warehouse worker

laborer

IFCO Systems US, LLC

I love all the individuals that worked there from the men and women to young and old they made you feel like you belonged however once you experienced the work all sense of enjoyment left their faces the hardest of jobs being the stacked woman work a line that is fed food crates. The technique of stacking took time to learn but good hand-eye coordination proved this to not be a problem. Now the pay was minimal and the hours only hit the 40 hour mark and you can kiss overtime goodbye as it was a competitive thing that involved clean up. For those whom actually spoke English or should I say to those whom didnt this proved to be a problem when it came to helping new employees out for if there was an experience and fast working employees stationed there you were responsible for training them as did my predecessors before me. Alot of the time I got so good that I worked 2 lines at the same time as they had different complications line A has 0 space to work with so special memory was key in knowing where to place a stack of crates onto a wooden pallet that could break and has, line B had space but because of the spread of it it was the neutral zone for new employees to learn the ropes, as for line C well it might as well stand for chaos because only the best worked there and their quota was insane as we stayed in motion and had to keep a constant system; here there was no room for error as the line was the fastest and the crates had to be stacked the highest. Now your probably wondering why I know about all three lines and that's from experience, I would have stayed for some management expierece let them tell it I wasn't one but I was doing what those who watched me work could and should have done which made me aswell as many other hate the job so be all who wish to work for them warned the pay is trash and the expectation are high and with what I learned they planned on automating most of the process the only part I believe they couldnt was the stackers job and the forklift drivers.

The job itself is easy, but management is terrible. Instead of hiring qualified individuals, the management team likes to hire friends and family who are not qualified for supervisor positions or office management positions. Management has no basic communication skills or understanding of how to run a warehouse. It seems they pick just anyone for any job and have the nerve to ask themselves “Why can’t we keep anybody?” or make comments such as “They don’t know how to do their job.”. There’s another friend that was hired recently to replace the last friend.. Where’s the qualified individuals?

There is heavy favoritism here as well. If they can’t use you, you must be a terrible employee. They’ll get rid of you in a heartbeat once you don’t agree with them, instead of making adjustments. They like paying people low wages and tell you multiple times you’ll get a raise. Next thing you know, it’s almost a year later and still haven’t seen a penny. But other people will get $1-$3 raises within a few months.

There’s also no HR on-site, but they tell you the office manager is HR, so you’re taking your problems to someone who’s actually in management. Then never see any changes because you’re actually not talking to an HR representative. Even if you manage to get HR’s emails and contacts, they still don’t answer your emails or concerns. 

Extremely unprofessional business. It’s like a giant high school with grown people. It’s almost as if they like hiring people without education so they can use them to their advantage.. or at least try to.

What is the best part of working at the company?
At the time I started it was like a very large and unruly family.  It was fun with excellent pay and benefits.  It morphed over time into a culture of "production over safety".  Would go back, if they'd hire me again, but would be SIGNIFICANTLY more self-protective.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
A lot of outdoor activities regardless of the weather.  Communication was negligible leading to missed meetings and poor morale.  Management problems can't be covered up with pizza parties or employer "food night". 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work culture is intellectually demanding, requiring an operator to learn multiple plants' operations leading to increased requirements for overtime.  Environment can be loud and physically demanding, depending on the location within the plant that you work.  Claims that "safety is job 1!" right up until it interferes with production numbers.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
12hr shifts from 0600-1800.  Taking readings of various parts of the process every 4 hours minimum.  Conducting tag-outs for equipment and indicators, draining dangerous chemicals (i.e. ammonia, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate).
Othe activities as required.

Although IFCO is growing and taking over many plants this growth is great for investors and bonus receiving mangers, but growth for the common worker is somewhat stagnate. Supervisors are not considered management although they are the ones that push production which make IFCO financially growing. Training a supervisor for the next level in management is very slow and should be updated and regulated by regional directors to ensure that GM's are actively training supervisors who are both qualified and willing to go to the next level. Although they have a number to call HR incase of fraud or something that is against policy, confidentiality is not something that I have experienced, and one who wants to reveal wrong doing will be put on the spot in front of the one who should be under investigation. Co-workers make the Job well worth it, but I am not that confident in upper management and their willingness to see the outlook of those who are running things on the front line. Numbers do not paint the total atmosphere of the company

What is the best part of working at the company?
Nothing. In 2010 the place was corrupt to the core from upper management down to pallet repairers 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Keeping up with crooked requests from regional to upper management. Worked there as an Assistant Plant Mgr. Following instructions from regional, general managers until suspicious things popped up then you were left holding the bag. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was corrupt to the core. Day to day operations as an Assistant Plant Manager was like a juggling act trying to keep up with upper management requests then keeping the paperwork in line with DOT & OSHA regulations 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Very stressful. If upper and regional management conducted business under required regulations & standards things would have been like a normal business. Do not recommend working for this company in any facet of their model.

IFCO was a great place to work.  The people and management were great, and the passion for the environment was evident.  As a company that manufactured reusable produce crates, their environmental focus also showed in their office environment.  They used "real" dishes and glassware to alleviate the amount of trash they produced.  No water bottles, no styrofoam plates and bowls, they tried to live what they represented with their product.  Their was, however, a disconnect with their parent company, Brambles, and that there was also a pallet division to the company called Cheps.  This made it confusing at times since there were employees from each company working in the building, and they really didn't communicate.  Wages were not great, and there was not a great collaboration between the different departments represented in the office.  But overall the people were nice, management receptive and the environment good.

A typical day at IFCO consists of removing crates off of a palate and organizing the crates by size and sometimes color and sometimes cleaning the crates and sending them through the washer. I learned how to finish my assignments in a timely order and how to work on a line with people who all have different personalities. My co-worker we're very fun to work with and sometimes stressful to work with but we all made sure we got along so we could work as a team and get our assignments done by the end of the workday. The hardest part of my job was rotating positions. If I was working in one area and my supervisor needed me another area, I would have to stop what I'm doing to go help someone else. After I finished helping the employee, I would have to go back to my area and finish my assignment before the end of the work day. The most enjoyable part of the day was second brake. I could go mingle with other employees that wasn't on my line just to make sure they was having a good day at work.

I learned how to not only manage my time but also the time of my peers. I will say though its not fun having to go behind someone to make sure the was done properly but Ive had to do it. That is part of being the lead though is making sure job gets done no matter what it takes. Management there was very intuitive,  we would have a meeting every morning going over what needs to be done for the day. Most of the co-workers did well on their own but we did have the few who needed to have some fire lite under them to keep them motivated. There were even a couple I had to tell the manager that if they could change we needed to get rid of them. Both instances the were fired before it was all said in done. The manager listen to what I had to say because he knew I had what it took to keep the job going. I enjoyed being a lead, it made me feel important in the company and had I stayed I would most likely be the supervisor or manager by now.

Management manages by crisis as a by-product of a non-training program. Did not handle harrassment issue effectively; laughed in my face.

Atmosphere is less than professional as crude language and remarks are the trend. They make a better group of friends than a solid management team. They party together thereby eroding any professionalism that may be able to exist in the office. And if you're not hanging out with them, then you're on the outside. A clique? Is this high school? You bet!

"Passing the buck" is the motto at IFCO. "I didn't do that!" is the resounding chorus to an otherwise boring tune. Teamwork is a fleeting memory here. Be prepared to go it alone.

The duties are wide ranging and fast-paced. Be sure you are 100% trained on all aspects.

So if you'd like to " good ole boy" your way into their good graces, apply. But if you are the least bit sensitive or possess any remnant of a moral compass, it's best to keep looking.

A typical day begins with the offloading of trucks to keep production going constantly. I learned about RPCs (reusable plastic containers). They are what you would find in your local retailer's produce section. We recieve dirty RPCs wash and sanatize, then ship the clean product back to the retailers to be used again. Management is respectable, organized, and open to the concerns and suggestions of all staff. The hardest part of the job in my opinion would be creating the floor space necessary to keep an organized steady workflow possible. The challange of that kept daily duties interesting. My favorite part of the job would be operating the forklift and training/certifying others and working with them to ultimately reach a unified goal of successful daily production expectations.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse worker 1 salary reported	$7.75 per hour
Laborer 1 salary reported	$16.38 per hour

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