assembler

welder

assembly technician

manufacturing engineer

cnc machinist

Eaton

I worked in the scheduling department for 1.5 years, and I will tell you that it was the most stressful, unrewarding work I've ever done in my life. Eaton made very well sure to slap the term 'customer representative' in the title of the position so they can pay you as little as possible.

My entire tenure there, they refused to adequately staff the department. near the end of my tenure, we were at half staff...

the instant you clock in, the phone rings, and the instant you hang up the phone, it rings again. you are on the phone the entire day.

Eaton preaches that they provide 'world class customer service' and that is how they differentiate themselves in the market. That is a straight up lie! We were so short staffed my entire tenure, I would have to take emergency calls, promise the customer that we would get someone out to their site within our obligated contracted times, and than hang up the phone knowing very well we weren't going to make the time. It was a constant battle just to stay afloat. the work load placed on us was completely unmanageable, and management did not care at all.

We were promised pay raises at our one year mark, and when the time came for the pay raises, Eaton announced that they would postpone the pay raises. Needless to say, we never got one. Not even an inflation raise. So by the time I quit, I was making less than when I started.

During the holiday period, every other department on our floor got a big christmas bonus except the scheduling department.

The scheduling team is treated as the dumpster of the company. When a department decides that some work is 'beneath' them, they sling it over to our already short-staffed and overworked department to make us handle it, and our management team would never do or say anything about it. 

They sell the position to you in the interviews by saying that the scheduling position is a 'spring board for future opportunity' in the company, and that 'every other department comes to us for their promotions'. But they do have this policy where you are not eligible for promotion until you've been in your position for 2 years. But here's the catch that they don't tell you: Eaton has another policy that states you are not allowed to skip a salary band when you get promoted. so the scheduling position is a salary band 3, and all other positions in all other departments are a minimum salary band 5. so how do you get promoted out of the dispatch department? one 'lucky' individual has to take up the 'lead dispatcher' position, which is essentially the exact same job as a regular dispatcher but with more stress and responsibility. this is the ONLY position that is a salary band 4, and there is only 1 of them. so once every 2 years, someone gets an opportunity to climb their way out of the dispatch department... During my 1.5 years at the company, I saw 1 single person get promoted out of my department, and she got promoted to some slap-on-the-face cold calling sales position.

When I first came on, over half the department was already at their 2 year mark and ready and waiting for a promotion opportunity. By the time I left, they had ALL quit because they were sick and tired of waiting for an opportunity to come that was never going to.

I take pride in my work, and my ability to provide good customer service. At Eaton, you are forced to provide horrible service because of the shear lack of resources, and the utter ineptitude of upper management to acknowledge that something should be done.

The software we used was archaic, and our scheduling process was the worst customer oriented process I've ever seen.

I had to finally quit the job for the simple sake of my own sanity.

I still keep up with some of the people that work there, and things haven't changed at all.

I could continue writing a novel about how every single aspect of this job was horrible, but I'll stop here...

DO NOT - I REPEAT - DO NOT TAKE THIS POSITION!

Everything they say to you in the interviews is a straight lie and they will turn their back on you the instant you're trained enough to take phone calls.


In several ways I am satisfied with my position at Eaton, it has given me great growth opportunities and I have learned a few new methodologies since joining over 12 years ago. I’m going to mention several things I’ve encountered and one that shocked me when I found out and I believe it to be true.

Each year in the aerospace sector and most others we receive orders of hiring freezes and or lay-offs. Something is seriously wrong with the forecasting at the top that each year firefighting occurs. The result is, running a plant/department on a shoestring which in turn results in poor customer service and nonconforming product being shipped to customers. The plants that supply product to the 787 program are poorly staffed. Eaton looks at the staffing levels as this is what must be done to keep shareholders. The other side of the equation is that these parts go on airplanes, now the 787 is grounded due to Eaton product from a poorly staffed plant.

Another contributing factor to poor product quality/performance is the fact that in many of the Eaton Aerospace plants employ people in design and process/manufacturing engineering positions that are not degreed engineers. Many of these people are the department manager, I think this is more prevalent in the manufacturing engineering discipline and it is in design engineering. The majority of the customer complaints and product malfunctions typically are the result of inadequate processes developed by non-degreed manufacturing engineers that are managed by non-degreed manufacturing engineering managers. These parts go on plans. This shocked me when I found out, do the customers know that the person that designed the process is not an engineer or is the manager, i.e. Boeing, Sikorsky, Hamilton Sundstrand, Air Buss, Embraer, Lockheed Martin. The cause: lack of standardization in the HR organization.

One manager in a plant in Pennsylvania told me about 6 months ago during dinner that he has dealt such harassment over the years that he has attempted suicide twice, took one leave of absence and one week mental hospital stay due to the stress from being forced to continually absorb more work that other managers don’t want to do and the lack of support he gets. He told me that his department is so poorly staffed that during his tenure he has worked 24hr days over 15 times and averages 12 hr. days when the other managers leave at 4:30 leaving him the last person in the building almost every night. The other surprising thing was that he said he spoke to the HR manager a few years ago who is aware of his mental illness and she told him that he would have to work things out with his manager. In addition either the HR manager or his manager told other managers of his illness and he said a manager looked at him and said at least I’m not bipolar. I asked him why he didn’t report it and he said with a straight face, I’ve dealt with enough retaliation so far if it starts up again I’ll end up ending my life. He said, the bright side is that I have over many pages of notes and recorded conversations that would make a good book to support my retirement. WOW! This is Eaton. Interesting that he said he doesn’t want to leave, he just wants to do his job and to be treated fairly and put things behind him and that things are slightly better.

Also, I’m not a disgruntled employee with a chip on my shoulder, there are many good things at Eaton. I just want to see some changes and see good hard working people be treated better so I can feel proud to work at Eaton.

This is a massive corporation and operates like one, which means, things are terribly inefficient and move very slowly.  That being said, a career can be made here if that is what you choose.  My experience has been that this is a place where some people take advantage of the opportunities, others do not.  I suppose that can be said about any workplace.  
So, the benefits are actually pretty decent.  The insurance is UnitedHealthCare and is pretty good.  There is tuition reimbursement up to about 5k a year.  Standard vacation of about two weeks your first three years.  Many different little perks like paid time off for a new baby, fitness reimbursement program, etc. just to name a few.  Where this organization lacks terribly are the hourly pay rates for the various production related positions.  At the Arden facility, there was a recent adjustment to the wages to make them more competitive, but they are still lacking.  When the average rent in the area surrounding the plant is a thousand a month and the starting pay is about 15/hr, you do the math.  The salaried positions pay well, though, if you can attain one.  Having a degree is greatly valued here and it doesn't matter what that degree is, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of those who don't, despite any experience you may have.  We are talking manager level positions being possible with no type of business degree necessary.  Speaking of management, they are mostly good folks.  I do believe that most of the leadership here are doing the best they can but the reality is when it comes to functional leadership, the entire facility appears to be lacking.  Thankfully, the HR manager who was here for a generation has now retired, so maybe some of what is lacking from the people side of things will change.  The sad truth, though, is that a lot of the people in leadership positions simply don't have real leadership skills.
The overall culture is generally relaxed and the people are mostly friendly.  There are, of course, a few bad apples as in any organization.  The downside is that it is nearly impossible to get fired from this place so they stick around forever.  The hiring practices seem very lazy as anyone with a pulse can get a job here.  You can literally miss weeks of work with very little recourse, which is so demoralizing to those of us who actually want to work.  Accountability for measureable job related tasks and the production related to those tasks is also, sadly, very low.  Don't want to work much today?  You can get away with that, and many do, by wandering and "working" on non value added tasks all day long.
There is always overtime available as this place is super busy the last few years and for the foreseeable future, so that's good.
Much more could be said and from my experience, there are some great folks that work here and I would still recommend it to anyone that wants a stable job with opportunities for the future if you are willing to accept the BS you will have to endure.

This if for LA office (near glendale). If you do a great job, keep ur head down and follow what management wants then this place is okay. Also, this place can be fun when you find the group of workers that makes the place worth spending your time in. There are many hard working people in the office and they deserve a ton of amazing credit for what they do. Some workers even give back to help other colleagues (just amazing! love those people). Those are the ppl that the office should always pay attention to. Then you have some people in management lacking great leadership. Sure, anyone can lead and be put in leadership positions due to their great work or education or who they know.  They may have a leader title, but they can also lead the culture to the cr*pper with how they treat and talk to others. As shared by the majority of people, workers typically enjoy working for leaders that lead by great examples, not by putting ppl down, bullying by the way they talk/treat others or simply just not know how to manage ppl. Some mgrs get promoted into management because they are great individual achievers. Senior management believes when promoting a person, someone who is a great worker, can be a great manager. Most cases they are right (about 80% of the time). But for the other 20% of the time, senior management, like anyone else, can make errors/mistakes in judgement call. Example: leadership FAILING to provide adequate training for new supervisors or FAILING to recognize that a spvr isn't in the right position and should go back to an individual contributor role. Sr mgmt has the ability to correct mistakes/errors, by givn the supervisors another chance AND giving appropriate trainings - but that takes a great leader to recognize and admit to the error/mistake. Out of the 20% mentioned, about 5% of supervisors promoted should be removed from management duties and back to individual contributor role (not fired, please be fair)! These 5% of new supervisors just do not know how to manage other people (they may be able to manage themselves alright, but fail when it comes to managing other people no matter how much support/training they are given). The worst thing any good office leadership can do to the 5% is give multiple chances because it can destroy the team/workers. A great leader should be able to recognize if a supervisor has what it takes to manage others or not, provide training/support/mentorship where needed - it does not take very long. If leader cannot evaluate, they are not great leaders and/or don't have a great leadership team to help them recognize gaps (but then again it's the leader responsibility to build a great team around them so it falls back on the leader). All this is to say that most management is great in the office and several of them care about the success of the people and treat fairly. If you are a great worker and are fortunate to work for a supervisor/manager that falls under the 80% mentioned above, you will be taken care of :). 
If you work/ed here and agree or not agree, please comment.

When you get hired on you do not get to choose the department you work in. They will put you wherever the need is. 
If you wish to move to another department you have to wait a whole year. 
HR will "say" you will start out on day shift but what they don't tell you before you get hired is they will immediately bump you to second or even third shift after 60 days and there will be nothing you can do about it. 
You will have to wait until your clock in number gains enough seniority over someone else's on a different shift in your department until you can move. Could take months or years depending on your department. 

Pay is very good! 
Start out back in 2018 was 14.25. It went up to 15.45 after I had been there a year because of the new contract they sign every 5 years. So every 5 years your pay will be affected depending on the voting outcome. Other things like time off will be affected as well. 

You cannot use doctors notes! 
This is very important because if you or your family has alot of health issues. You will run out of points and will be fired. They are VERY strict and do not care about your health issues or surgeries. 
You cannot get FMLA to help keep your job until you have been there a year. 
You only get 20 points a year to use and everyday you call off is 2 points. So you can only call off 10 days of your first year until year two when you get 10 days of vacation time to use instead of using points only.

You will have to work ALOT of overtime whether you want it or not. They mandate you almost every weekend and extra hours during the week. If you do not show up the day you are mandated, they point you 4 whole points. They usually make me work 6 days a week so expect to have very little family quality time but the pay is great. 
Saturdays you get time a half and Sundays are double time. 
Holidays are triple time. 
You can listen to music on the weekends at work and days you work that's on a holiday. 

Also last thing to note....
Degrees, certificates, and, licenses mean nothing after you are hired. They only care about seniority here. 
Example: You could get a forklift license after you are hired and they will hire a person without a license or any experience just because their clock in number has more seniority than yours....It's ridiculous but unfortunately that is how they do things here. 
So if you do not want to be stuck in an assembler type job for years make sure you get all your certificates and licenses before taking a job here so you do not have to go through all of the seniority battles to get there which will take years. 

The secret to advancing here the quickest (with no degrees or certificates) is working 3rd shift. 
You will move up the ladder 3 times faster because no one wants to work that shift. 
2nd shift is a little faster to move up than 1st. 
1st shift high paying jobs are for people who have 5 years of seniority or more.

I will start with the pros, there are many opportunities to learn new things such as machine operator, welding, assembly, etc. If you happen to be the painter you are left alone for most of the day so if you like to work independently this would be a good fit. Management is really nice for the most part and so are the workers on the production floor. I would have to say I have never worked with such nice people. Now for the cons: Don't make any plans because mandatory overtime is just a blink away I will say if you give them a heads up they're good about giving you time off. Don't get too comfortable in your work station because you will be pulled to pick up the slack of the under staffed assembly shop. Don't make any plans at the end of any month because that's when they expect you be there the most... For the end of the month rush. O if your someone that likes overtime (like myself) be prepared to go back and forth from mandatory to no overtime within minutes. The management and office staff out number the workers and everyone is or acts like they are your boss. Also be prepared for penny pinching like if a tool breaks be prepared not to get a replacement until they have money in the budget to do so. I couldn't get a full face respirator because if was questionable if I needed one even though there is a sign on the paint booth that states full face respirator  required. I even brought in my personal paint for a few months until the bought one. I asked for a new/longer air line for the paint preasure pot and i was told that its not in the budget. Be prepared for consistent interruptions that will have stop what you are doing to start or do something else. Career advancement within is very limited to none existent because the office is over capacity unless you willing to relocate to one of the more organized Eaton facilities in which may be very difficult because the production manager will control whether you leave or not so don't get your hopes up. The production manager is only out to make herself like good to corporate. Hense the reason for penny pinching for supplies and overtime. It's all about the profit margins to them. Health insurance is pretty much worthless they got rid of the only plan that was worth paying for but they will give you money in a health saving account 400 for individual and 800 for family which is good. They stopped the 401k company match until September or later in the year. I thought this place was going to be somewhere for the long haul but I was so sadly mistaken.

Pros:  
1.  Eaton operates with financial transparency (due to being publicly traded), so financial results are updated frequently
2.  Our facility is climate controlled and has updated lighting to make the environment even safer.  This brings me to my next point.
3.  Eaton does NOT play around when it comes to safety.  Doesnt matter if it is financially driven or ethically driven,...they are very serious about making sure employees are safe.  They have spent millions upon millions to improve on safety and have cross training frequently on aspects of safety.  They also demand accountability at the local level, so teams are created to overlook safety.  
4.  Work and home life.  Some sites will not fall under this but most will.  Eaton does try to balance work and life by not forcing a ton of overtime on employees and also with somewhat flexible scheduling.  
5. Ethics.   I have learned that this is going to be site specific as to what a person sees but Eaton as a corporation absolutely wants workers to do a great job and as the product calls for.  This has to be overseen at the local level though so some may have great QC and some may not.   The company as a whole tries to update any/all changes that improve the quality of a product long before it will go into action.

Cons:
1.  Wages.  While competitive with the market, Eaton does not rise above it.  Their wages are not their greatest incentive.
2.  401k.   While they have had to make some changes to their end of matching over the last few years due to the changing market, they have limited and even eliminated their matching.  It has returned recently to some capacity but not near the 5% match they used to do.
3.  Pension Plan.   This is a pro for those who are grandfathered in but I got hired the year they stopped offering it so it is a con for me.  All timing I guess.
4.  Lack of thanksgiving and christmas offerings such as turkey or ham or even bonus.  We get a lunch at a place voted for for christmas and that is it.   Better than some companies but I would think Eaton would offer turkeys for thanksgiving and a ham for christmas.
5.  Purchasing Engineers.   At our site, it seems we are constantly looking for parts, especially those "job specific" or "AP".  Once the engineers purchase, they never look back.  Those in manufacturing are then responsible for frequent follow-up on parts as well as doing their job in manufacturing the product(s) and having them ready to ship by the due date.

Typical day at work is you start off with a tier meeting of the overall department. What's going on in the department and what is expected of you for the week. Working in my department I've learned a lot which I'm a quick learner because I want to learn my job so I can do my job to the best of my ability. Management on other hand is horrible. Management doesn't have any kind of communication. Management has their picks of who they let get away with some things as in staying out, taking vacation, leaving work with no problem and taking breaks and not having any kind of discipline. I thought Eaton was giving everyone a second chance at work as long as it's 6 months after leaving. That is fraud. I filled out to get back on at Eaton but my chances were no. Being at Eaton for a long period of time with no problems with management until I tried to get back on one who I thought would have helped didn't. I haven't did anything but do my job when I was there and if there was a problem it was not being discussed with me. How is it I asked another supervisor about getting back on and I was told it's up to HR but I heard that the supervisor is trying to get three other people on but you just told me that it's up to HR. The management I believe all needs to be let go and more needs to be hired on. Eaton in Fayetteville has an high turn over rate. Most of the employees in the departments leave because of supervisors not recognizing their ability to do good things for them. Management only cares about their self. I do not want to go back to Eaton if I was paid $50 an hr not unless all of management is better or hired better supervisors. The employees at Eaton are the best. They are sweet, polite and friendly to work with. I got a long with everyone at Eaton. I just can't believe some of the supervisors at Eaton are a worst implement of poor management. All supervisors are not for you so it's best to have your own back and to make sure you have to watch all around you. The most enjoyable part of working at Eaton is my coworkers. The hardest part of the job is just working with fake people that say they are for you and not. The job is real easy once you learn your job. I learned my jobs in one day. I wish anything but the best for someone new and they will not train you on anything that you are going to be working on. 

My job itself was in distribution, which was actually a pretty easy job as far as factory jobs go. I spent most of my time driving a forklift, loading trucks, and running orders through the shipping screen. I also learned how to run for hose assembly, build simple assemblies, and then audit those assemblies.

However, there are some practices that are extremely wrong here. There are start-up shift meetings which means that shifts overlap, however there is almost no communication between shifts, supervisors, and HR. For example, we would end up with people staying over on 2nd even though we ourselves were not allowed any overtime. Another example of the gap in communication is how a supervisor tells you the rules and procedures are one way, then HR tells you it is something different. There is absolutely no clear outline of the absence policy in the handbook as it is extremely vague and unspecific. I inquire to HR about this (which when I did it was almost impossible to get a hold of anyone as that staff rotates night and day) and I am told by an intern that they're aware and working on it. This was 2 months ago, by the way and nothing has changed. 

Also, due to this location being the hydraulics sector, and because we ship primarily to farmers, the amount of business changes night and day. One year ago we were cranking out overtime like crazy, and now the possibility of a layoff looms in the balance. They kicked 21 people from a department due to such low business, only to pull some of them back a couple weeks later, then put them back after that. 

Next, there are definitely a lot of people there that think just because they have been there for a while means they can act however they want. For example, it's not uncommon to have to carry the weight of an entire team while watching coworkers stand around and talking. Or to watch a coworker verbally abuse you in front of a supervisor and then receive no reprimand for it. 

There are so many things going downhill here and it's no wonder that people are flying out of this place and pursuing better jobs!

A typical day at work depends on where you are working.  Working in Assembly and Wiring require patience of learning the process, but most of the time everyone is very willing to help you learn if you are wiling to listen. The weld department has many standard parts that you can become familiar with - it is just when the boxes come that many are different and you need to be aware of things.  The blueprints used can be tricky as Eaton does not have actual weldaments.  You are not told exactly what size weld, where or how long - it is all OJT (On the Job Training).
They say that people will quit a place due to management, not because of the job.  At this moment, some of the management - including the Plant Manager - are a place that is not so easy to work for.  
We are a small facility, but one of the top rated and top producing facilities - and yet - the Upper hand continues to try to limit hours and ask for more without understanding that we need those hours in order to do our job effectively and efficiently.  Before we had a PM, there was no issue.  Now it is always an issue.    
Truly, the most enjoyable part of my job is literally the coworkers.  They at least keep it real and laugh.  Many times we can see the "storm" coming before they want to admit it; and when it does - we all enjoy it and encourage it.  They dislike it.  
They can cross-train but it depends on the season and what they have going on.  It is not an open atmosphere as some are very protective of their positions and others are willing to teach only certain people who show promise.  
Some individuals are very power-hungry in the position that they are in - which makes it very difficult when you want to learn from other people and this person gets offended because you did not ask them first.  
There are a lot of other things that go on - on an upper management level that just make other things questionable and very frustrating on so many levels. 
This facility/employer is one that this person has not experienced before and is looking to remove themselves from soon.  Good employees.  Not so good management.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assembler 679 salaries reported	$20.41 per hour
Welder 96 salaries reported	$25.30 per hour
Assembly technician 95 salaries reported	$21.60 per hour
Manufacturing engineer 50 salaries reported	$106,767 per year
Cnc machinist 36 salaries reported	$28.53 per hour

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