packer

operations associate

order picker

order filler

shipping and receiving clerk

Keefe Group

I worked for Keefe Packaging for the duration of a 6 month period during which time, I was praised for my work ethic from management and coworkers alike. Many coworkers were surprised that I stuck around for as long as I did as most new hires distanced themselves from the job around the 2 week mark.

I began working for Keefe, weighing in at 295lbs around January of 2017. By March, I had lost over 60lbs. That's 4 months, tops. If that isn't a testimate to how brutal this job was, then I don't know what is because this job was pure SWEAT and poor ventilation. Rooms were kept at a stable 80 degrees as to ensure the quality of our product, however- coupled with keeping up with the exceedingly fast-paced machinery, body temps would soar. 

Our shifts were typically 10 hours with frequent overtime. We were alotted 2x 15 minute breaks and 1x 30 minute lunch break, Monday-Thursday with every other Friday. Towards the end of my time working here, I was all but relocated to a place we'll affectionately refer to as, "The Hoppers". This is where things get hairy; I was never offered a pay increase, despite the fact that the folks who were hired into the business for the job were paid a dollar extra than Machine Operators(me). I was expected to maintain 4 out of the 8 hopper rooms, all with chutes leading to fast-paced machinery, cutting open boxes, using and securing 1000lb bags of product to automated lifts, bringing in new product from outside our room, lifting/stacking wood pallets and dumping 50lb bags of everything from powdered sugar, powdered cheese, coffee grounds, kool-aid mix and rice down into the rooms below so that the machines remained functional and full of product. There were constant jams and issues with how the machines fed that fell into our coffee-stained hands that I've no doubt could have been resolved with a corporate investment of new equipment. Rooms were also very small and coordinating 10 large pallets so that they would fit into the room, all the while ensuring that every room remained stocked with product was pure chaos at times. I was requested to work the hoppers with no additional pay, more and more frequently with incompetent/mentally deficit coworkers(this is not meant to be disparaging) who would forget to check their rooms or just not do their work so I found myself covering/helping them more times than not. We were provided breathing apparatus' to ensure that we weren't breathing in the harmful particles of the powdered goods but we had to ration them and were frequently forced to work without them when we ran out due to how rarely management checked on stock. 

Bathroom breaks are allowed but at management's discretion. They will do their best to ensure that you feel as guilty as humanly possible about your basic human needs. I should preface this by stating that I struggle with IBS and there were times where I would get reprimanded for having an attack. 

All-in-all, it was truly a 2/10 experience with the only perks being that I had a set schedule for the most part.

Just know that if you work here in customer service, you will work every single holiday with the exception of Thanksgiving Day & Black Friday, and Christmas Day. That's it. New years, working. 4th of July, working. Memorial Day, working. Labor Day, yep you guessed it, working. And if you're unlucky enough to work 2nd shift (until 11pm+), you'll work until 11-11:15pm the night before the holiday & have to get up at 7am the next morning to work an 8am-5pm shift. So, it's either stay up all night, or get 4-5 hours of sleep and then work 8 hours on the holiday. It makes holidays absolutely miserable. You're too tired to enjoy anything. 

EVERY other call center I have worked at, closed for most major holidays. And if we DID have to work, we'd close early and everyone would work 4 hour shifts. There is ZERO reason to have every rep from 1st & 2nd shift work a full 8-5 shift on a major holiday. I know it seems like a small thing, but it's not. And it's not fair to the 2nd shift employees at all. The 1st shift employees are used to working 8-5, so it doesn't affect them at all. This is one of my biggest pet peeves of this company. 

Also, if you get hired for 2nd shift, good luck EVER getting moved to an earlier shift. Never happens. And lately 2nd shift is left thrown to the wolves. We used to have enough reps to make the call volume bearable, but for months we've been down to less than 10 reps on 2nd and the calls in the evening are nonstop most of the time. 

And you're not allowed to use ACW. Ok, well technically we are... but it's limited to 2 minutes PER DAY (which is ludicrous). So good luck getting notes done if the call disconnects or customer hangs up when calls are back to back. Or getting to take a sip of water and a deep breath to regroup between calls. Need to run to the bathroom for 3 minutes between breaks? Be prepared to hear from your supervisor. As if people can just program their bodies on a timer and only go during your scheduled break times. We are human beings, not robots. The micromanaging makes the job unbearable, and these things are why call centers cannot keep employees. An extra few minutes in the bathroom, or on ACW, does not mean someone is trying to avoid calls, or steal company time. It just means they're human and have basic human needs even during work hours. We can't just turn those needs off at work. Hopefully someone is listening. As a 10+ year call center employee, these are some of the things you need to take into consideration if you want to retain good agents. 

While this job may not be for everyone, I personally loved it. I became tightly knit with my small crew and it helped in how effectively we worked. 

A typical day usually ran 10-12 hours due to the unpredictable nature of working in a jail. But most of the time it was only 10-12 hour day. it was only a 4 day work week so your time off was Saturday-Monday. And you were never called in on those days.

There’s not really a uniform as much as there is a dress code which is nice. Having worked there for around two years I can recommend investing in a few pairs of good, flexible jeans or khakis and a sturdy pair of tennis shoes. You can wear whatever shirt you want as long as the designs are appropriate, and it covers everything that needs to be. But be aware inmates will make fun of whatever you wear in order to get a rise out of you.

The only real rules are no cellphones or contraband in the facility of course, and it is very offense to do s

My only complaints come from outside factors, like how the Correctional Officers would sometimes actively try and hinder us from doing our jobs. Then the warehouse and distribution branch of the company was not always the most reliable or most responsive to work with. 

This is a job you take because of the high pay and relatively simple work (in principle the job itself is nothing more than delivering orders to inmates).

But you should be warned, the workplace is a jail, a real jail with real inmates. You will hear people say some pretty crazy and vulgar things around and to you. Being cussed out, made fun of, and verbally abused are a very common occurrence on any given day. So if you don’t have tough skin don’t apply. But if you think you can handle all of that, this job may suit you



You go in at 7 and you’re not sure when you will leave that day. If it’s monday it’s definitely at least 8:30. Then you aren’t able to finish the work for the day even with an extra 4 hours working on Monday, so they move some work to the next day. So you come in Tuesday and now you’re there until at least 7 pm starting the day with finishing yesterday’s work. There is no sense of achievement or productivity. You can only do so well and go so fast but the workload is outrageous compared to the set up and skeleton crew of overworked people. Wednesday also has a lot of work so you’re usually there until 7. Thursdays you get out at 4:30/5 depending on multiple things. Friday’s are the only day that is worth it because you only work until 11 am. They consider overtime to be mandatory. The company refuses to hire the appropriate amount of people. The ones who make the overall decisions on how things are run do not even work with or around the ones doing the job: the pullers. For sometimes 13 hours a day you are in the same spot, picking the same products over and over and even if you work fast, the lack of people hinders the job from being to be done efficiently. It is also owned by a holding company. If you don’t know about those I suggest you do research. I would only recommend this job to those who wanna work a lot and don’t have kids or go to school, etc. majority of your week is spent working and sleeping and going back to work.

Between garbage management that would never respond or lend a hand when needed, short staffing, having to go into the actual living quarters of these inmates with little to no officer presence, being lied to about this being a Monday through Friday with an occasional late shift or schedule change,  having to abide by the same rules and standards as a state employees which meant constantly walking on eggshells as a contractor, officers that could care less and were inconvenienced by you, and in addition to having to work around the prison schedule and difficult inmates, I would say unless this is your last resort move it along. Always expected to get the job done with a short staff mind you some of these facilities were impossible to do in a day with just two people because management loved to takeoff early or sit in the warehouse pencil pushing. Got hurt because of their negligence in loading carts and not one check up or call from my manager and expected me to go back to work 100% right after. The position I was hired for was just created when I applied but it might as well be a joke since none of my delivery team took me serious and the manager really didn’t do anything to make it understood I was a lead. The good part was the pay but now I see why it was above average. Trust me this job is not worth it. 

Keefe Commissary Network is an important company. It provides the neccessities for the Prisson faciities to keep the environment, safe functionable, and efficient. This company is the bridge that provides families, friends, and the inmates to communicate via SecureMail. Along with providing communication they are a major force in providing Commissary to facilities throughout the US and Hawaii. They aid in providing resources for the family to send money to the Inmates accounts via the Internet, phone, and kiosk located at the prison facilities, and jails. Keefe is motivated by the need to make every customer feel like their only customer. On a typical day at Keefe I assist the facility staff, officers, warden, captain, Vice President, Account Managers with a number of issues. The issues can range from Computer, Printer, Lobby Kiosk, Edge Kiosk issues, to Bank reconciliation, drawer management issues, Network, Internet issues etc. I have learned that it is imperative to learn todays technology. The environment although fst paced is close knit. The hardest part of the job I would say is you never know what new issues may arise. Overall the stability of the job is a plus.

Favoritism, disrespectful work environment and management. They do not know how to keep employees. Lunches are too short the warehouse I worked in had no A/C management would be YELLING at employees to hurry up and pick and push while we worked. They don’t pay enough for hot they expect you to break your back working!!  You aRE going to be working 7-5:30 most weeks but sometimes they would randomly send everyone home early, very inconsistent in the worst way. there is NO grace period for tardiness they will fire you without questions if you’re late or miss over 6 times in an entire year… even if you clock in at 7:01 you still will
Be fired. You earn barley any pto while working I think it’s like you earn an hour a day or something. The people there gossip about eachother and start rumors there is drama and fights, AND DID I MENTION favoritism. They will only “dress code” certain people, while others get away with violations and tardiness. Working here has been a terrible experience and I would not recommend it to anyone 

Management needs help BIG time !! Supervisor in KCN department does not do their job ... there’s favoritism, they hire a lot of their family and if you do or say something to or about them your let go! Supervisor has ears everywhere, your laughed at, your assigned the hardest part of the job if you get them mad, Your shift hours are everywhere!! It’s from 6-3:30 here and the next it’s 6-4:30 or what not it goes on and on ! You have to reschedule your appointments, or call someone to pick up your kids or cancel your plans kind of shift,  It’s the reason  everyone leaves this place .. 
The pay is great, the work is easy, but It’s not why everyone comes and leaves the next week or two days even !  
They need new managers and supervisors I’m sorry, but it’s true  ... Wait no I’m not sorry, it’s a sad place to be in !!! 
Please take my word for it 🙏🏼 
I’m already considering another job, but this is a courtesy complaint also, if the culture changes here and they are able to retain people for the future. I hope to see things change before resigning this company can have potential ! 

A typical work day , i go in at 8 and unload a truck , by 9 we are ready to go to the prison area and do our deliveries . by 1030 we r done for the morning deliveries . I do credits from the orders that had missing product on a computer . By 1 pm we r ready to go back out on the prison area and do the deliveries until about 3 . I have learned how to be part of a team and make things a team effort . I have learned a some computer skills as well . I have learned to b aware of my surroundings at all times . Unfortunatly the management at keefe is poor . My manager needs to understand her job instead of asking everyone what she needs to do next . My co-worker is great to work with . the hardest part of my job is dealing with upset inmates cause they did not recieve all of the product they ordered . I enjoy going to work to help others and enjoy my job . I like the people I work with . we all get along .

I work five hours on Mondays and return at midnight to collect and scan prison inmate commissary orders.  Wednesday is a normal work day, followed by a 12-14 hour day on Thursday when the inmate orders arrive.  I have three inmate workers who assist me in distributing the orders to the inmates.  
Although I worked for the Department of Corrections for eight years, working directly with inmates has been a learning experience.  

The only management in my location is the Department of Correction supervisors.  My supervisor works out of an office five hours away.
I do not have any co-workers at my location, I am the only employee for Keefe.  

The hardest part of the job is the split shift on Monday and the long hours during the order arrival and distribution.

The most enjoyable part of my job is being considered an important person to the inmates, because I scan their orders and distribute them when they arrive.  Treating them with respect, earns their respect.  They expect respect from each other, and DOC staff as well.  .

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Packer 1 salary reported	$18.50 per hour
Operations associate 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Order picker 20 salaries reported	$19.34 per hour
Order filler 10 salaries reported	$20.25 per hour
Shipping and receiving clerk 5 salaries reported	$17.60 per hour

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