truck driver

driver

quality control associate

laborer

front load driver

Kimble Companies

For a self proclaimed “family-oriented” company, they certainly do not treat their employees like such. 

The job: the work load of daily personal audits, emails, returned mail, online requests, on top of the large call volume, puts you behind most of the time, and when they say ask for help, and I have an open door policy, they don’t mean it. You’ll be heard, but as soon as you walk out the door, it doesn’t matter. The training was poor at best. A week and a half of training and you are on the phones in your own with mountains of contracts and scenarios to figure out, with little help and a frustrated customer on the phone, it doesn’t make sense for no supervisors to be around or to just be told “look at your book” which is hundreds of pages long. The trainer I had spent most of our training time complaining about other representatives. I lost it at her complaining about a customer who had a language barrier stating they should just learn our language. Plus side? - This person is no longer with the company. 

Schedule: you’ll start at the bottom tier but still day shift. Everyone rotates about 1 Saturday a month. Only downside was mandated overtime at the last minute. Or putting “tentative” in the schedule but not telling anyone we had to be in early, but then got chastised for coming in regular schedule because we should assume we should have to be here. Or every single representative should check with the managers to see if it’s mandated, instead of just sending out a quick email to the entire department. Like I said when they do notify you that way, it’s always right before you leave for the evening, for the next day. 

Want to actually help the customers? You aren’t given much to do for them. You become a parrot to policy, even in cases it’s not the customers fault. Policies the customers don’t even know  until receiving the first invoice, after already starting services. There is also no consistency between the team in policies and what is told and what isn’t to the customers. Even when you follow the process to escalate ongoing issues for customers, the operations team and managers will ignore it and decide to do nothing.  

When a customer asks for a supervisor, or you are in need of a supervisor to fix an issue only they can fix, no one is to be found. Submit and email and get responded to maybe 2 days later. Emailing other teams or divisions? You may get a response you may not. If you get a response, they’ll try to argue with you, and then stop responding once they realize the information you provided was correct. Most of the time their responses are lazy or an attempt to defend a driver or supervisor of the division not doing their job correctly to begin with.  
Good luck with ever providing feedback about that, it will fall on deaf ears too. 

The manager is condescending when speaking to you or answering your question, even as someone brand new. And it’s not hard to figure out who the favorites are for management and supervisors to gossip with. 

Attendance: simply put, don’t get sick. After weeks of a medical issue, and coming into work anyway so I didn’t get points, and visibly having issues while at work, and speaking with all three managers about it, missing a few days overall for being in the hospital, and documentation does not matter. Asked for accommodations, nothing. Asked for just some time to get some appointments to figure it out, and all they could do was reiterate the “4 point” system (2 points for the day if you are calling out on a Monday or after a holiday, the rest are 1 point if you leave early or call out) they have regardless of proof illness, leaving you with the option of quit or be fired. 

Doesn’t take much to google the customer reviews of the company either. I think all of these reviews and customer reviews speak for themselves. 

While I have not enjoyed my experience this far and plan to move on when I find an opportunity that looks to be a better fit for me, I know there are others that are thriving in their roles.  So perhaps this company / industry is simply just not a good fit for specifically me.
 
If there is one, all-encompassing criticism I could give on the company it is that from the top down, there is simply no clear structure, standardization or respect for formal procedures.  Also lacking in my opinion is a respect for fellow employees, especially from supervisors / executives who expect perfection without giving any tools or minimal assistance to assure success.  I received no training for my role.  Instead I was handed my predecessor's files and told to figure it out and to ask questions if I had any...  In an industry / portion of my field I knowingly have had no experience in.  Who's to say what looks "unusual" or "unreasonable" when you've been in your position all of a week or two?  As there are seemingly no formalized / standardized processes in place it appears that no one else or very few others that I regularly interact with have received any training for their roles either.  To top it off, leave time is minimal compared to other positions that I have had in the past, taking time off feels like I'm doing something wrong where it was encouraged just as much as getting your work done at prior positions I have held and promises made when I was accepting the job were not fulfilled.

There are good people here and there are people that genuinely want to make things better, but there are slim chances that management will take their suggestions and, on the VERY small chance they are heard, the suggestion will likely get stuck in executive limbo where indecision will leave the idea stranded indefinitely.

While I would love to make things better and have been trying my best in my time here, but I believe that the personality clash between me and the company overall will likely be more than I can handle on a personal level for the long-term.

I was a CSR for this company for a short time.  Although I enjoyed assisting customers and felt productive, I did not feel as though the culture of this company treated its employees fairly.  Extra overtime was mandated, not formerly agreed to nor informed of, and although they required business casual attire they only would adhere to that to certain individuals.  I was dressed in business casual and followed the employee handbook and was sent home for wool trouser shorts with brass buttons from the business section of H&M Fashions.  They were slightly above my Knee (longer than finger tip length) with a button up blouse and leather patent oxford shoes from Nordstrom.  I also had a blazer, which I had to take off because I was too warm since it was summer.  
I was sent home while others could wear jeans and tennis shoes.  I witness other employees not being treated fairly when it came to family emergencies.  The manager knew that I lived an hour away from my home and sent me to change even though the employee handbook stated nothing against trouser shorts and stated business casual.  I was never given an exclusion list of what could and could not be worn.  I felt it was not managed well and very petty.  I also witness a general dissatisfaction from other employees.  I felt as though this was not a right fit for myself personally.  I felt as though I was treated as just a number or robot.  Other managers were informative and helpful but the main department manager drove me away.   For a high stress position such as customer service for a company who has a lot of customer dissatisfaction, Kimble probably should examine how management is treating the employees.   I hope for the employees sake that this company starts treating them with respect and fairness.

I work within the office. A typical day starts at 8 am and ends around 5-5:15pm. There are days I work longer, but they are definitely the minority. This appears true for the majority of the office staff as well. I have worked at two large Fortune 500 companies in the past, and in comparison, there is a great work/life balance here at Kimble. I've experienced working every weekend and 12 hours days at Fortune 500 companies, and that is definitely not the case at Kimble. It is a family atmosphere, and it's not uncommon to work with numerous members of the Kimble family. From day one, the CEO has asked my opinion and thoughts on certain topics. He truly wants to see the company prosper and improve, and he's willing to ask the questions necessary so that we continuously improve.

The hardest part of the job is seeing multiple areas of improvement that tend to compete with one another. There is only so much time, so it's important to prioritize those projects with the biggest impact first.

The best part of the job is being able to work with a great team, and also utilize my skill sets to help Kimble move forward from a business aspect. Management is open and wants to receive more information, and they don't appear to care what your title is. If you have something insightful to say and contribute, they listen.

Kimble's is a revolving door with employees constantly starting and quiting shortly after hiring in. I've heard this is the last stop for welders and fabricators before starting the circle of companies all over again. Management often walks in after 9:30-10am and departing shortly after 2pm. Regular employees start around 5-6am and depart at 2:30-3:30pm. Beware for this is the place where the inner "good old boys" get to do nothing while the other employees get to break their backs doing all the work. A shop of roughly 8 workers will have 4-5 doing absolutely nothing while the other 3-4 do it all and carry all the work. If your in the click you'll be fine and will go far. Hard work there only gets you more hard work. Brown nosing the supervisor will get you ahead, not doing good consistent work. The point system there was written by some HR woman that hasn't a clue what that type of work requires, causes to your body, and has never had to worry about getting sick or hurt because she was probably on salary and never set foot in the working shop.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I worked in customer service at Kimble Companies for 2 1/2 years, and during that time I gained a lot of valuable experience. The job helped me strengthen my communication, problem-solving, and multitasking skills while working with customers every day.

The work environment was fast-paced, but it taught me how to stay organized and handle different situations professionally. I enjoyed helping customers resolve issues and making sure they had a positive experience. I also appreciated working alongside coworkers who were supportive and willing to help when needed.

Over my time there, I learned a lot about customer service, teamwork, and handling challenging situations calmly and professionally. The experience helped me grow both personally and professionally, and I’m thankful for the skills and experience I gained while working at Kimble Companies.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
nothing really stressed me out. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was very fast paced and call center like. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get in and start on the phones, get handed extra work when the supervisors came in , did extra work and took calls all day

It was a good job to work for, learn a lot about the landfill and how it's managed and engineered. Great group of co-workers, had fun with them, made some nights less boring. The labor side is very intense, outdoors in the heat and cold, the odor, and digging out boxes are not fun. During the week I operated the Compactors and D9 in the landfill. Never leave the doors open, the odor is bad, if you get hit with leech water, throw away entire outfit, the water is recycled through the trash in the landfill, nasty water! On weekends I ran Dozers and Excavators, weekends are nicer, little to no supervision, and work by yourself. Where else can you going to operate a Compactor? Unless it's another Landfill company.

Yet it does have it's downfalls. It is a family own company, the employers there where paid lower then they should be making with a very little to no chance on raises, benefits are ok, I was to work 6 days a week, my Saturday was the only day off and yet I had to come into work for 6 hours every Saturday. Long hours, smelled really bad, but it is the landfill, and the management was a bit of lacking!

While speaking with customers Kimble encourages reps to take their time with caller to ensure we are providing the best service possible.  One thing I have learned is that the trash business is not as simple as one would think.  Most people think the drivers just run around and pickup trash however there is more to it.  As reps we have goals to make sure we are available to handle calls, email correspondence as well as mail coming in from customers. I have worked in call centers in the past in which you do not have flexibility to move amongst a department but there is more of a family feeling working in the Customer Service department in that we work together as a team.  This role is a fast paced environment in which multi-tasking is a must!  The most difficult part of the job is making sure to give proper pricing and entering information into system so that a customer is handled properly.  I feel like I get the most enjoyment speaking with customers when I can solve an issue for them.  I just wish there was more of an incentive program!

What is the best part of working at the company?
You will make alot of money at a cost

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You will be stressed out constantly with 
unrealistic expectations  little to no help from supervisors

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Horrible! the supervisor's don't care about you at all you're a body in a truck you're told not to return to the station until the route is finished they punish you for using pto or sick days by having no one cover your route so when you return you have the day you were off to do and your present day route the supervisor's don't have cdl's and don't care how long you're out there and very unprofessional when talking to you and have you working 2 Saturday a month you'll have little to no time for your family 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Long! the trucks break down constantly and you're expected to finish your route after sitting for 3 - 5 waiting to be fixed they have 1 or 2 road mechanics fixing 5 - 10 break downs a day the routes are big and your expected to pick up everything by yourself as if you're superman

Pay less than competitors, work never ends, good drivers are expected to pick up the slack the bad ones leave behind. Holidays are a nightmare, equipment is as much garbage as the garbage it collects. And the maintenance department is a joke things never get fixed until it breaks and your broke down somewhere for hours at a time. Now all that said it comes down to the fact that corporate will not let the individual departments do what needs done so it's not exactly middle managements fault. Lack of communication, overall just poor morale due to the many many many faults in the kimble system. Then to top all that off the policies that are in place to save the company should something happen are just that designed to save the company not you. Plus your expected to do things that they tell you not to do such as climb up on top of your truck to remove debris so they dont get litter violations but it says in the policy that if you fall off you truck your on your own just one example. Plus with the poor state of things they are always under staffed so you may get lots of vacation time but good luck using it.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 9 salaries reported	$25.50 per hour
Driver 8 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Quality control associate 11 salaries reported	$15.14 per hour
Laborer 10 salaries reported	$15.10 per hour
Front load driver 4 salaries reported	$25.75 per hour

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