truck driver

applicator

laborer

custom applicator

office coordinator

Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLc

Helena Chemical Company was a great place to work. As a long-time state licensed pest control adviser and outside salesman, each year I progressed with new accounts brought in, and my clients were all good paying accounts, which benefited both the company, and myself. Desert agriculture (especially leafy vegetable season) is highly time demanding, and perfection demanding. The often high value of veggie crops vs other crops really demands a lot of hours and attention to detail.

As assistant manager, and still performing my sales and crop checking duties, was very stressful, but that's just how it is. When I became branch manager and still performing my outside sales/crop checking duties, it became even more stressful as I could hardly please the upper brass due to the lack of time I spent in the fields,and with my clients. So they brought in a new guy to manage the branch, which allowed me more time to expand my outside business, and increased my income due to sales increases.

Overall, it's a great company although at times it was difficult to attend yearly out-of-town company meetings due to Yuma's huge fresh produce business, it was hard to leave town for more than a day. Most of the other nearby Helena branches didn't deal with leafy vegetables, so it was easier for those guys to attend the sales meetings, as their busier time of the year was opposite of Yuma's.

It was a satisfying experience.

Title says it all! Just ok. Could be a lot better. Wages are ok not great. Benefits are good. It's ok if you need a job, and don't want to grow. Don't expect to move up unless you brown nose a lot. The more you do the more you will be given with no appreciation, or extra compensation. Lazy employees are given just as much, or more depending how good they brown nose. Mandatory overtime. Expect to work long hours with no time off in the busy season. (That's 6-7 days a week 60-80 hours per week. April-July depending on location). Wintertime is slow.  Salesman run the show, and are your best friend when they want something. Other than that your nothing to them. No respect, or appreciation from them. There is tons of free stuff given to salesman, and branch managers by the chemical/seed companies from trips, dinners, to apparel. 
It is all kept by them, and never filters down to the actual backbone/workers of the company. There is a definite disconnect between corporate, and the local branches. Upper management only cares about Branch managers,  and Salesman, because they make the money! Not the actual workers that get the job done, and deliver the product. Warehouse workers, and Drivers are expendable too them. You will be treated as such, and occasionally told this.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The company has all the regular holidays off as well as often times letting the employees off early the day before the holiday but with a fully paid work day for that day. There are also company events and picnics on-site. The insurance is okay to good.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The environment is like a high-school popularity contest.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
More often than not, the work environment is filled with gossip, judgment and a big-fish-small-pond syndrome. If you don't kiss butt, it often does not go well for you.  There is a lot of bullying and a twisting of your own words to incriminate you.  Being responsible, skillful and having a good attitude simply is not enough to thrive in this company long-term. A measure of deviance and narcissism is a must to make a job at this company a career.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The work is okay but it can be stressful if you work for or with a bully.

It would be impossible for me to find anything negative to say about Helena, even if I wanted to. I’ve worked many jobs before my employment and  Helena is the only one that has actually stood out to me, coworkers and management are very positive and actually care about what they do, they treat employees and the customers with the utmost respect. my short time as an employee was more akin to going to my second home, you are treated like family by everyone, at first I thought it was just my location, but being able to meet the staff at other locations had made it more clear that it was a company wide normality, the pay is very fair, even generous, the only reason I’m not currently employed is because I’m a younger guy planning on joining the military to get the benefits and special bonuses they offer to hopefully build a good life but if I didn’t take that route I could see myself being at Helena for a very long time and hope to be again, as soon as I build a comfortable living situation and family.

What is the best part of working at the company?
To work with my former employers and employees. To learn and grow with the company. I build wonderful relationships with all the employees I worked with.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Learning the difference between some of the chemicals that we had that had almost the same name, and same function.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was very laid-back. Sometimes it could get hectic if we had a few orders come in at the same time, but the team I worked with was really talented and great at what they did.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Getting the order is ready to go out in the morning making sure everybody had their paperwork and nothing was changed from the night before. Communicating constantly with my supervisor to make sure things were running smoothly.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The variety of skills required 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Clerical work, reports,  monthly expenses reconciliation.  Authorization requests for need items. The incompetent production Manger that circumvents environmental laws concerning handling and disposal of chemicals. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
No team environment at all everyone does as they see fit. Management is extremely inflexible narrow minded and always skulking around in the shadows 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Several repair projects going at the same quite a bit of autonomy, sourcing and ordering parts for repair projects, answering immediate repair needs for production, troubleshooting  electrical and automation.

Management is not much to be desired, about like being back in elementary school. Adults are treated like children , if you are willing to take on responsibility for 3 people management will love you but don’t expect more pay.Managers don’t care about the employees, only themselves. All locations in western Kansas are understaffed and employees are overloaded with responsibilities to the point they can’t even do the job they were originally hired to do but there’s never a manager around to help out with the work load. They are at home or vacationing and pretending to be working, I’ve never worked any place where management is only required to work 20-25 hours a week but get a salary for the whole week

For the first short while of employment, the "family" environment was a breath of fresh air...and I absolutely believed and lived it.  However, everything changed with a regional management change and all loyalties and relationships built were thrown out over night without much, if any explanations or examples.  NEVER trust the "family" message...in an instant they can turn on you!"

Managers do not communicate with each other, so if there's a discrepancy in your orders for the day between the plants, you are at fault. The plants are dilapidated to say the least, the equipment always breaks down, the shops are dirty and disorganized, and the work environment is terrible. If the equipment breaks down while you are operating it, regardless of what happened (software malfunction, GPS malfunction, hydraulic hoses/cylinders, bearings, etc...) out of your control or not, you are at fault. They require you to work an inordinate amount of overtime, no sick days, very few holidays, and you work 7 days a week. Pay is lackluster at best. Do not work here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
This company seems to genuinely care about their employees.  If you aren't liked by the higher-ups, they will make you so miserable that leaving seems like the best option. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Getting along with everyone else and focusing on your own productivity, whenever the workload continues to grow higher.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Small cubicles, very little privacy within working area. 
Company provided ice and coffee in all their breakrooms.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Viewing images on one screen while keying onto another monitor.  Very busy, constantly keying.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 78 salaries reported	$22.16 per hour
Applicator 39 salaries reported	$21.95 per hour
Laborer 39 salaries reported	$18.33 per hour
Custom applicator 12 salaries reported	$24.58 per hour
Office coordinator 14 salaries reported	$20.36 per hour

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