packager

distribution specialist

forklift operator

maintenance technician

order processor

Dorman Products

When i joined in 2019, I have to say the enviroment was much more friendlier than it is. The supervisors cared about their employees, the job was flexible, and I enjoyed it enough to want to be cross trained and further myself. 

When they moved to the new building and covid hit is when things started going bad. Incentive is all but held over your head like a carrot and stick, taunting you with the chance of getting more money only for them to end up changing ratings to make it even harder. " Being complacent" is how they worded it. People who hit 150% normally ended up dropping to the 100% or less range, and one bad day now risks your chances of getting fired due to their 95% or higher policy. This puts you in a sense of urgency and anxiety to preform, which makes the overall work experience miserable. One mistake could cost you your job, and the use of 'gap time' is all but a joke in attempt to make it even harder.

They began hiring supervisors outside of the company, as well as general managers of the warehouse who have little to no idea how to treat their own employees. You can't talk to them without having to send an email, because contact is just not necessary apparently even if the problem can be easily fixed with just that. When asking these new supervisors for critiques, they give you the equivilant of "just do better." and leave it at that. What you do, even with proof that you are right, is of no concern to them. What they care about is what goes out the door.

It used to be a company that prided itself on being flexible, offering one paid day off to use at your discretion. Depending on the situation, you could use vacation to leave early if you were sick. If you did good? They offered Paid star time, which you could use at your discretion as well. After covid? apparently due to people hoarding that time, they took it all away, leaving you only with bulk time to use, that you can't even use if you're sick. Apparently you need to be psychic and plan in advance when you're going to be sick, or take a point. Points have also turned into a joke, going from 9 to six and every little thing being used to dock a point. You get sick? well they'll pay you with what vacation time you have but you'll still take a point. 

I've seen people who have been there for 9+ years, supervisors included, leave due to the high stress and treatment of their employees. It's sad to see the company fall like this.

Work-life balance
The office supervisors, leads and HR already knew each other before working together. I was #1 picker most of the time. I made many changes to help things run smoother but since the supervisor hung out with certain employees after work and on weekends, if the co-workers didn't like it, my supervisor wouldn't make them follow it. HR lied and gave me points saying my family emergency wasn't covered by FMLA. Come to find out it was and I didn't get my points back for almost a year. We had people cussing others out on the sales floor, putting their hand on others to fight and people showing up extremely drunk and high. When I brought it to the attention of HR and my supervisor, it was brushed off because they were friends. Leads let employees run them instead of the other way around. The Plant manager spent more time having to apologize to employees face to face in order for corporate not to be called on him, than he did changing things. I have been deemed not rehirable when my only write ups are 2 write ups for errors. Turnover is extremely high and shouldn't be because the job itself is a good good job. But until HR and office management is taken care of, it'll be a company that falls and has the worst reputation in its own town and towns around it.

Job security and advancement
No job security

Management
Management doesn't associate with employees at this site unless they are friends outside of work.

Overall
HR, Plant Manager and supervisors are the main issue at this plant. The plant manager spent more time apologizing to employees for rude and harassing things he said than he did making good changes. HR and supervisor hang out on birthdays and get togethers with the employees they hired and protect. When their "friends" scream and cuss people on the sales floor, come in drunk/high or put their hands on others during a fight, they are protected and no action taken by supervisor. The turnover rate is SO high and to me that says more about management than employees. In the year and a half I was there, If I wasn't number 1 picker, I was in the top 5 every week. I have been deemed unrehireable which I find baffling. Maybe if Dormant paid attention to what's really going on and speak to prior employees, they'd see what and who the problem is.

This review is strictly speaking of the Distribution department. Long story short, if you can work for any department other than distribution, you should. The hours are good if you enjoy the day-shift life (no experience with 2nd 3rd or weekend shift.) The pay is pretty good, and hourly workers have the opportunity to earn incentive pay based on productivity. Unfortunately, management and leadership make it much easier for certain positions within distribution to earn an incentive and not others. Life is constantly being made harder for Material Handlers and Distribution Specialists when it comes to productivity, putting them under increasingly high levels of pressure and stress because management will be quick to fire anyone not "making their numbers." Meanwhile, productivity numbers for Closer Specialists and Loaders are essentially fudged in their favor, or leadership/management turns a blind eye to them doing so themselves. Also, these positions are not necessarily given to those who apply for them but handed out based on blatant favoritism. Training in this facility is also horrendous. They have recently started hiring trainers from outside the facility who have no experience doing the job they are supposed to be teaching new hires how to do and barely know their way around. And the trainers who have been there for an extended period of time can't be bothered with 'proper' training. Which is probably why Dorman terminates so many people for safety violations that employees were not made aware of. It doesn't help much that group leads don't coach employees on what they have done wrong, how to do better etc, but skip straight to the disciplinary action. So you have no idea you have done wrong until it is too late. Add that to the fact that distribution leadership and management are completely inconsistent in which policies/rules they enforce (which also smells of favoritism,) this leads to many more terminations. If you apply for a position in distribution, you had better have a backup plan.

They are very good to their employees.  They have a large clean break room with vending machines to grab yourself a decent lunch. The break room is also stocked with all the essentials you’d need for lunch; plates, utensils, napkins, condiments, numerous microwaves to use plus as much coffee as you can drink.  Coworkers are incredibly trustworthy.  You can leave your things in the break room and no one will touch them.  Coworkers are also easy to get along with and as everyone knows, the people make the place.

I don’t know too much about management except that they are all down to earth type people, esp. the HR lady and receptionist.  The floor supervisors and leads seem to be the ones who have the most pressure placed on them to produce but even so, they are easy to get along with as well. 

For the most part, management is hands off and as long as you put the effort into earning the fair wage they pay, you will have no conflict with them.
The only big downside I’ve noticed so far is that you’ll have little to no opportunity to make yourself more useful to the company by learning the systems you use beyond your essential duties.  When I’ve asked to learn more about the equipment I’m using or testing I’m told that it’s beyond what I need to know so don’t worry about it.  Plus since most of our electronic testing components are built in house by our engineers we aren’t provided with any technical manuals beyond how to operate the system.  This obviously is not the fault of the engineers because, after all, they are electronic gurus not publishers.
The company although did recently announce a pilot program to train a few  employees as basic electronic technicians and I look forward to that opportunity.
Overall, I’m very happy I found this company and look forward to coming into work everyday.  Plus, I love the four day work week!
A small tip.  Come directly to the company to ask about direct employment.  Don’t be fooled like I was into thinking you had to start through a temp agency and lose out on months of accrued time toward seniority, benefits, paid vacations, and better pay.

At Dorman products it is very clear that the company used to be a good company to work for. Through out the year they do little things that show the Berman's used to cared about the employees. With that said Steve Berman has put a lot of faith in his new management team and clearly lost touch with what is happening at the Executive Management level and lower. Care for employees has been replaced by politics that protect management whom act without a moral compass or unprofessionally. Beyond this issue the whole company is set up in department silos that are more focused on doing what is best for the each silo not what is best for the company. Within departments there is little to no visibility for the work you do.  Dorman is the only company I have ever worked for where you can meet or exceed all of your goals set for you by the company and still be told on a weekly basis you haven't done anything. Also the HR department is there to put a good face on the company but make no mistake you cannot trust a word they say. They encourage you to trust them and talk about issues and if you say anything to them you will be the next person walked out the door. On a more positive note if you are a recent college grad this is a good company to cut your teeth with. The starting pay is better than most companies will offer and if your willing sacrifice your personal life for a year or two there is a lot you can learn. Beyond a couple years promotional chances with in the company are pretty slim unless you learn who you need to be buddy buddy with. As for raises expect 3% a year so by year three you should move on or make less than the new hires.

The PTO and paid holidays are good with plenty of options for emergencies. However the compensation is lacking. Dorman pays below local competitors with a small performance based yearly raise. Even exceptional yearly reviews average just .50- .70 cent raises. With pay increases for new hire employees veterans are often making cents more than new employees. Advancements are usually in house but are not always based on the best employee for the job. Often times lateral moves knock out advancement for others while Dorman supervisors are known to make biased decisions. For production based roles high performance is not always rewarded or recognized. To receive an excellent score on the yearly review you must achieve OVER 120%. Anything between 100-120 is a middle of the road score. To achieve an excellent score on attendance for yearly reviews you can not miss more than a single day. Over all Dorman culture has shifted to a thankless job that expects excellence as a standard with little to no reward. They do have an incentive program however they are working to phase it out. Currently it has stiff stipulations. In order to receive your incentives you can not miss a day of work, make an error, or receive any discipline or your incentives will be withheld for the entire month. With new and expanding companies currently out paying Dorman there are better options available. 

The culture when I first started was about 'family', seemingly putting the contributors first with a balance of safety, home/work balance & meeting common goal for the work load.   Contributors helped one another, morale based committees, etc.  Meeting and/or exceeding goals was a common occurrence.   Management decided to grow in a 'numbers-based' direction, and quality seemingly went out the window as quantity was the priority.   It became unsafe & unpleasant. Often times, trainers were overwhelmed with new hires.  With only a week of training, most trainees would struggle in their first 90 days because they didn't really understand.  (Not everyone learns/understands the same way.)  Instead of immediately pulling the new hire and trying to retraining them, it was moreso watching them struggle until they quit on their own or finally firing them for not meeting expectations.   The turnover rate was ridiculous, all because it was said that it was counterproductive to keep 'wasting time on what they couldn't grasp.

***Hire the right people for the job... not just ENTERING the company but also the people that advance INSIDE the company.... the possibilities are endless.***





A typical day at Dorman Products was working with a wide variety of contributors at the plant as well as Corporate Customer Service and the Financial Division.

I used Excel mainly to do the job I was required to do; however, I also was in charge of looking for lost or damaged items during shipment.

I looked up the correct part and made sure the customer was satisfied with the solution I came up with for them.  I also was able to do the same thing for corporate which made their job much easier.

I was in charge of finding lost items shipped via freight, UPS and or FedEx.

I was happy to deal with the contributors at the plant and make their day much more enjoyable by solving problems for them.

I learned about Six Sigma Fi; which I had no idea what it was when I volunteered for the first session.  I went through several Kaizans following the first and learned more with each one.

I like to learn new things; I feel like it keeps my brain active.  I am not afraid to learn new things as a matter of fact.

I am fairly good at multitasking; as my job as Dorman Products required it.

The people there are awesome. Co-workers there make the job. The job itself is easy to do and not hard. Management sucks, they want to be a robot and work your life away but not give you any incentive to do so. You don’t get sick days or vacation days. Just pto that you accrue and have to plan way ahead because they do time off based on a calendar. If there is 6 people already on the calendar than you won’t be able to take the day off unless you use a point. Which you only get 7 for the year. No half points. If your late one minute pass time it’s a point. No matter what time you leave during the day it’s a point. The only beneficial thing was flex hours. You can use flex (as long as the calendar is open to do so) that you can leave x amount of time and make it up within. The same week different hours without getting pointed. They don’t care much about people as much as they want to say they do. They want to worry about you working there for them and not care what you have outside of work 

The company itself is stable and maintains good growth, while dealing with competitors in the market. Most teams are set up as IPTs, which help keep projects flowing, without waiting for decisions from upper management. Sometimes there are product issues due to the relaxed nature of the company (some employees are able to skate under the radar). In recent years, there has been a big push for improving processes and the overall quality of the products developed, however it is a slow development. They offer reimbursement assistance for an MBA program at a local university Overall, a good place to start at or settle in for the long haul, but the amount of personal growth is dependent on the individual. It can be easy to get comfortable and not pursue personal development.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Packager 13 salaries reported	$17.15 per hour
Distribution specialist 2 salaries reported	$21.35 per hour
Forklift operator 14 salaries reported	$21.11 per hour
Maintenance technician 11 salaries reported	$25.23 per hour
Order processor 1 salary reported	$18.38 per hour

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