marijuana budtender

associate

packager

fulfillment associate

shift leader

Holistic-Industries

I started working for this company and was excited to get into the cannabis company. Within a few weeks the true parts started to show. More often times than not, people hated working for the company. I started in the grow house and there were people doing the same thing (trimming) for 10 hours a day for months on end. No variety for certain people. There was a lot of favoritism and if you were “in the club” you could get away with everything. I transferred to the dispensary and it didn’t get better. It got worse. Management was horrendous. They would never take responsibility for their actions and put the blame on others. The AGM in particular didn’t care for anyone but themselves. The lack of support and care from a “manager” was insurmountable. The GM did their best, but when it came down to it, didn’t stand up for the employees. There was always expectations from management, but those expectations were not told to employees. Leaving the employees to get reprimanded for something they didn’t know was wrong. Employees would have to continuously take TERRIBLE customers. But the employees could never stand up for themselves. Because “the customer is always right” even when it goes against company policy. Management does not care about your personal life. If you have something going on that is affecting you greatly, you are expected to leave it at the door. You’ll never come first. And the company will try and reprimand you on a BIG scale for something that wasn’t your fault or out of your control. Holistic industries stopped caring about the quality of the product and cared more about how much money they made. Sure, money is important. But when you no longer have a product that smells good, tastes good, and has good effect; all the hard work goes out the window. The flower started getting overtaken by mold, but the company tried to bypass it. Millions of dollars of flower wasted, to be sent to the lab to be made into vape oil. Which is all one strain, but has added terpenes. Ingenuity at its finest. 
Let’s move on to the pay. It’s bad. The ones that put all the effort into the product make less than the ones that sell. And don’t even bother asking for a raise. The company does not do raises on a case by case basis. And you conveniently get a bad yearly review so you can’t get a pay raise or a bonus. 
The HR department is a joke. Going to them with inappropriate behavior ended up no where. Even after numerous complaints from multiple people. You’ll have an appointment to talk with them, and they won’t contact you at the set date and time. And a week later they’ll reach out saying “sorry we missed you”. 

The company promises bonuses if you make the money goal for the months and year. But the company will also set it at an absurd amount, so getting a bonus is not achievable. 

By law you are entitled to holiday pay on federal holidays and 1.2x on Sundays. Holistic doesn’t do that, and I didn’t know about these laws until after I left the company. 

There were multiple occasions where management would leave out disciplinary paperwork, or the documentation that they were going to do disciplinary paperwork, for anyone to see. More often times than not management would speak negatively about ALL employees for any reason. You’d leave work wondering what the MANAGEMENT was saying about you behind your back. The environment was unbelievably toxic. 

If you apply yourself and have some luck, you may very well enjoy your time here, however.... The first few years I was very sympathetic to what I figured were growing-pains-related dysfunctions throughout the company (poor/inconsistent communication, pervasive cronyism, questionable ethics [ex: upper management insisting on attempting to sell mold-contaminated flower], constant turnover of management [from facility managers to executives], etc.). After several years, however, very little of this had changed. Internal dynamics at Holistic felt increasingly unstable, and oftentimes, laughable. I have no illusions that a company like Holistic exists to make a profit, that any workplace is far from perfect, and that I signed a contract to further the company's goals. I have no issue with this, and very much enjoyed working hard each day. However, had I not gotten a bit lucky and been surrounded by coworkers on the ground whom I liked and respected, I think my experience would have been exponentially more frustrating, discouraging, and short.

I guess I'll start off by saying you should not have any expectations for ANYTHING besides the bare minimum. I worked at this location for 16 months and witnessed multiple coworkers (who have been there from the beginning) apply for lead positions and nothing came of it. Management barely acknowledged their applications and instead hired from the outside. Management here is extremely unprofessional and will constantly talk about employees behind their back to anyone who'll listen. I can recall more than a handful of times where disciplinary paperwork was left out on the break room table for anyone to see. This company only cares about making money and pushing their revolting products which have been compromised by mold. If you think you deserve a raise here you should probably table that idea because you won't get one, unless you were looking for an additional and insulting 40 cents an hour. To be honest I could write a novel about all the things that make this a despicable place to be for 40 hours a week and the mental toll it takes on a person but it's just not worth it. Look somewhere else, for your own good. 

The pace of the work day and expectation from management will burn employees out at an alarmingly fast pace . Management is Terrible in actually helping employees and supervisors succeed . Management takes no accountability for mistakes and like to blame others below their pay grade . Multiple employees are constantly disgruntled and unhappy with the pay and unreal expectations set forth by management on a daily basis. The turn around of employees at every location speaks to this assessment and proves there is a gross mishandling on managements part . There is no reason to reach out to Human Resources, as they are only in place to management navigate and escape any repercussions they should receive for complaints giving by employees. This particular location in beaver is managed by someone who is non existent in the actual rooms and departments she over sees and constantly pushes blame to employees who are over worked and under appreciated. Also under paid . I would highly recommend not seeking employment at any of their locations. 

Holistic used to be a place that you would actually want to work at. It very quickly became the opposite. I’m not even sure where to start, when I first worked there people actually were smiling and having fun and before I left it was so different. Management has this “favorites” thing where if they like you then you’re first to hear about the job promotions coming or “inside information” that others didn’t really get to hear. Accountability wasn’t a thing,  if you did something because a Manager told you to do it but it wasn’t the right way to do it unbeknownst to you it’s on you. Compliance was an issue. The lack of diversity/favoritism was obvious when only people that looked a certain way were in higher positions. If you had to call in to work for an emergency that was private that same information would be told to everyone by your next work shift. A lot of gossiping. When going to management about the gossip nothing was really done because back to the whole “favorites” thing.  This company was better before but things change.

This place is one of the worst places I have ever worked. They don’t hold people accountable or care what happens on the day to day until it’s too late. Then they want to try and point fingers at people in entry level positions instead of realizing the management team literally fails to communicate and take action on problems throughout each department. Training is non existent. Severely understaffed. The grow is being run like it’s not a million dollar company and a bunch of guys got their friends together and was like yeah we can do this. The focus seems to be pumping out product with no place to put it. There is absolutely no room for growth unless you have the “right” skin color or you rub elbows with the right people and they take a liking to you. The management team needs an intense training on how to be solution oriented and how to talk to your employees in general because the disrespect I’ve not only witnessed but have received myself in this work place is unreal.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part about working for Holistic Industries is their ability to meet me at my current level and recognize the skill sets I am proficient in while allowing me to continue my professional growth.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The workload is a lot; I'm often tasked with more than I could handle outside of a typical 40-hour work week. I feel like that can be said for any cannabis company. Start-ups often require a bit of additional time and commitment. This is a very new and evolving industry. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There are a lot of wonderful, compassionate, and hard-working people here. Also, plenty of people trying to do the bare minimum and complain about the job.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Prepare for day, start work at 7-730am, 1 hour break during the day (30 min lunch and 2x 15min breaks), work day ends at 5pm. On standby for support, but not required to be available immediately.

I have worked for this company for almost 2 years and I can honestly say that this was the worst company I have ever worked for in my entire life. Stepping into this industry with a passion for cannabis I felt like this would be the perfect place for me to learn and grow, oh how I was completely wrong! The highest turnover rate I’ve ever seen in my entire life, there’s always a position open because you most likely won’t last over a year especially working in the Maryland market. HR is pitiful and if you report anything make sure you already have a job lined up, There’s a lot of retaliation here.. The work/life balance doesn’t exist. If you can’t dedicate your entire life to liberty and holistic then you can consider yourself gone. Everyone has different experiences but working for holistic industries in the Maryland market is NOT where you wanna start. Save yourself the stress please this place is not worth it. 

Senior management is where all the problems are. The management at Monson when I was there was incredible and did what they could despite senior level management not listening or accepting any outside suggestions based on their “knowledge” despite not having any cannabis experience themselves. They do set outrageous goals and the company has outgrown the building space. Then again it is a manufacturing company and the goal is to make money (which means more product) unfortunately quality is the trade off for production. All in all if you’re looking for experience and a foot in door it’s a good start l, if you really care about quality you might be upset but everyone is just trying to do their job. Again the problems are with senior management. The Monson managers are just trying to hit the target numbers and keep their heads above water. 

I was excited about starting job, turned down a better job for it. I had a family emergency which I communicated with manager postponing my start date, I stayed in contact and updated. I had to get Covid 19 test before I could start, which was very difficult being everyone everywhere was getting one to visit with family for holiday. 2 days before I got "negative" result, I received a call....3 days before Thanksgiving telling me that the job offer has been reversed. My family is homeless and financially struggling and this job was the light at end of tunnel. I was told "sorry you are having personal problems, good luck". Heartless, that hurt I was depending on the job and the news darkened our Thanksgiving. We are losing everything. Interesting I told the management how my family is most important thing to me, obviously family isn't to them. Greatly disappointed. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Marijuana budtender 49 salaries reported	$17.39 per hour
Associate 26 salaries reported	$17.69 per hour
Packager 15 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Fulfillment associate 11 salaries reported	$17.73 per hour
Shift leader 9 salaries reported	$19.72 per hour

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