animal caretaker

maintenance technician

technician

maintenance tech ii

laborer

Daybreak Foods, Inc.

I've held several Management positions within the organization during the 13 years I was with the company.  This company is a good fit for young, eager, single individuals that are willing to work hard and self-educate themselves in order to be successful.  Raises are not significant when you take on additional responsibility.  Staffing budget models are lean, which usually means staffing shortages most of the time, and equates to a low quality of workforce. Machinery and facility maintenance and upkeep is minimal, leading to extensive downtime, reducing employee morale and retention.  Keeping in line with budgets was a higher priority than animal/people welfare.  Safety culture is low to modest at best.

Salary pay for operations was light to modest, benefits costs were high. Hourly rates for general labor was not competitive with other local companies that offered better working conditions.  For hourly workers, OT was paid after 48 hours/week (most other agriculture-exempt companies do not pay OT at all, a few voluntarily pay OT after 40).

Bonuses were paid to salary employees on an annual basis.  Bonus program goals were lofty and largely unattainable due to operating budget constraints or short staffing.  Some years, bonuses were not paid at all.  Annual bonuses were normally only about 2-5% of base salary.

Executive leadership was moderate to strong from 2008-2019, but unstable after 2019. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was being able to identify and develop good, hard working individuals and allowing them to learn and increase their value to their selves and the company.  

The most challenging part of the job was always fixing broken down equipment, or "fighting fires".  

This was my first job in maintenance and I learned a lot about the industry. Unfortunately this company doesn't care about their employees day to day happiness or more importantly safety. Lock out tag out is not followed and guards/ safeties are bypassed just to get all of the product run. Looking back, I could have seriously been injured here. This is an inline plant, they did not design any bypasses to keep processing eggs should anything break. Shifts are 12 hours, but most work 15 hours. The plant layout and equipment is not designed well, corners were cut everywhere to save money. If you have to do maintenance internally on any of the equipment plan on getting moldy eggs on yourself and tools. The only reason I stayed was to gain experience and line myself up for a better job. 

I worked for Daybreak for over 10 years, was let go after new management came on board. The new management was threatened by my tenure and made it a priority to find reasons to fire me. I was given no warning and was fired on the spot for an issue that occured in a different department. I was then informed I would not only not get a severence but I also would not get my earned 5 weeks of vacation. In the middle of the pandemic we lost many workers and I many times worked 70 hour weeks and worked without a day off. I was a salaried employee and was not compensated for the extra hours I put in. After working through the pandemic, this is how they treated an empoyee of my tenure. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The customers is what makes my day better.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No communication from management, being the front desk admin there is no acknowledgment from upper management. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Culture is nice, work environment is a little stressful for someone that only speaks English.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Answer phones, direct customers, scale in trucks, enter data into an excel spreadsheet, emailing reports and scale tickets to corporate. Helping with other admin duties when needed.

Overall, my time at Daybreak Foods was pretty great. The people I worked with were very fun and enjoyable. I also was able to gain valuable experience in leadership and working with poultry. I was able to learn and expand my knowledge about the poultry industry. The hardest part were the long days. When moving a flock in or out, you could easily work 12+ hours. Regular days were closer to 9-10 hours, which is longer than your standard 8 hours, but you get paid pretty well too. My boss and supervisor were always understanding and willing to help me learn. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The core people and newer management really work together in making Daybreak an excellent place to work

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The critical steps to insure a quality product. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Its fast paced and the work family here are excellent 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Processing eggs its very unique millions of eggs a day.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working outdoors with little supervision.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Very poor management and required to violate safety protocol in order to get the job done at any cost.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Other employees were great to work with but management makes everybody tense.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I worked to move van and tanker trailers.

Hardest part of job was room for little advancement and very little pay incentives. I learned a lot in this job.  I learned to communicate well with others, how to become more organized in my workplace.  The most enjoyable part of this job was the job itself was very rewarding and able to work with different people on a daily basis.

I absolutely loved the job, however there were constant staffing challenges that seemed to never be resolved. Yet, the same volume of work, and same expectations made it impossible to do anything other than work (at home or on the job). Since I was salary, I wasn't compensated for all of the extra work, and had to make a decision that was right for me and my family.

Farm setting long hours at times , good co workers very helpful when asked. repair and machine belts , check on welfare of animals daily if not afraid of hard work or used to hard work ok place to work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Animal caretaker 103 salaries reported	$17.33 per hour
Maintenance technician 82 salaries reported	$21.56 per hour
Technician 24 salaries reported	$20.63 per hour
Maintenance tech ii 16 salaries reported	$29.00 per hour
Laborer 1 salary reported	$16.00 per hour

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