machine operator

packer

order processor

attendant

warehouse worker

Great Lakes Cheese

I've been at Great Lakes Cheese for about 3 years. To sum things up I would have to say the positive things about GLC is the weekly pay and fairly competitive pay. Now the reasons NOT to work here. YOUR SAFETY! Recently there was a tornado touch down in the area around the end of August. Instead of following the procedure for dangerous weather, we were advised to continue working through this, and simply not to go outside until after 5pm. We work in Plymouth, and Cascade is the area I believe the tornado touched down. We rely on our employer to keep us safe, and this was an utter failure. We did receive an apology from our plant manager during our next quarterly meeting, albeit weeks later. Scary to think these people are in charge of our safety. Next would be COMMUNICATION. There simply is none. Well, none regarding important stuff. We have a board for memos to employees that is checked daily. Here we hear more about cigarettes being tossed in the parking lot, parking lot expansion updates or whatever else our HR rep would like to scold us on.  We've had some severe shortages of cheese coming into the plant for weeks, like mozzarella, monterey jack, colby and many others. The reason for this shortage was not communicated to us and we were only told when it was finally asked. An issue with a system update on corporates end that affected their ability to create orders or something along those lines.  Not a WORD from corporate, or even a memo from HR or SOMEONE to fill us in on what was going on. This shortage caused a ripple effect, causing preventable overtime for many people. Again, not worthy of a communication I guess from corporate. They tend to focus primarily on tenured associates and could really care less for new hires. We are short staffed severely in Warehouse on 2nd, causing 1st and 3rd to do weeks of overtime of 10-12 hour days and Saturdays. They seem to hire only 1 warehouse worker at a time, then they quit shortly after because they are tired of the antics. People that do work in warehouse consistently attempt to apply for other jobs, but are denied because they are short staffed. They look miserable but who cares when you aren't the one having to do overtime right? They told us in our last yearly meeting from corporate that they rely on us for referrals. All I can advise you is that as a new hire, they will only allow you 5 unpaid days your first year, then 8 paid vacation days and a few more after 3 years. Terrible when compared to other cheese plants. If you absolutely need a job and feel you can power through all this, apply here. I'd recommend reading other reviews and seeing the similarities prior to applying. Also, huge warning not to work on 3rd shift here. Most people are rude on third. Terribly rude. Its no wonder there are constant openings for 3rd.

I work 2nd shift (2-10p) and alot of the people on this shift are of the hmong culture. No judgment on my part, however, there seems to be alot of hmong that get away with behavior otherwise not tolerated or allowed. And no repercussions are presented to them for their actions. Also, oppertunities are presented to them for advancement, when they have not even learned the current position well enough to train the next new person. Leading to the viscious circle of untrained operators, finger pointing, job duty jumping constantly. Basically, the company turns the other way for them. Gets old. When projects come about they seem to want to do a million things at one time, and seem to think that they will never run into wrinkles in the plan. Well things never work out that way. Paid holidays which is nice. However, they always schedule mandatory overtime the following weekend because they know they only have to pay straight time that way. The order planning around here is a joke most of the time. Sometimes I'm amazed at how slopped together things are. There are some amazing machines and equipment here and they normally take care of things and address problems when they arise for the most part. But alot of the time the initial plan just seems like it was a 5 lb bag designed to (attempt) to hold 10lbs of stuff. As the saying goes. Scheduling each production run is a joke. Changeovers all the time, most of the time they will run one product, changeover, run another one, and change right back to the one that they started too. Which has never made any sense to me as far as being effiecient i think they are far from. Management has been grandfathered in without any real education in the field it seems. 

Now. I do love working here. Except for the things listed above, it is a relatively comfortable place to be. Sometimes stressful but rewarding in the end of things. Good sense of security. Ability to purchase production cheese cheaply. Tools are suplied for you. Decent supplied machine shop in house. Never a problem too big that doesnt get solved. Not very strict overall company. Show up and do your job and go home for the most part. I will continue to work here a long time.

A typical day at work is the same thing day in and out you getting promised to get trained better or shown something just to get ignored and yelled at by your supervisor for not performing well then rinse and repeat every week. I learned that just cause a company pays good does not make it a good job it was at first a nice place to work but when supervisor stopped doing their jobs of running the production floor and would rather sit in the office either talking bad about employees or out right discussing how to make someone's day worse for them instead of getting them the help they need. Management barely left their office and would never talk to employees they would yell at supervisors make them upset then that supervisor would take it out on the whole floor even though its all because of bad management. The employees and work culture they create is by far the worst part you have employees who do nothing the entire day and get away with sitting in the office with their feet up complaining how no one does any work. The ones who put in effort are given more tasks until they cant breath and then shut down making a good employee do just enough to not loose their job. The hardest part of the job was watching so many people ignore helping others instead of trying to elevate them. Most of the time employees actively participated in bad mouthing others just to make themselves look better even though they were the problem. I know its said far to often but the best part of the job was clocking out it stressed so many people out to the point where they either quit working there to go to a fast food job or they just could not come back cause of health issues caused by stress.

Ok where can I start first off this is just my opinion take the job here and find out for yourself.  The supervisors here are just flat out mean grumpy unhappy people that treat you like a kid you just don't feel wanted and they will let you know your replaceable there is no union so they can get away with whatever they do to employees. The training is terrible they barely show you anything but expect you to know everything within three weeks you pretty much train yourself the trainers tell you they don't want to train you honest to God truth. The breaks are 2 15 min breaks it takes 5 min to get to the locker room so that leave you 10 min if you use the restroom wash your hands that's 2 min so that leaves you 8 min warm your food up that leave you 5 min so you don't got time to eat because you can't go a minute over 15 or you get in trouble especially if your low in seniority managements favorites get half hr 45 min breaks . I have never had a worse experience at any work site . You work 6 to 7 days a week they don't care if you got family if your mom is sick if you got a baby on the way you get in trouble if you miss a day they talk crazy to you like your a kid And honestly you get treated very bad if your black it's alot of racism here but not from everyone it's alot of good down to earth people who work here to . I'm only leaving this review to help if you have a couple job offers and one of them is GLC choose the other company don't make the same mistake I did ...

Daily review of national key accounts via EDI 855 transmission and Collaborative Planning Forecast Replenishment (CPFR). Used both Demand Solutions Forecast Management (DSFM) and Demand Solutions Replenishment Planning (DSRP) to manage pipeline inventories.

Co-workers were very supportive in executing their assigned responsibilities diligently. Most of the co-workers had been with the company for many years and in many cases GLC was their only employer. These employee's witnessed phenomenal growth as GLC acquired additional companies and introduced state of the art manufacturing technologies and supply chain network of supporting systems.

The hardest part of the job was determining the actual effect / result of promotional activity. Many of the products on promotion were standard products sold on an ongoing basis. So the challenge would be in quantifying promotional sales activity including BOGO and end-cap from standard sale of these products.

The most enjoyable part of the job was being a key member of the Supply Chain and working with our other plants full cycle from the production phases through the complete distribution network.

1st things first, I'm writing this from a maintenance standpoint in Wausau and intentionally leaving off the shift.  Your experience may vary.

While formal education is preferred, Great Lakes Cheese also recognizes a degree from the international school of hard knocks.  Both paths require an aptitude test before hiring and four "Technician Levels" determine the pay grade.  

The crew here (8 + an on-shift supervisor when fully staffed) is a good mix of young pups and old dogs.  While there are some "specialists" (IE: the fabrication guy, the automation guy, the HVAC guy) nobody gets their knickers in an uncomfortable twist if somebody dabbles in "their" territory.  Rather, they are supportive and helpful in training.  Cautious, perhaps but helpful and supportive.

The most noticeable thing missing is "that guy."  You know, the one that has decided the best way to success is to undermine everybody else.  The "help each other get paid more" vibe has really caught on.  While the usual shift rivalry still exists even that in a constructive manner.  Managment stepping in to force a truce doesn't seem to happen.  Ok, that is at my location so again your results may vary. 

However, a bit of caution:
The shop banter can be BRUTAL.  If you are deeply left, right ... heck we can offend a Chaotic Neutral alignment.  And it is the best kind of fun.

Mangement does not take your side unless you’re favored. People who are favored can slack off, walk off lines and socialize while everyone else has to do the work. They simply turn a blind eye and pretend they haven’t seen anything. When brought up to supervisors and management about problems you get a “I’ll talk to this person or that person.” Or “I’ll take care of it” but Nothing is ever resolved. Meetings talk  about  having teamwork but nothing is ever enforced. Human resource is never on your side. They will take advice and favoritism from management. They are also impossible to reach when you need them. Beware because they will use this against you,  costing your job.

Unless you have a super high seniority status you can never take off on a Friday when you need it. Weekends are worst because there is no rotating schedule so you have a chance of working every single weekend if your line is scheduled to work.   When hired we were told weekend work will be posted by Wednesday but that is a lie. Schedules are sometimes posted as late as Friday. Work life balance is just horrible because you can never plan a Weekend unless you know fore sure you have off. 

Nothing fun or new is ever planned at this company for appreciation for their workers. Everyday is strictly work work work. Even on holidays your breaks are still a minimum of 15 minutes.  

The only good thing about working here is its easy to get a temp job here. But good luck trying to get out of temp status. They'd rather pay you less with no benefits than put you on full time. The management cannot communicate with you at all. They lie to you just to sugar coat the fact that they can't tell you there's no full time positions for you. They tell you that its required to work 233 hours to qualify for full time. Then when the time comes, they'll tell you sorry there's no openings. So your stuck working for less than what they told you that you would get, and no benefits. If you need benefits ASAP, this company has no problem making you wait for months and months. The management seems to avoid your questions and gives you sugar coated answers to keep you motivated. And when you try to talk to anyone in management, they always say go talk to so-n-so. You go find that person, and they tell you go talk to the same person that sent you to them. Nobody knows how to do their job in management very well. Also, the drama here is ridiculous. Everyone here has there little clicks. If your not one of them, good luck trying to advance. This place picks there favorites. Even if you've worked here for a long time, your pushed into the shadows for someone they favor that's worked here less. Overall, this place is only good if you need a job in a pinch that's better than small town fast food joints. Otherwise, this place is a joke. 

Great Lakes Cheese is a growing company and it shows. It would appear that they are growing faster than they can sustain without adopting to new technologies. They have very good production equipment where I work but the systems for warehousing, quality, maintenance, production and human resource tracking are basically pen and paper. 
Employees are treated well when the production demand is good, if production demand is high, employees are expected to fill in all the gaps. Think of it as a faucet that you are catching water in a bucket from. You have two buckets, one that fills, the other to use while you empty out the full bucket. When production demand increases, you are still left with two buckets and are asked why you keep spilling water everywhere but are never given a third or fourth bucket. 
Will say the ESOP program they have is awesome, I have been here over 10 years now and my earnings in my ESOP account are close to what I make in a year. 
I can tell management is trying, couple of new guys that have come here are really trying but seem to be getting pushback from old timers. Appears to be better times ahead but time will tell. 

Some days are smooth and some days are rough. Most people are friendly and easy to talk with. You can sit and chat while doing your job, just don't chat too long people will rat on you. The same goes for the 15 min breaks. Management could be better about their workers does not matter if your warehouse or production. Lots of opportunities to advance. A lot has changed but for the good. Some areas of improvement in the plant would be nice. Work hours are nice depending on what shift you are. HR is a lot better now and helpful. Average insurance, health care, etc. Not the worst or the best insurance. You get done on time most days, not like other jobs where you have to finish your job first. If you've worked in a fast-paced job then this will be easy. Plan to work here for at least 7-10  years to make it worthwhile for the ESOP. The other stuff that happens in GLC is meh.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 6 salaries reported	$23.92 per hour
Packer 10 salaries reported	$1,600 per week
Order processor 10 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour
Attendant 3 salaries reported	$23.32 per hour
Warehouse worker 3 salaries reported	$22.33 per hour

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