warehouse worker

staff auditor

senior machinist

senior designer

production worker

Forum Energy Technologies

Forum Energy Technologies is a good place to work. Especially if you can make it to the upper salary tear of the organization. A typical work day begins with a safety meeting and a short discussion amongst supervisors and management about the days activities. Depending on the day of the week there is either a safety committee meeting or a production meeting at 8:30am for supervisors and managers. My co-workers were all good people and were nice enough. The hardest part of my particular job was managing personnel and prioritizing tasks to complete. The most enjoyable part of my job was getting to create policies. The company is so young that I was actually creating policies that will probably be used for decades to come, which is kind of cool.Their management is well compensated and have very flexible working hours with little deadlines to meet. As a mid-level, multi-site superivisor I had a taste of both worlds. I started out on the floor so I got to see what it was like for the everyday workers, (not exactly a dream job). However, as I progressed through the ranks the job and working conditions got better by miles every ring of the latter. Sadly, their compensation for those who achieve is non-existent. I'm not sure if it is corporate or just management, but the whole promotion process takes months to complete and always after the responsibility of the new position has been assumed. To make matters worse the increase in salary for the new position is not much more than what the old salary at the lower level was. Many employees know this and good, talented employees will, in many cases, pass on a promotion because they know that it will include much more work for not much more money. All that aside, it is a young and growing company and there is a good chance that this compensation sluggishness will abate if the recession ever ends and once they become more experienced using their own promotion systems.

I was hired on as a temp to hire, which originally told during the interview process that it would be mostly likely 5 months. That is their "standard"  process for HR to approve for your hire. Well just expect for most likely 2 years. There were numerous of employees I meet that said it took 2 years before they were hired on. The department I worked for was so unethical and unprofessional. The executive assistant expressed high confidential information about executives, other employee's information pertaining to terminations, conversations that she "had" to have with HR about employee's job performance. The moral overall is very childish, there is no sense of team work or efforts. Everyone is always up to play the blame game instead of acting as a team and failing as a team. You could have the greatest communication skills one could hold, but it will have no benefit here. Everyone is on their own time and will only do minimal, no more no less. Individuals that hold management positions are very young and inexperienced to manage. Having worked in the past with Senior VPs and CCOs with 15+ years in the oil & gas industry in a management role to coming here was very difficult and trying. 

With the industry as it is now jobs were cut having the ones that were left over worked by performing numerous positions as one. Everyday will be struggle and very challenging, in any position. New hires are not properly prepared for work from day one. It would take up to a month the longest I have seen for employees to get their desk phone much less a new laptop. IT would issue new employees a refurbished laptop from no telling how long ago. Until it is approved to purchase a brand new.

First off, I really enjoy the work. The actual job, not so much. The upper management is pathetic, no communication from office to floor. The work schedule changes so much, even from day to day, that there is no chance of planning anything even if you get a full weekend off. The end of month rush is stressful, especially when you get pulled from your department to help out in the assembly department because they are always behind. Yet assembly personnel are never given out to help your department when you are behind. Sometimes you go all week thinking you have a Saturday off until an hour before quitting time on Friday then they let you know. Theres no motivation to work hard, or to be good at your job because the less skilled and less motivated people make just as much money as you, and you are expected to pick up the slack for them and fix their mistakes all while keeping your production up. Raises are almost nonexistent, and in the rare occurrence that we do get a raise, iteaves alot to be desired, unless you are a suck up, then you'll get a decent raise. When you bing up problems or have complaints about production or quality, you are ignored completely or are told "... we can't all be superstars...". I will say that the pto is great, which may be the only thing clearfield or this entire company has going for it. Safety seems to only be a concern when we are 'slow' meaning a normal 50 hr work week. Equipment is lacking, or never gets repaired. Basically if you want to work here either make sure you play golf or can suck up to bosses, then you will get the easy assignments and will have less expected of you and the rest of us will just have to pick up the slack

Forum Energy Technologies is not the place to work, Their downhole division runs like a sorority house, From Global Sales manager who's doesn't know anything about the products, to TSC can't invoice on time which results in sales looking bad, A Sr VP asking Engineers to forge documents, and go around people who have patents on tools. Accounting documents also being asked to forge for the safety of ones job. There is zero accountability at Forum, you have Sales Rep 1's calling themselves "Business Development", No overlook of company vehicles or employees, safety hazards are everywhere, No hard hats when operating overhead cranes, no seat belts on forklifts, safety is the least concern. There is zero leadership and zero work ethic. It stems from the top down, and shows exactly how Forum is ran as a whole. The only thing that is keeping the lights on is the downhole division, and that is barely, at that. Yet you have HR interviewing people when HR doesn't know what one single characteristic for that job requires. Forum needs a complete restructuring. There is no decision making, upper management lacks so many quality skills i'm not sure how they have made it that far into their career. The blue collar employees keep this company aloft and are hardly praised for it. The stock sucks, leadership sucks,and overall management sucks. Don't waste your time until something changes. Upper management knows nothing about the market, and it completely shows, but this is what you get when you have guys from Drilling running products artificial lift tools.

At forum it's best if you just coast by with your work as nobody in management recognises those who work extra hours or make personal sacrifice to achieve project deadlines and provide great customer service. 

There's little to no opportunity for advancement due to the fact that forum is essentially an umbrella for about 20 smaller companies; each specialising in different things. It's unlikely you have enough specialist knowledge to work in another business line and since most of forums acquisitions are small companies there's often little to no opportunity for progression unless your direct boss leaves or is promoted.

The company has a set of values which are valid on paper only. None of the senior or mid level management back up the core values set by the VPs of the company and most of them don't seem to understand the industry that they work in or how to utilise the staff they have properly

Overall the actual work is ok, most of the people are fine and the salary isn't awful however the fact that there's no direction provided by the management from VP level down makes it hard to identify what overall goal you're trying to achieve. 

Worryingly the company also has an impressive track record of buying successful companies, adding them to their portfolio and then running them into the ground with their poor management and lack of knowledge of the industry. Maybe not a company that's going to be around for the long haul.

Personally I would avoid working for forum unless you have absolutely no other choice.

Where do I start... I’ve was with Forum almost a year... I have NEVER been trained once on how to do anything. This is common the hired me or one thing & gave me 3 other additional jobs... that’s were they get the savings ...The best part of my day was one coworker I was close to. After month one... they kept piling on the duties. They do this to everyone not just accounting...they expect you to work on Saturdays & Sunday’s... Get sick? Put in your time. Any issues, don’t tell HR... HR will go right up to the individual & day so “this person came to my office about you.” I watched this happen with so many employees. They don’t have the slightest clue how to run a company. Many of your coworkers ate so stressed from all the work, they are generally super disrespectful & rude. My manager was extremely clueless. He messed up entries every month but to higher up management ?! It was my fault. During audit I was asked to falsify documents on numerous occasions ... it was just too crazy for me ... i wish someone had old me all of this before I took on this role... say it with me RUN!!!  If they ask you to work fir the fallbrook location RUN!!!! I heard corporate is much better. After you’ve gone everything then they do layoffs

What is the best part of working at the company?
Honestly, absolutely nothing. Very poor business structure, and “the brother-in-law” hiring/promotion process is a big problem at FET. Management has a lack of knowledge, leadership, and education. For instance, my manager’s manager had an Associates Degree in Psychology with absolutely no experience in O&G; however, he was friends with the VP of my group.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Absolutely no help from management, and management will throw you under the bus to customers in order to protect themselves.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very tense. It’s seams as though management is constantly looking over your shoulder, and the love to micromanage!! 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful. This is a company I was really looking forward to working for. After just a week, it seems I had to force myself to get out of bed and go to work.

Bad Management - Bad Decisions within IT, too many individuals that are hired to complete a job description and are not educated enough to do.  Management- friends hire friends of 10 and 20 years.  Bad Business decisions, they purchase software and do not communicate with other SME's to see if they currently use it or need it.  Spend too much money on Software that is poorly implemented or not properly vetted.  If you expect any Bonus what so ever let me give you an example I received an amazing review and was making over 100 per year.  I received a 600 dollar bonus.  Poor medical insurance.  This company cuts every corner it’s sad.  I have worked at Enron, NRG Energy, and Walter P Moore... Amazing companies that have respect, drive and organization.  This company is not truthful on interviews and lacks direction.  This is a bad company to work

DON'T BE FOOLED!  2nd shift isn't really second shift.  4:45pm to 4:30am is not second shift.  Most likely you'll train on day shift for a while then switch to nights.  All the guys are pretty awesome and a few are exceptional.  Everyone on day shift make $15.00/hr.  Nightshift makes $16.75/hr.  Don't expect to make anymore.  Raises aren't in the budget because they don't even have the money to pay their bills.  Constantly being told that we'd have to wait on things we need because their account has been froze until they pay.  Absolutely no work/family life balance.  Forced to work 55 hour week and at last minute be told to work Saturday and/or Sunday as well.  MANDATORY.  No sense of compassion or concern for second shift workers.  Constant conflict between day shift and night shift as to who is actually doing the work.  Save yourself the hassle, find something better.

Forum was a good company to work for, i was at that job for a little over fifteen years.  I would still be there if not for the decline in the oilfield combined with the Coronoa virus.  A typical day consisted of assisting Engineers in nine PDM vaults with day to day issues.  Forum is a company that would buy other companies so I would go to new acquisitions to review their PDM system and re-build it to suit Forums needs.  I worked with divisions throughout the world so extensive travel through Europe, the United Kingdom, Singapore and China.  I would often have to change my work schedule to accommodate other time zones.  So if working on a major upgrade in the U.K. that would take a few weeks, I would begin work at 10 or 11 pm U.S. time to web ex with Engineers in that time zone.  I find PDM Administration to be a rewarding job when I would help people to solve problems as well as creating and maintaining their system.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse worker 1 salary reported	$16.38 per hour
Staff auditor 8 salaries reported	$74,063 per year
Senior machinist 5 salaries reported	$51,835 per year
Senior designer 6 salaries reported	$72,070 per year
Production worker 8 salaries reported	$18.61 per hour

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