electrician

production supervisor

operator

utility worker

summer intern

Imerys

As the global strategic director of marketing and product management I am responsible for driving the portfolio of new market opportunities for the Filtration & Performance Additives business. In this role I have 10 highly experienced direct reports of which 6 focus on front end innovation, new markets and new opportunities for growth and 4 focused on Global Product Management. I am based in home office in England, but my actual office is in San Jose California with an 8 hour time zone delta, this is extremely challenging for both the normal working day and for travel for staff meetings. I am travelling more than 50% of my time and it's now almost 100% for internal meetings with no time to visit customers or really explore the markets myself. I am heavily involved in M&A, with the most recent acquisition of S&B being them most recent. I really still enjoy the innovation and technical challenges of defining market unmet needs and establishing value propositions and grounding out both the business case and defined project plans with milestones for delivery. Working closely with R&D as the Marketing lead is really enjoyable. The toughest part of the job today is probably global product management role since it's very financially driven and less strategic than the marketing side. There are simply too many tactical day to day supply/demand balances and circuit profitability measures that need to be considered and too much excel spread sheet management / analysis for my taste. The travel and work day have become very difficult to manage as I am away from home around 70% of my time and on very long flights. I have to be in San Jose once per month, and also travel to Latin America, Asia and often to Paris HQ. The environment at IMERYS is excellent, with very good working relationships with my co-workers and staff. I would much prefer to be in an office environment than home office.

IMERYS produces huge volumes of commodity minerals used filter and filler applications.  Almost any clear liquid you drink or swim in has been made clear by a filter aid.  Any plastic or silicone product you touch or paint you use has an IMERYS product in it,  Conversely, IMERYS also makes very low volumes of extremely special products used in very technical applications such as pharmaceutical products needing pure blood plasma to chromatographic support media and catalyst materials. It is very challenging to run an efficient operation where commodities and specialties are both managed efficiently. Add to this the materials are sold globally with IMERYS in the top 40 exporters from the USA.
This creates lots of opportunity for professional advancement around the world and in many arenas.  The challenges of learning and understanding all of the customer uses of the products were some of the best aspects of the job for me.  Helping customers was always a priority.  This was also a downside due to customers applying lean principles incorrectly - letting resources go that knew how to use product and not understanding the expertise needed in their own applications.  This latter seems to be a growing issue and saddened me when unable to help.

There were no days during the course of my employment at IMERYS that were the same as it relates to a typical day.  To clarify my role, I would have to say that I was more of a fireman or EMT.  Constant emergencies, primarily due to lack of accountability and not adhering to the procedures.  

The task I was assigned to do was to remedy the kind of environment that I described above.  With a new accounting system, we were going to be able to track cost via the system, as opposed to paper and manual journal entries.

The difficulty was not being able to change the culture that was set on doing things the old way and refusing to change.  This was the hardest part of the job.

The most enjoyable part would have to be the people I was able to help and teach.  Being able to help others with doing simple spreadsheets, formulas, tables, etc. that would say hours out of their week.  Seeing the relief they felt was worth every difficult day I experienced.

Typical day was always changing. One day would be creating risk assessments and maintenance schedules the next would be experimenting with the grinding parameters to modify the final product. Management was always supportive, intelligent and easy to get along with. Everyone working with or over you was very intelligent and they all excelled at finding tangible solutions to the multitude of problems associated with a new plant design.
The hardest part of the job was creation of safety paperwork as it could be tedious. The most enjoyable part of the job was really everything else- operations, maintenance, experimentation, lab work ect. Really wish this position had not been cut short by the paper mill we were stationed at.

Effective and efficient operational process.
A typical work day consist relieving the previous shift operator after debriefing of issues during his/her shift. Safety and cleanliness is prioritized. Fast-paced environment with minimum supervision in an industrial environment, attention to detail is a strong attribute. Having to make contact with the customer regularly, I've learned the detailed expectations which creates a stronger bond between both organizations. The most difficult part of the job is mechanical breakdown, delayed process, delays production. I enjoy the concerns about the employees and our safety from management, as well as the working conditions and environment.

Upon arrival to the mine site, everyone would gather up and stretch while discussing daily responsibilities, as well as any news or updates to  make sure everyone was completely informed. I learned a lot about safety, how a mine works, and also how to operate some equipment. Everything was very well managed and supervised, and I could not have asked for better co-workers. Everyone was so helpful and patient, which made working an educational and fun experience. The hardest part of the job for me, would have to be reminding myself to never become complacent. No matter how many times you’ve done something or how comfortable you feel, safety always comes before productivity. The most enjoyable part of the job, was the experience. I learned so much and had a great time working for Imerys and hopefully can work for them again.

I have been here for several years and nothing ever changes. Management is awful set in there ways they dont want to make any changes to get stuff better for the workers. I have had allot of managers over the years and they never wanted to improve stuff. I finally got a young manager who really listened to all of us and he tried to make changes that made things better. We started liking our jobs again and then he quit cause they started making changes and moving people to jobs they dont know. The big salary guys wont even listen to there managers. Its there way or the highway. All of us are back to hating our jobs again. They need to wake up and listen to people and quit running the loyal and smart people off.

Never had clear job duties or goals, overlapping processes handled by different employees that were unnecessary and time consuming. Tied to work phone 24/7, never had any "complete" downtime, even on vacation/personal days. Branch management never wanted to make process improvements and utilize employees to their full potential resulting in lots of frustration with both management and hourly employees.  Hourly employees heavily overworked with a large turnover. Equipment breakdowns constantly. No preventive maintenance because they are putting out fires fixing machinery going down all the time. Heavy focus on safety, which is good for the workers. 

Management has little experience in the mines or plants or with the customers. There is a disconnect from the workers. The arrive at sites in pointy shoes and want to be pampered while they ignore the safety rules everyone is made to follow.

The react to everything with "initiatives" and constantly change priorities without providing resources. This is typical of businesses but communication is lost the ever changing reorganization. They would change customer formulas without telling them. With the stock dropping like a stone, they have shown no commitment to their people. Cutting lots of jobs and great employees so upper management can try to minimize damage from the poor financial reports.

Worst comany to work for (Ludlow,VT  plant). 
The management is terrible there 50% of the time they don't know what's going on with production, equipment or the machinery inside to bag the talc does not work right. The employees that you work with can talk behind your back to the boss and try to add things on to to get you fired or not make it passed your 90 day trial period/ 520 working hours. Working inside with the talc and the dust in the air even with a dust mask it take a toll on you after two weeks there and can not breath very well in or outside of work. Pay would have been fair if the machines worked correctly to bag etc.  And they half @@s it to fix anything not a permanent fix to the problem. OVERTIME IS A MUST 50HRS A WEEK OR MORE MINIMUM AND AT LEAST HALF A SATURDAY OF ON DAY SHIFT.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Electrician 3 salaries reported	$32.00 per hour
Production supervisor 15 salaries reported	$81,667 per year
Operator 1 salary reported	$27.83 per hour
Utility worker 2 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour
Summer intern 16 salaries reported	$22.00 per hour

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