graphic designer

customer service representative

production specialist

support specialist

print technician

Minuteman Press

I understand that each Minuteman Press is Individually owned, HOWEVER, this company needs to have better control over who can buy one of their stores before they run Minnuetman's name into the ground.
I was really screwd over by this company and those who heard about my time there all agree I was too nice to stay for as long as I did.
Unfortunately, these are only SOME of the reasons I quit. Not only did they not pay me for my hours worked, but I also got a call the same day I quit saying if I did not return to the store and complete jobs they needed to be done, they would not pay me all. Believe me when I say I called the district manager, the NY Minuetman Corporate, and anyone I could at that moment. However, I did not receive any following-up calls or emails. There was nothing more I could do.
I've listed some of the biggest issues (for me personally) that lead to me refusing to work at another Minnuetman Location.

RED FLAGS--
1) Asked to work a shift immediately after my interview. They were pushy to get me to start immediately as in right after the interview. 

2) I did not sign a thing. Nothing for direct deposit, nothing to fill out taxes NOTHING. I even brought it up to the owners and they brushed it aside.

3)GUARANTEED training but I later learned the owners refused to have me trained and did not tell me anything.

4) If I didn't ask, they wouldn't teach. Meaning I couldn't help customers, take orders or even work in the clock-in and out system.

5) Owners treated my coworkers unimaginably poor. There wasn't a day or hour that went by that the owners were literally screaming at him for simple things or mistakes that either he or the OWNER had made. I was surprised each day that he was even willing to come into work.

6) Told to lie to the city of Dallas as they came in for inspection. I was asked to lie about where I worked, where I had lunch, and where I took my break.

7) There is NO communication between the owners to the employees. Absolutely none. And when it became an issue, the blame was automatically pinned on the employees even if the owners were the ones talking to the client.

8) When addressing pay, the owners would get defensive and say "Don't worry about getting paid. You will get paid eventually" never answering my questions or addressing concerns.

9) After three weeks of abuse one employee quit respectfully, however the owners tried to manipulate him to fit their needs. Needless to say, it didn't work.

10) I received a rushed check with the incorrect amount based on overtime and my normal hours worked; $300 short. There were no taxes taken out and no slip that showed how much was taken out for tax, retirement, or anything of that sort. When I brought it up with district managers I was told not only would they fix the amount they would also call me back. To this day I have not received any call about correction.

11) They tried to manipulate me, an employee hired for HOURLY pay, to take home projects and bring them in finished the next day, without paying me for the overtime hours. They didn't want me to run more over time, because unfortunately at this time I had to do overtime quite regularly as I was the ONLY EMPLOYEE other than the owners.


A typical day at work, I would say it's a slog to get though, most days are either completely hectic because of extremely short turn around times while at the same time being scolded about quality and mistakes that come with the business. and other days its so slow that your only there for an hour before getting sent home. I was hired as a full time employee but during the time I spent there it was more akin to being on call without being able to have a consistent schedule.

What I believe I learned, Id say I learned so much about the industry, from conception to creation, but I've also learned the very real difference a good manager makes to a workplace.

Management, Oh boy those two, constant misunderstandings, content arguments, every thought or opinion you share no matter the context becomes an headache, including when it comes to positive suggestions like introducing a new potential customer , or adjusting pricing to increase profit. Any comment is interpreted as malicious. In my case I was a star employee with stellar customer reviews of mu work, yet I became prohibited from having the initial phone calls with clients so I was unable to gather the necessary requirements. This would inevitably result in incorrect designs and being reprimanded for not knowing what the customer wanted. In short, the owners set you up for failure.

Workplace culture, so toxic, you can't even eat a hot or cold meal during lunch because the owners unplugged the Refrigerator and Microwave, suggestions are ignored and little attention is made when it comes to employee tools, The computers are extremely slow, the owners ruin paint brushes and drills and never replace them, and if you complain about anything your being disrespectful.

The hardest part of the job, is keeping sane and not going into a mental breakdown after the owners bring up an error from 4 months ago for the 10th time

The most enjoyable part of the job, my co-worker, to be honest I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long if I didn't have someone to measure me I wasn't going crazy.

I worked at the South Philadelphia location and sometimes covered for the Bala Cynwood operation as well. There are a myriad of issues I encountered working as a Graphic Designer at MinuteMan Press.

Poor accountability
Lack of trained staff
Poor Quality of work
No established culture
Hostile work environment
Highly inefficient

All of these issues are symptoms of the poor leadership, starting with the owner. The majority of these issues would be solved by fixing these two things: A.) The owner has to allow the employees to do their jobs without being able to change details of orders mid production, or interjecting himself into every order that comes through the shop. It creates constant kinks in the production cycle of orders and makes keeping accurate account of job details unnecessarily difficult. Because of this there are often changes made to orders that production and design are unaware of as they were made via the owner on off hours and never passed along.

B.) The lack of experienced individuals and professional discipline made for a chaotic and amateurish work environment. The owner made a point of hiring on obedience and not expertise. Many of my co workers had very little knowledge of the jobs they were hired to do, It wasn't unusual to have several co-workers disappear for up to an hour and come back wreaking of marijuana smoke. It was more important to have a staff of compliant yes men then knowledgeable professionals, as it made the owner feel more comfortable when unleashing profane tirades on his staff, even in the presence of customers should his nonsensical methods be questioned. 

If you want experience in crisis management...then MMP is the place for you. Otherwise avoid at all cost.

I myself cannot speak for the entire franchise as they are all independently owned, but working for a small business has its pros and cons. I would recommend this job for someone either 1.) a teenager looking for a part-time / first job or 2.) attempting re-acclimation into the work-force. The manager at my current branch is responsible for delegating jobs but has no background in design or printing what so ever.

My co-worker and I sometime face the problem of work orders being incorrect due to his/her lack of detail. The process used by most printers are never truly "set in stone" here and are solely based on my managers immediate need. I myself have been lucky enough to have my 1 co-worker who has been very generous with her wealth of information.

I have previous experience in the print industry but the position acts as a refreshers course for my lesser used skill-sets (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop..etc). If it wasn't for her I would have left after the second week. On some weeks, the workflow is very busy with others are limited. The days that are slow, I may only work 3 days a week instead of my whole 5.

If you are looking to start a career, I would not recommend such a company as the position will only benefit the franchisee (manager) and his/her immediate needs. I think my next job will be with a much bigger company that offers more on all fronts.

Minuteman Press was my first Graphic Designer role out of college. As a fresh graduate, Minuteman Press provided me with invaluable experience that helped me grow as a designer and person. Many designers do not have much pre-press or production experience (my only previous experience was a brief job at an office store's printing department), so working at Minuteman Press really helps you grow as a designer in this sense. 

At my Minuteman Press, I was the only designer on-site, and I also worked the front desk. My responsibilities included all of the designer roles in creating new artwork, adjusting previously designed artwork, and managing customer files, as well as helping walk-in customers with their same-day needs such as copying, faxing, and taking orders.

Management was married couple who were incredibly nice and made me feel like I was one of their own kids. Having a great working relationship with the production worker is a must, as you are working with them directly on almost everything you print. 

The hardest part of the job was juggling walk-in customers while working on larger orders. Deadlines could sometimes be tight and having a customer walk in for a 15 page fax that takes 20 minutes to send isn't the best use of time.

I was hired to be the graphic designer at this company, but I was expected to do tasks outside my job title. That's okay because it is common in any job, to have a few extra duties not listed in the job description, however, it took time away from my original role as a graphic designer. As a result, I could not stay on top of my design work, so much so that my work was falling behind schedule, and this made them unhappy with my performance. I was pushed too hard without any training in the company. I had two days with the previous graphic designer to learn how the programs worked, the process they used to manage the workload, and the expected work flow they expected from me. I felt under-appreciated and belittled by the owners, who had only started their ownership 6months before my employment. 

I was ultimately let go over a ridiculous reason. And I quote, "You shouldn't talk to the customers. You should talk to us about the job order. It makes us look like we don't know what we are doing." Never in my life have I had an employer tell me not to talk to the customer...

This would have been a wonderful job that I would enjoy going to everyday if my training was handled better to properly prepare me for the company standards.

*Side Note* 
The corporate regional manager was professional, understanding and patient when he was around. Unlike the owners.

First thing in the morning we review the work in progress and we number by priority. Whether it be design, print or production, the priority of orders will determine how the work flow will go. With a staff of only 3 people everyone is crossed trained on mostly all operations. Most days I stick to design and digital print as I am the Graphic Designer in house. While the Production Specialist handles majority offset and bindery of jobs. The owner handles a lot of the customer interaction and quotes to drive sales. 

The best part of this job is the environment and the trust among the team. With being such a small staff we get to know each other pretty well and most days are laid back and friendly. We all strive for the same goals and feel more strongly about the overall success and growth of the business.

I think reviewing this company will definitely fluctuate with a lot of people due to different owners within the franchise. My best advice is to make sure you can connect with the owner. Be on the same page with what you want from this opportunity and what is expected of you in return. Take in consideration that some locations are more established than others. You may be asked to take on several roles to help grow the business.

Owner operated. Company only cares about franchise up to the 30,000 / Month income in which you pay royalties on. If you are an average shop that hits 30 each month it is up to your owner/operator to market and increase sales. From my personal experience and what I have read on job boards, most owners have no idea what they are doing and rarely make a profitable business of it.

If you enjoy sitting in front of a computer and changing the names, titles and phone numbers on business cards, this is the job for you. If you are looking to sit down with a customer and work on an actual design project from start to finish, look elsewhere.

Ninety percent of the graphic design job is making small changes to existing designs and pushing files to print. Not very engaging for very long.

The owner I worked for blamed everyone but himself for any mistakes or issues that came up. Never his fault that we could't be over that magical 30,000 for more than two months in a row.

I have worked at Minuteman Press for over 5 years now and I have absolutely loved it. I started in a part-time Bindery position and was able to work my way up to full-time Production Manager within 2 years. Showing the effort makes all the difference in regards to room to grow! You do not replant a flower unless it's outgrowing it's pot. 

Helping customers come up with the perfect creative solutions for their projects, collaborating with other employees and learning from each other, and building a team or "work family" are our main focuses at Minuteman Press Plant City. I have worked with a few different people here, but the outcome is always the same because of these core values the owners have implemented. 

Every job has stressful days and difficult customers, it's great to be at a place where the Owner's don't add to it but actually help take some of it away! They listen to our concerns and consider our "wish lists" for making the office more efficient and considering which way to expand.

A typical day at work did not have anything to do but busy work for the store. There was no consistent work coming in, the machines that we were using to produce the products that we were trying to create were malfunctioning all of the time and the management did not have work to do for the employees that was sufficient enough for the duration of the shift. Was asked to work through lunch. Constantly micromanaged from asking to have the phone on speaker so that the manager could listen to the conversation, work environment was unprofessional and would hear swearing and cussing. Manager did not take the time to take notes when on the phone with customer support for assistance with machines when malfunctioning. Managers had no knowledge nor cared to learn on how to do the graphic design position of the job. And was expected to do more than what was in my job description. Worst job that I ever had. Would not recommend working for this company.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Graphic designer 115 salaries reported	$20.19 per hour
Customer service representative 110 salaries reported	$19.26 per hour
Production specialist 12 salaries reported	$20.17 per hour
Support specialist 12 salaries reported	$45,833 per year
Print technician 4 salaries reported	$18.19 per hour

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