millwright

manufacturing technician

maintenance mechanic

instrument technician

delivery driver

Koch

My review is almost identical to the review posted on 4/11/19 by Senior Counsel.

Great management philosophy and leadership from the CEO and COO, and many others in management. But, there are large pockets in the company that don't follow the good examples set by the CEO and COO. Those good examples include giving employees the autonomy and responsibility to figure out the best way to "add value", to "continually improve", and to "challenge" your bosses and the status quo. The good examples also include humility and treating employees with dignity and respect. 

Unfortunately, there are pockets of management that don't follow those principles - some managers are arrogant and shut down or fire any "challengers." 

So, your job security and enjoyment depend on who your boss is, and that can change frequently at Koch - because the company follows a "creative destruction" mentality, entire groups are often reduced, and some are completely eliminated if management decides they aren't profitable enough. 

The department I was in also stonewalled me in the ability to apply for other positions. They feel that "fulfillment is better than money" so they do not like you to know what a position pays. If you call and ask, they immediately run down the stairs and report you to your supervisor. 

The result is that Koch hires a lot of people, but VERY few people retire from Koch. And when you fall victim to one of the many "headcount reductions", they take your badge, walk you empty-handed to the parking lot, take your name plate off your cubicle or office, and ship your belongings (or at least most of them) to you. No chance to say goodbye, no chance for saving any of your dignity. They also don't provide any explanation to your former co-workers other than "he/she isn't with us any more." They also will tell people it was due to "performance" but they didn't give you anything in prior months to work on. Also, anyone you work with will throw you under the bus after you lease. So, just move on.

Poor job security, Many managers from top to bottom lack humility, Many managers discourage or fire anyone who challenges them or their ideas, Many managers fail to treat their employees with dignity and respect, Managers will lie to you. The department I was in recently let me go, no warning,  Six months of meeting with my manager and asking each time "Do you have any feedback for me? Is there anything I need to work on? resulted in the same answer over and over "Nothing, you are doing great,"  In March I confronted said manager because I noticed I was being pushed out of everything,I asked her if I had done anything wrong, did she not want me as part of the team, etc,' Her response was that she had heard nothing negative, she was just busy, she did not want me to leave the team, etc.,  Exactly one month later, she terminated me after 15 years of work.

Great management philosophy and leadership from the CEO and COO, and many others in management.  But, there are large pockets in the company that don't follow the good examples set by the CEO and COO.  Those good examples include giving employees the autonomy and responsibility to figure out the best way to "add value",  to "continually improve",  and to "challenge" your bosses and the status quo.  The good examples also include humility and treating employees with dignity and respect.  
Unfortunately, there are pockets of management that don't follow those principles - some managers are arrogant and shut down or fire any "challengers."  
So, your job security and enjoyment depend on who your boss is, and that can change frequently at Koch - because the company follows a "creative destruction" mentality, entire groups are often reduced, and some are completely  eliminated  if management decides they aren't profitable enough. 
The result is that  Koch hires a lot of people, but VERY few people retire from Koch.  And when you fall victim to one of the many "headcount reductions", they take your badge, walk you empty-handed to the parking lot, take your name plate off your cubicle or office, and ship your belongings (or at least most of them) to you.  No chance to say goodbye, no chance for saving any of your dignity.  They also don't provide any explanation to your former co-workers other than "he/she isn't with us any more."  
Another drawback of Koch  is the astonishing lack of diversity.  Although a few minorities are represented at entry-level positions, and some women at middle-level positions, upper management is entirely white and entirely male.  
One preemptive comment - based on other reviews on Indeed, it is likely that Katie or someone else from HR will issue a company response to this review, thanking me for the review and encouraging employees to discuss the issues with a supervisor, HR, or a "hotline number."  Katie may mean well, but none of those avenues work if you are in a group that is led by someone who fails to follow the examples and principles set by the CEO and COO: 1)   You can't have a meaningful discussion with a supervisor that lacks humility and attacks anyone that challenges them; 2) the careers of the HR people (that you are supposed to  complain to), are dependent on feedback given by the very supervisors that are the problem; and 3) the "hotline" number is a black hole - I am personally aware of a complaint made over five years ago that is still "under investigation" with no real possibility of any action being taken.  During my  years at Koch, I have never heard of any action being taken by Koch in response to a "hotline" call.

Working at the HQ in Wichita has its pros and cons

Pros:

Salary is competitive for the region and benefits aren’t bad. As a large conglomerate, there are lots of opportunities for career growth as there are many internal job postings and you can change jobs and even companies within the Koch family fairly easily. The HQ campus is. I’ve and had gone under some recent modernizations and high make the office a nice place to work. There are also several nice break rooms, 2 very nice cafeterias, and a coffee shop plus on site mail (with corporate rates) and a dry cleaner. Another nice benefit is the HQ is not located downtown and in a relatively quiet area. Traffic is not that bad and there is are several large, dedicated, and secure parking lots so finding a spot is never an issue. 

Cons
Working for 2 different Koch companies over a decade, my experience has been that Koch does not do a good job of mentoring employees. Several times I was given roles and responsibilities I had little to no experience with and basically told to figure it out on my own. Even when I did a good job and got good feedback from my efforts with those responsibilities, I got bad feedback for not following certain procedures that I wasn’t aware existed. Basically felt like I was set up for failure. Several of my coworkers felt the same in their own roles. Part of the problem is Koch likes to run very lean which makes some sense but often felt like there was more work expected to be completed than we had resources to complete. Lots of overtime and burnout was common and I know of several star employees who eventually quit due to burnout or other frustrations. Lastly, at least int he IT departments, Koch has fully embraced outsourcing roles to India and China. When star players would leave, we could only hire replacements in India most of the time. While the Indian employees were largely no different in personality and skills to their American counterparts, the time difference compresses useful working ours to just a few in the morning and creates other delays making already overworked employees fall further behind in their work. India also has some difficult labor laws which result in long delays replacing people who quit.  A lot of departments have had large layoffs in the past few years due to outsourcing. 

Overall, Koch is not a bad place to work but your experience will largely depend on which Koch company and department you work for. Some are great, some are terrible, and many go from one to the other quickly after leadership changes. Due to outsourcing, very few jobs at Koch have any security, even if you are a star employee. 

Every year they make a "bet" on you which is your salary. If the supervisor/manager doesn't feel like you fulfilled your end, that "bet" is considered a loss. (not even kidding, that's how they explain their "compensation" policy.
Two problems with that. Your supervisor may have no clue what you do day to day. And they take feedback from everyone about you, whether you've worked with those people or not.
In my group, they hired in a lateral transfer "supervisor" who had less experience than your average help desk technician but was helped in the buzzword arena by his "mentor"...some manager that came along for the ride. This supervisor's job was evidently to fire anyone over 40 under his prevue. The turnover rate there had been 0% for years. In a month it jumped to 500%. They brought in people from his old team to do the jobs at 3/4 the price.
Then a wall of silence is placed over it all. Even people you thought were your friends would speak to you not at all.
I worked 50+ hours a week, weekends, nights. Even until the last week I was there. When I brought up to the director and to HR, the hostile work environment this flunkie brought in, I was told there was nothing wrong, all in me and my colleague's imagination...a week later we were all gone. Of course we filed an ethics complaint, which of course went nowhere. Your former "colleagues" won't even give up references to future companies, effectively blacklisting future employment prospects. My lead even lied to my face about the whole thing just so I wouldn't voluntarily leave so they could get the replacements on in time.
This company preaches culture, and used to stick by it. I loved this company, it's mission and it's people. But it turned out like any other poorly run company. All talk and only the bottom line counts.
Beware this company, beware middle management and don't believe a word HR or the directors tell you.
As for the other companies that comprise Koch Industries, nothing but good reviews for them. It's a stressful, but rewarding career choice. Be warned though, stay away from Koch Business Solutions.

This is a great company with many positive aspects. While the day-to-day routine can occasionally feel repetitive, there are always opportunities to learn and expand your knowledge if you seek them out. Most of the people here are great to work with—like any organization, there are a few exceptions, but overall the culture is positive.

Frontline supervisors are generally well-aligned with the work being done on the ground, which helps operations run more smoothly. Upper management is often supportive, though there are times when concerns—particularly those that may be uncomfortable or sensitive—are not addressed as openly as they should be.

There has been some inconsistency around hiring practices, particularly with respect to family members of management. A former policy prohibiting the hiring of relatives was revised following the graduation of certain upper management employees’ children. This has led to concerns about nepotism and the need for clearer boundaries between management and their direct family members in frontline roles. Greater transparency and separation in these relationships would help reinforce fairness and trust across the organization.

Additionally, access to opportunities and knowledge can sometimes feel limited to those who are part of informal social circles, which are often formed outside of work or within specific shifts. This dynamic can make it challenging for others to fully engage or grow professionally.

Despite these challenges, my overall experience has been positive. I’ve had the privilege of working under excellent leaders who were deeply invested in the development of their teams. Even some supervisors who initially struggled in their roles have successfully transitioned into positions where they’ve thrived.

If there’s one area that could greatly benefit from improvement, it would be a stronger sense of accountability within upper management. Addressing issues directly and individually, rather than implementing broad reactive measures, would go a long way toward building a more equitable and effective work environment.

So, I was offered a tax internship with the company.  I had actually been looking for audit positions, but thought that doing an internship in tax might provide some valuable experience.  I decided to accept the internship - one of the worst mistakes of my life.  The problems started literally before my first day.  I was to start on a Monday.  I got an email the prior Friday afternoon after 4:00 saying that my background check had not been completed, and I couldn't start work until that had been done.  I had signed and returned  my offer letter fully 2 months before my start date.  Figuring management had decided to rescind the offer and that they were just sending me the email and handing off the problem to HR to give me the bad news, I wrote the job off.  

  Monday, I got a call at 12:30, saying it had been completed and that I needed to go in that day and sign my orientation paperwork.  I talked to my manager, and he said that I could just complete it the next day when I came in.  Then, the next morning, the manager told me he didn't know whether interns would be getting paid or not.  The offer letter had indicated a rather good salary.  Doing some calling around, I found out that I was getting paid the salary indicated in my offer letter.

  Next issue:  I went through a couple of days of training.  Then, the manager was asking how it went.  After discussing the class content, the manager said - "wait - that's not the job we hired you to do - the information they gave you is all wrong."  I then had another class that afternoon, for which the presenter was totally unprepared. At this point, I realized I had gotten myself into a total disaster.  There were plenty of other things that had happened during that week (way too much to post here), but I went ahead and put in my resignation that evening. The whole experience was miserable.  I never have figured out whether it was true incompetence that I was dealing with or if they were just testing me for some reason.  The nonsense I saw after I left, though, leads me to surmise that it was incompetence.

Oversee all process of invoices into database for accounts payable, verify invoices are approved via spending authority limits, providing accuracy in processing checks weekly to ensure invoices are paid on time. Maintained an accurate and current filing system of accounts, invoices, review weekly check run, cash commitments report, monthly statements. Worked on aging report from vendors in order to maintain current spreadsheets, request missed invoice copies from vendors and process for immediate payment or apply credit memos. Create and recommend policy and procedures to govern the payment of company bills to the advantage of the organization in terms of cash flow and discounts.  Develop and implement methods and procedures for monitoring work activities, such as preparation of records of expenditures, and process reports. Understand and meet the needs of customers with the most productive use of resources. Focus on tasks, particularly while battling with meeting deadlines, offer proficient solution to problems, team player, eloquence in communication both verbal and written. Payroll administrator duties insured that hours and amounts paid are accurate, that hours and amounts are properly recorded and classified. Audit, edit and record time sheets, reconcile totals and insure transmission of data to corporate on time. Reconcile payroll transactions to the GL on a weekly basis. Maintain orderly and accessible files of timesheets, payroll registers and reports. Prepare payroll journal vouchers weekly or as required. Reconcile GL accounts to detail information as required.  Provide any assistance to the Controller for job costing for month end processing and formal documentation of systems and cross train other personnel to provide depth and understanding in the accounting department perform cash management, financial audits, statement analysis, train and supervise field support staff.

Between drama gossip and rumors you'll be entertained..not to mention being intimate  and other things of that sort happening on company time and the high school atmosphere mixed with upper management and leads discriminating the employees on the rake line. The place needs a bit more disciplining and training of how to treat one another. Tattle telling and false information given out a lot. Lots of favoritism. Bottom line..it's a mess. Hire everybody new and retrain them all.  I had a nice time working there until they hired new supervisor in shipping. The guy was cool but at it to make an example out of me. He truly did not like me. I really think the place is a good starter job for right out of high school students. The drama is overwhelming. The rumors are even worse. If you walk thru the facility you'll see the things I'm describing. Even caught coworkers with upper management doing things that you don't do on company time. People hide a lot around there. I walked in on too much. But overall everyone knew but nobody cares about anything but getting production done and orders out. Several people went to hr about issues they had in the job in confidence and management seemed to retaliate against the employee. They let go of a lot of good people because they spoke up about abuse and discrimination in the job. No one did anything. Between employees and coworkers being intimate on the clock in the building and all the extra drama with in... You'll get a kick out of working there. I had a lot to talk about everyday after work when I got home. That's a wild place. Certainly needs some discipline. And some random drug testing for sure.

Work life balance is non existent. You will work almost everyday off, your boy certain people are allowed to train for roles leaving vacant positions often. The health insurance is terrible for a company of this size. They only offer high deductible no copay. Suppose to have an open challenge process but management shuts it down if it didn’t come out of the meetings they all attended. Training is terrible and is not regulated by management until it is time for certifications. Typically try and “make it look good” when people are coming to the plant. This is after things have been brought up several times to management. If you are an hourly employee your opinion is not valued. If you are friends with management you awarded extra pay and lighter work load. HR will work with management if turned in to turn it on employees who are having issues. Management does not follow the culture they set for other employees to follow. There is suppose to be a no retaliation policy that is not followed by management. Instead employees striving for change are labeled as trouble makers. To many meetings. You can be having issues in the plant and management will not come help because they are in meetings. Direct supervisors tend to try and help more but are often cut down quickly to get in line with upper managements plans. Have accumulated “good ole boys” in management roles that will stick together no better what. When something does go wrong it is never anyone’s fault but hourly employees. The turnover rate is getting ridiculously high and beginning to become a safety concern. Our answer was to write down what we fee comfortable having non certified employees doing.

I had two different jobs at John Zink, my first job had a huge variety of different things to do, it was a very fast paced job. I had a wonderful supervisor who worked well with me. When I mastered a job responsibility, I could go to her and she would train me on something else, so my skills and responsibilities were constantly growing. I loved the fast pace of the job. There were about 100 people on the floor and they were my customers to help and take care of and every day was a great day.

The down side, the Company reorganized and I got moved into a different dept. My new supervisor did not like me at all. I actually loved my new job, it was different. I got to learn a lot of new things on the drafting side, I even got a little experience working in AutoCAD and that was fun. I tracked all the drafting jobs and their on time performance, creating huge spread sheets, keeping detailed notes of everything going on for the Drafting Manager. Even though I worked with the drafting manager and all the drafters I reported to another woman who was not in this dept. for some reason she did not like me at all. This created so much stress for me, that I no longer enjoyed going to work everyday. If the VP's would have moved me into the drafting group officially so that I could have reported to the Drafting Manager, I never would have left John Zink because I enjoyed my new roles and responsibilities.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Millwright 2 salaries reported	$49.55 per hour
Manufacturing technician 8 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 12 salaries reported	$32.58 per hour
Instrument technician 9 salaries reported	$37.33 per hour
Delivery driver 73 salaries reported	$19.51 per hour

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