finisher

cnc machinist

marketing specialist

fulfillment associate

customer service representative

Lashbrook

When I first started working at Lashbrook I had a good time. Turning in a high quality rings that you spent a long time working on felt rewarding and it always felt empowering to learn new skills. But the longer I worked there the more the problems started popping up.
They used to have a good amount of staff but as time went on people quit to find other jobs and Lashbrook refused to hire any replacements. Like they kept telling us the busy season was starting soon, yet they didn’t want to hire anybody to get ready for it. Why not hire people when it’s slower to get them ready and trained for when it’s busy? They only started hiring a small amount of people after it already got busy but those new people aren’t of much help for the first several weeks they work there as they’re still being trained. This kept leading to a higher work load which made everybody more stressed which resulted in even more people quitting.
Now that they’re hiring a small amount of new employees they’re having a hard time attracting enough of them because the pay is terrible. Whether you’ve worked as a finisher for 3 years or 3 days you’ll be making the same amount of money per hour. Raises happen once a year if you’re lucky and when they do it’s just around 50 cents per hour more.
They tell you that they have an efficiency system that you can make a lot of extra money from. This is true however what they DON’T tell you is how awful the efficiency system is. You only get a very small amount of time in order to complete a task on a ring like sanding or polishing it. This is a bad idea right off the bat because different rings take different amounts of time. The amount of time it takes to work on a ring can very drastically depending on what type of metal and finish is. On some types of rings you might get an extra few minutes for it but this is almost never enough extra time. Even in a perfect world where nothing goes wrong with the ring this is barely enough time to complete it, and in the real world you’re constantly going to be running into small little issues(many of which not even your fault) that slow you down and make you go back a few steps. Then after you turn in a ring if there’s any problems with it it’ll be sent back to you for to fix and you’re not allowed to scan anything as well as having points deducted from your efficiency. You’re punished SEVERELY for taking the time to fix problems. They will constantly threaten to fire you if you don’t meet the efficiency minimum. Whoever is in charge of this efficiency system needs to understand that if they want better quality they need to give the finishers more time. They try and use efficiency at a motivator for people to work faster but in actuality all it does is cause you to be more careless to meet the scan times and stresses you out.
To list out some other little problems I’ve noticed.
1. They claim to give you free lunch yet the food area is almost always out of order and under stocked. The most food you’ll get is sugar cereal.
2. There’s a lot of health hazards such as fast moving objects that can easily cut your hands and toxic fumes from some of the finish types in some areas of the shop.
3. Equipment is constantly breaking and takes weeks or even months to get fixed which hurts your efficiency even more.
As for positives I will say all the people working there are pretty chill and helpful and you’re allowed to listen to music or podcasts when working which is nice.
But other than that you should avoid this job until they either raise the pay significantly to attract more people or get rid of/rework the awful efficiency system to make it more fair to the employees.

During my time there as a finisher, it constantly felt like the blame was solely put on the finishers for deficiency of the business. It wouldn’t be put on single finishers, but on the entire group as a whole, where in meetings it felt like we were the sole reason for issues facing the company.  This would lead to 3-4 times a year, facing massive changes in how our positions would operate. 

Efficiency tracking is necessary for any production environment, but it felt like the only ones who were hitting high numbers were exploiting flaws in the system, or actively hurting other finishers work performance. Tracking felt focused on small parts rather than shipping out rings. The goal came across as competition focused for improvement, rather than producing the best work. Which competition is fine, but at the highest levels of competition, the equipment/tools used are also the best of the best. It seemed like finishers were the only ones given repurposed machinery and hobbyist level tools, that weren’t  meant for a production environment. Some were good tools, but the ones used for higher QA standard pieces were taken from an industry that can get by with the cheaper equipment. Honestly if we were encouraged to not reuse sandpaper until it was just paper then we would have produced more. Having a dedicated full time employee to do cleaning, prep, and maintenance on finishers most used equipment would have helped tremendously. Some of these tasks were outsourced to family members, but they’re not using these items to maintain their livelihood. 

The managers always felt like they wanted what was best for us, and wanted us to succeed. They were always willing to help and give tips, and their wide knowledge has helped every single day of work. I really did like the owners, they were nice people and their hearts were in the right place, but I really wish they were more open to criticism and seeing it from the perspective of finishers. I promise It’s not an attack or a misunderstanding of the bigger picture, it’s frustrated people who never see meaningful changes to the daily work issues that they deal with. Sure standing the entire time might improve efficiency, but I had severe back pain my entire time there (even with mats and accommodations), and felt less productive as shifts went on. I literally couldn’t work their long term without my back being impacted more severely. Also there felt like less emphasis put on improving how other departments interacted to the finishers. Making certain properties written in plain english, focusing more on shipping goals, etc.

The vast majority of the finishers I met wanted to make amazing work and actively strived to do so, but the only people rewarded were those who actively sabotaged others. People took pride in their work and areas they were particularly good at, and wanted to improve. Other positions in the company do feel like they have high praise for the career path, but the reasons finishers can’t are never meaningly addressed. 

I have worked at Lashbrook for about two and half years. The work is so fun and it’s an amazing craft, although the bonus “incentive” program is deeply flawed and I think it is creating lazy workers with bad quality. Management needs to address why they cannot keep people. Certain teams are working on expensive rings, that are seriously complicated and take hours to finish. At the same time other teams are working on easier and simpler rings and those people can earn way more! The company values speed over quality and then gets angry when finishers don't have good quality. How is anyone one supposed to succeed under those conditions?  
I became a team lead for 6 months, after being advised not to by my team members who had been there longer than me. Why would a promotion be a bad thing? It was the most stressed I had ever been, and I was so overwhelmed it drove me to find a new job and quit. I lost money because I was not given enough team members for the work load. I feel very betrayed by the management and there is a distinct feeling that “you are replaceable”.
Management also keeps on very incompetent employees because they are desperate for people. They get taken advantage of most of the time by how flexible they are. Don’t get me wrong, the flexibility is wonderful, but stop hiring people that will take advantage. This company scares away any and all decent employees who care about excellence in there work, and almost punishes those who want to move up, specifically finishers. There is so much this company could be if it truly invested in its people, and their well being, and fair compensation, and let go of their precious efficiency system. Until big change happens (or certain people fired) I think this company will not improve. 

Currently looking for a new job. 

This job started out fun and interesting, but the longer I worked there the worse it got. The workload is often overwhelming, and the emphasis that management puts on speed and efficiency not only makes that problem worse, but also contributed to an overall decline in product quality. The learning curve is very steep and you are expected to keep up from the very first day you start with very little wiggle room. 

The biggest issue, though, is management. They are unprofessional and inconsiderate of the needs of their employees. They seemed like cool people at first, but revealed their true colors as time went on. Complaints were often completely disregarded with no follow up whatsoever. Managers regularly openly talked about sensitive issues regarding other employees, with no concern as to who might hear. They seemed more concerned with what they were going to eat for lunch instead of daily issues happening throughout the shop.

Most of the people there were nice, but a handful of people, noteably some of the jewelers, are rude and unwilling to help. There are some processes that regular finishers are not trained to do thay only jewelers can handle. 9 times put of 10, when you would pass off one of those issues to a jeweler, they would act like it was your fault and that you were being unreasonable and an inconvenience to them. 

Prospective employees beware. This job seems fun on the surface, and admittedly it is at the very beginning, but as time goes on the issues start to glare.

This was a good job to stay at temporarily, I’ve been there for less than a year and have already been one of the longest working people there. It has a high turnover rate due to intense stress. You are constantly timed, even bathroom breaks can count against you. You constantly feel like your job is going to push you over the edge. The coworkers and leads are very friendly but I can tell they are stressed too. They have to deal with a lot. The job expects a lot out of you right away, and if you fall below your standard you get put on corrective action which makes you feel like one wrong move and it’s over. And sometimes it is. And if it’s not, you live in fear and get even more stressed which can worsen your efficiency. You can try your best and it still won’t be enough, and you constantly have to learn new types of rings and they won’t give you a break to get good at them first. It isn’t very good for people who struggle with mental health. It gets pretty overwhelming sometimes. You can do 15 rings in a day and it still won’t be enough. They try to help you but sometimes they flat out tell you that they have done all they could do. It is either quit or be fired

The job itself is genuinely enjoyable and pays decently, but not when you take into consideration that you are single handedly finishing thousands of dollars worth of product for them daily. HR is the owners wife which I find wildly unprofessional, complaints are never taken seriously and they are not open to constructive criticism. They get trigger happy firing people and only to force others to work mandatory overtime (mandatory 9s for four months, attendance points were given if you didn’t meet this and you could be fired over it.) There is no opportunity for advancement with the company, they’d rather hire their family for that. When I first started here it seemed like they cared about their employees but over the two years I was there more and more perks were taken away only for us to be exploited and reprimanded when we didn’t meet their excessive demands. Working here is like being in a manipulative relationship, surly passive aggressive managers and all. 

You will come to work everyday excited about your work. You get to influence people’s live around the world with your craftsmanship, whether you’re making jewelry or helping customers, marketing or accounting. The company has great benefits, like the normal ones, health, life, 401(k), but they also provide access to financial and health well-being, company provided lunches almost every week, video game area for breaks, and a very nice campus, with even a comfortable sitting area to lunch outdoors. There are lots of opportunities to advance and build your resume as well and if you want to add something different to your job, you can set goals to help you learn and grow in your skills, and the management encourages you along the way.

Only work here if you have no other options.

Pros: They keep the fridge full of snacks and food to eat on breaks and free coffee in the morning. Not usually any issues if you have to call in sick. It really is satisfying when you've learned the skills that you need to make a really beautiful piece of jewelry.

Cons: You'll notice that almost no one lasts longer than a year at this job but the higher ups will always blame it on their "high expectations". It's a cop out. They even joke about how we're all too afraid to say anything because we know they might fire us. It's a pretty toxic environment. The pay isn't fair for the work they ask and they know it. That's why most people leave.

I've been working for Lashbrook for about 9 years now. For the first 6 I was an outside consultant and then for the last 3 I've been employed directly. I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't think Lashbrook was a great company to be at.
It's grown a lot and come a long way in working toward perfecting systems, processes, and quality but maintains the feeling of being a small family owned business where everyone is working together for the same thing. There are a ton of employees who have been here 5+ years and in today's workforce I think that says a lot.

Lashbrook is an exceptional employer that prioritizes the well-being and growth of its employees. The supportive nature of upper management, the collaborative work environment, and the strong alignment of values all contribute to an outstanding workplace experience. I am grateful for the opportunities and support I have received at Lashbrook, and I wholeheartedly recommend it as an employer of choice to anyone seeking a fulfilling and rewarding career.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Finisher 2 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Cnc machinist 2 salaries reported	$19.80 per hour
Marketing specialist 1 salary reported	$22.50 per hour
Fulfillment associate 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour

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