entirely different world.  Here's an insight--I left there for a similar position at another company for $18k more a year.  Left there within a year to a position with $10k more than that one.  Presentlly, 6 years after leaving CM, I make almost $30k more than if I had stayed.  And if I had stayed, I would be making probably $2-$3k more per year and in the same position.  There is just no ladder to climb if that is what you are after.  Honestly, I stayed far too long, but it is drilled into you that you should be grateful they let you work there (again, the 1950's mentality and management style).

Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
Disapproves of CEO
I have been working at Columbus McKinnon full-time (More than a year)


Advice to Management

Commit the resources necessary to right the Chattanooga operation or sell the business unit. Develop a five year plan with targeted realistic improvement goals; stabilize leadership (5 GM's in last 3 years) and have the patience to see it through. The impact of your decision to merge Chattanooga and Midland Forges without a coherent transition and operational business plan is what is the driving challenge for the facility.
Cutting people simply to be profitable is a reactionary and short term perspective that will lead to disaster.  Fix and stabilize the product line; Force sales to forecast and to hit realistic growth targets and then hold them accountable. Don't simply blame operations for shortfalls when sales under-performs by 10% every year. "You cannot save yourself to profitability."
Hire and install qualified and skilled senior supervisors at both the Forge and at EC. Junior leadership need to be skilled in dealing with people and holding them accountable for their performance. There is a tendency for all leadership to abdicate responsibility for management of process, leadership and training of junior operators and then wonder why the teams fails. It's a trend present throughout the entire company.

The plant manager is only about how much money WE, the employees, can make for this company who provides him with his bonuses. 58-63 hours a week is how this company thinks we all want to live, their is no work/life balance. The morale in the plant is so low, that people are taking pay cuts to find other employment, and the pay really isn't as competitive as it should be. HR is almost impossible to get ahold of when you have issues. There is no way of advancing in this company, ever. Corporate cares even less about the hourly employees and would NOT let our plant close when there was more than half of the plant out during a Covid outbreak. They even had the nerve to say that all of the employees were getting it from going out on their own time and bringing it to the plant. We are being worked to death and there is absolutely no appreciation by any of the management and there is no incentive to make us want to work as hard as they want us to work. And as for the people who are quitting or have quit, the company is having a difficult time finding people to fill the empty positions. One more thing, the hard workers get abused while the workers that sit down most of the day playing on their phone, slack off and take days or weeks to complete an order get looked over. If that is how you want to be treated for the hard work you put in, this is the place for you. Otherwise, don't even apply. Just keep scrolling.

A typical workday often involves reacting to issues rather than following a structured plan, largely due to limited training, inadequate planning, or both. As an inspector, you are frequently required to address recurring problems that persist because of ineffective control plans and processes. Formal training is minimal, so gaining a thorough understanding of the role often depends heavily on experienced employees.

During my time here, I observed several workplace culture concerns, including unchecked gossip, rumors, negative conversations that undermine trust, and instances of employees withholding information or failing to cooperate. There also appeared to be a lack of transparency from management, signs of employee burnout that were not adequately addressed, a tendency toward assigning blame rather than solving problems, and perceptions of favoritism.

The most challenging aspect of the role is navigating situations that were not covered during training—which is often the case—and receiving limited guidance or feedback from supervisors. The most enjoyable parts of the job are the scheduled lunch break and the ability to leave work at the end of the day.

A typical day for me was to first respond to any production support open issues; followed by any mini project in progress; and staying on top of the progression of the EMEA SAP implementation. One of the most important facts that I learned is it is not enough to know your job but more importantly it is critical to ask for assistance to balance the workload. The managment team is mostly new and although that is a plus factor to bring in new blood it is also a deterent when implementing a global system when the voice of management is a crucial factor and they are just learning the faucets of the organization. I enjoyed working with my co-workers because as a team they brought many facts into play to round out any decisions we made. The hardest part of my position was balancing the workload between plant customers and the corporate customers. The most enjoyable part of the job was the meeting and knowledge transfer of so many different nationals and cultures in the organization.

I worked for this company the training is not good considering the thousands of products they sell they go over certain things once and you are told to not ask the customers any questions even when information is missing from what they are asking for, During my time there 4 managers quit because of the nonsense that occurred daily. High turnover almost 80% of their sales staff also quit. Continually giving customers excuses as to why there products are running weeks if not months behind. Managers said this happens all of the time. They say they know they have issues and say they are trying to to do better the employee satisfaction rating is at 62% 2 years in a row which tells me they could care less about making the employees life better there is no work life balance. And certain Woke managers are looking to find fault with every account you work. They only seem to hire 20 year old's there are not a lot of rep's over 30 working there. My manager was nice to my face while stabbing me in the back. I am glad I left.

The organizational structure changes every quarter. The executive leadership team couldn’t care less about the needs of the organization. The ELT sets the tone for the toxic culture that is focused on backstabbing, verbal abuse, and deflection. The CEO does not engage with anyone outside of his direct team and frankly has no clue what is going on. The President for the Americas gets off on verbally abusing people while playing games on his phone instead of listening to the meetings or conversations he is in. Our customers are frustrated and the reasons for their frustration start at the top. We cannot ship product because leadership restricts cash flow in a severe way to try and hit their bonus. It is hard to ship product when you do not have parts because we do not pay our vendors or you force the purchasing team not to buy parts at the end of a quarter. We have a major acquisition and integration coming up that we will surely destroy. Hopefully, the board will see through the ELT team’s BS and make some changes.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at Columbus McKinnon was my short commute, 24 dollars an hour was nice but not worth everything you have to put up with. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They make you stay for 10 hours a day even if you have no parts to build hoist. They then complain about how the amount of hours they are paying us for making hoist is for more than the amount of hoist getting built. Yet they make you stay when you have no parts to build hoist… 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is toxic. Their is no real supervision, everyone is trying to do the least amount of work possible. If you actually want to work and do your job you will end up doing everyone else’s job as well. The older employees take advantage of the new employees who actually work and the supervisors seem to have no idea what to do. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Clock in at 5:57am, start to build hoist, run out of parts, try to find your supervisor, and get told to look busy until 4:10pm.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The machine shop employees are very knowledgeable people and hard working.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
What’s stressful about this plant is the planning department and the plant manager. Past due orders are ridiculous and one particular planner changes the dates but doesn’t retrieve the paperwork off the floor and the shop floor employees don’t know what to stay on top of. Complete failure.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture is horrible. This plant has a high turnover rate among managers. The plant manager doesn’t listen to anyone and threatens management so that’s why management has high turnover. But he should be firing the lead planner.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Chaos and dirty. It’s hard to work in a plant with broken machinery and the maintenance employees don’t know how to fix the machines so they get contractors to come in and do what internal maintenance can’t do.

There have been a lot of opportunities for improvement in the past but management and the new CEO are focused on the right things. Changes happening are making it a stronger organization with a better global outlook, leveraging the product portfolio and setting higher expectations of everyone including management. Great time to join if you want to get a variety of experience and have an impact on results on a medium-sized global, public company. The people here really do care about the company and each other, which is so refreshing. The work is challenging but the pace is just right for quality work/life balance. I truly feel like I've accomplished something valued every day. I'm glad I joined this company!

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