warehouse worker

equipment operator

inside sales representative

administrative assistant

production assistant

Farwest Steel Corporation

I've worked in various aspects of the steel industry (from casting operations to product finishing) over 10 years for three different companies, and Farwest is by far the worst I've dealt with. I saw more entirely preventable accidents in 6 weeks with Farwest than 6 years at any other job, primarily because the majority of their employees are teenage temps with no experience. My team leader at Farwest was 19 years old and his only prior work experience was at Taco Bell.

They also posted a listing for a crane operator, hired me for that position (which was one of my specialized fields), and then put me to work deburring metal parts with a grinder without any explanation. Advancement and cross-training opportunities are next to non-existent, and safety regulations are an afterthought; the first thing I noticed during my orientation was that none of the welding stations had so much as gloves or a hood on them, and the safety gear locker is literally under lock and key and inaccessible to anyone who isn't at least a shift manager. 

I enjoy working in the steel industry and understand that it's a dangerous, difficult line of work, but would not recommend Farwest to anyone. I literally chose to be unemployed rather than continue working there another day.

Short-sighted business practice, next to zero accountibility, biased interpersonal relations, and the revolving-door policy for almost every position and department means its great for beginners fresh out of highschool to gain experience, as long as you keep your head down. Management has a grave lack of understanding about realistic production capabilities. The idea of 3-day lead times simply cannot be given to all customers. Their policy of "over-promise, under-deliver" means that, when under the gun and strain from high priority customers, you will be expected to work mandatory overtime for weeks on end under the threat of personnel write-ups. And the ill-trained sales team will ensure there is plenty of that.

Ill-performing equipment, despite mandatory albeit un-audited daily equipment checks, means you may be forced to grind slag off parts all day, despite being a trained table operator or welder. Again, this is due to a lack of understanding about capacity and machine throughput. Only suggested for those looking for dollar-over-minimum wages.

Typical day at work consists of clocking in at 6:30 a.m. doing a safety check of all your equipment. Then laying out the work you would like to accomplish for your shift. Then tackling those goals I believe that I've learned a lot from this company I gained a lot of skills I started out as a laborer and was trained how to run and overhead Gantry crane as well as forklift and other machinery. Management is awesome they're willing to work with their employees to help them advance within the company. Depending where you're at it can be very physically demanding. And the starting pay isn't all that great but you do get pay raises about every 6 months I was there for 14 months and went from $18.50 an hour to $21.50 an hour. Plus they have great benefits as well as an awesome referral program. They also hire felons and give people a second chance at gainful employment. Far west is the type of company that you can grow with and potentially spend your entire career there.. 

DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY! I devoted over 10 years to this company, what a waste! Corporate hires new toxic managers every 2 years. Refuse to hire from within.  ZERO  career training and development. Managers will actively stifle career growth to keep top performers in current positions. There is excessive performance punishment for top performers and refusal to address problematic behavior in subordinates including verbal and physical aggression. Raises are taken away more frequently than they are given. Do not waste your time here if you value career growth, good managers, open communication, personal safety, and reasonable wages.

I love my job, but it gets stressful with all the negativity from the people that work there, plus other than my supervisor, management is all over the place. Has a huge turn-over rate and lack of changes. The most enjoyable part of my job is the people I work closely with, the work itself is consistent and repetitive, yet changeable from time to time and I have a great supervisor. The hardest part of the job is lack of cooperation from the shop, upper management, and unwilling to make changes to better the company. And don't get paid enough for the work I do in order to live.

Upper management sticks its nose and trys to micro manage every little thing, but can only seem to keep their machines teetering on the brink of operational and about to fall apart. Literally one machine is leaking oil all over the floor and their fix to put towels down to soak up the oil and when their saturated with oil throw them away and put more down. Professional. Not to mention the tooling should be thrown away it was a miracle to find two punches that actually lined up with each other. They have the dumbest rules out of any shop i've ever worked for too, thanks to the micro management. Also don't expect to move up in the company unless your dad is in upper management. Definitely don't missing working here!

There needs to be a complete culture change from the top down. The Board of Directors only care about the bottom line. They have no desire to retain the good employees who can and want to make a change. The training is atrotious and you will be reprimanded for the things you were not trained on by a person (or people) who have no desire to train and dont care if you succeed or not. Be careful of the "tribal knowledge"  quote from management. Management seems to use this quote as a get out of jail free phrase when the didnt train you on something they should have. 
Overall, if you have ANY other option (including unemployment) take it. I would rather flipped burgers than put up with another day of that soul crushing  employer. 

Farwest is a old school company and because of that they have a lot of old policies and their way of thinking that doesn't work well for the today. Thinking that there are always someone else to replace you so why should we pay you more when we can just hire someone else? 
DO NOT take a position in management here unless you like being told what to do all the time. As a manager you are Micromanaged all the way from the top. Good example is they don't have budgets. Not even their branch location has a budget, therefore everything has to go all the way to the top. You arn't hired to be a manager, you will be hired to put out fires. With your hands tied you will watch fires build and not be able to do anything until they explode. 

It was a very routine job, every day organizing documents and scanning them into the computer system. I found how to pace myself and how to find a good rhythm with routine work. Having the patience and the consistency all while keeping upbeat with the workload. Everyone was very nice and friendly. The hardest part was when I would get done scanning a huge stack of documents only to have a new stack of documents waiting for me to organize and prepare to scan. I just had to push myself to keep going and think positively, not dwelling on the workload. I enjoyed being able to work at my own pace and the privacy I was given while working. Oh and of course the great view outside the big windows in the room where I worked.

At farwest steel they have a culture that focuses on doing your farbest. (I know it is gross). The problem there, exists at the corporate level. The pay is way below average. You can start out making more money at some fast food restaurants. Upper management is not good, they are all in Eugene and spend more time in meeting with each other than they do talking to employees about issues at farwest. The culture is broken at farwest and the only way anybody will be able to fix it is if uppermanagement changes. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse worker 31 salaries reported	$23.07 per hour
Equipment operator 28 salaries reported	$24.67 per hour
Inside sales representative 15 salaries reported	$29.50 per hour
Administrative assistant 12 salaries reported	$21.17 per hour
Production assistant 10 salaries reported	$19.78 per hour

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