machine operator

production worker

maintenance technician

maintenance supervisor

laborer

Oldcastle Infrastructure

The idea that is pushed from the highest of executive levels down to the local locations is to make money at any cost. Even if this means employees lose their jobs or get treated poorly, customers get a raw deal and terrible service, or vendors are not paid on time for the simple fact that the company thinks they are big enough to make their own rules.

In the last 5 to 7 years the motivation for people to perform is by fear of losing their jobs. In the last 5 years there have literally been at least a hundred or more employees with 10 to 35 years at the company that were let go or have left due to executives lack of leadership and mentality of make money at all costs. Every time an employee hears an executive or upper manager say, "we promote from within", the employee cringes, thinks it's a joke, or simply laughs it off.

The culture within the company is that everyone is in fear and no one is safe. This has lead to employees hoarding their information and knowledge they have to inherently try to make themselves indispensable. (Dog eat Dog mentality).

The idea that is portrayed to all employees is that their benefits package is better than anywhere else they could work. This may be true in some parts of the country but in general that is simply not the case. The benefits package is average and the pay is average and below average in some positions.

As other people have mentioned, employees are expected to work overtime even if you are a salary employee. If you are looking to get a job at Oldcastle and it's a salary position, this is something you will want to consider because almost everyone in a salary position will be working overtime whether they like it or not. There is no extra compensation or incentive offered for working overtime. It's just expected that you will work the overtime, which you will usually get a pat on the back for doing it. 

Oldcastle Precast/Infrastructure assumes that a pat on the back is good enough when an employee goes above and beyond. This goes back to the make money at all costs mentality. If they give the employees more money, vacation, bonuses, etc. that eats into their bottom line. So, managers are encouraged to only use words (praises) to motivate employees.

In conclusion, the executive leadership has a mentality of make money at all costs, which drives a bad culture, bad attitudes, fear, and bad business practices. Employees with vast concrete manufacturing industry knowledge is almost nonexistent and has virtually set this company back 10 to 15 years.

A typical day was basically groundhog day. You'd come in, take off metal head rings off pipes, clean said head rings, and then make concrete pipes for the rest of the day (have to fill the quota to leave, but you get paid if you don't do it as fast as usual). You are offered lunch and occasional breaks. If you don't like being on your feet all day, I wouldn't recommend this job, but it's an option as long as there's a step stool nearby.

Management at the Caldwell Oldcastle was fantastic. They really reached out to staff and made sure everyone was alright. My division manager also was extremely generous and occasionally helped out where help is needed. 

The hardest part of the job? Getting dirty or being on your feet all day. Other than that, it was a piece of cake. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is being satisfied with the work you do. The team I was with (Hawkeye Production) needs to produce around an average of 45 pipes per day, 60 pipes on Friday. You can walk around and make sure you did as good job, and when the morning rolls around, you can see where you messed up, or if you did an amazing job. 

Oh yeah, machines break down a lot here. A lot. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
close to home this was the only thing that i could think of .other than that their a massive corporation that is buying up the casting companies and slowly tearing them down the took a company that was family owned with 150 employees and got rid of all but 10 that  now are just people that keep it so they can use it as storage and clean up crew .this has been done to most of their competitors that were bought out .so to monopolize and control the pacific north west .this is my opinion that i saw in the 5 years working at a plant they bought out till i was layed off after 2 years of watching the over spending to make it look like that plant was no longer a asset and was now an expense and their for it is a corporation loss .this is my opinion 


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
watching them tear down the company that i had invested so much time into

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
you are just a number waiting to be called in for termination 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
watching them throughout the day finding another way to make the plant look un safe and in need safety protocols and we had the best safety standings for 3 years in all of the plants threw  out the usa .

Just aweful. I've honestly never seen anything like this company before in my entire career. It's the blind leading the blind, and their solution to every problem is simply to make people work more hours... more hours ON TOP of the 11 hour shifts a mandatory 6 days per week. 
The geniuses in charge get very defensive and testy when they make the mistake of hiring a capable professional who shows them how industry is actually supposed to work in the real world. 
The place was just terrible. Worst mistake of my career. Thankfully i only had to be there a couple of months before finding something better. 
If you go to interview with these people, just beware...  they are pitching you lies. It's a complete bait and switch because they could never attract quality workers if they were honest with you up front. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Small company atmosphere....very close-knit, family-oriented.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Getting the rank and file to buy into advanced safety measures that are designed to provide greater opportunities to avoid injury. (It's a very dangerous task the production workers perform...dealing with mega-tons of suspended and moving concrete vaults).

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Excellent! Everyone treats each other like a family member.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You're on the floor more than in your office due to the constant, high risk conditions. There's a ton of paperwork that MUST be maintained in order to stay in compliance with OSHA, CA OSHA, NIOSH, SWRCB, and BAAQMD standards.

What is the best part of working at the company?
A massively large company that is slow to adapt/react and is very risk averse 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Absolutely zero training or career development.  Simply a number in a massive company. Very much left to “figure it out” 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Extremely siloed with no sense of team even within individual production facilities.  Company seems to be “searching for its identity” beyond simply being a mergers and acquiring entity. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Putting out the biggest fire, apologizing to customers for continued delays, and dealing with the same operational challenges over and over again without improvement.

We’re to start I wouldn’t really recommend working here the management is bad managers don’t care about you and only care about there favorite employees and the money you’re bring in to there pockets and the trainers are poor bad at there jobs the the training is bad most the time you’re left alone and most of the time you’re kinda  force to Learn to do the job by yourself when the trainers are to busy talking or walking to gods nowhere the place is way way to strict only good thing about this job is the one month free lunch and most of the people you work with are nice and are a lot helpful and nicer then the managers and trainers and the 6 months that I worked here I lost count on how many people have quit this job I rather drive to Knoxville or Cleveland,Chattanooga for a job then work here

This was my first experience in precast concrete. While I was still working there it was my only frame of reference, so I couldn't really form an accurate opinion of it. Having worked for and visited other concrete pipe plants now, I can confidently say that this is plant is at least the absolute best in North Texas. Safety standards are far above that of competitors, the quality of the equipment you have to work with is much better than other plants, and the people you work with are better too. Benefits from CRH (Oldcastle's parent company) are outstanding. Great health insurance, fidelity investments 401k (the top rated 401k in the nation) great life insurance options, etc. all for a lot less per paycheck than you would ever expect.

New management is doing great to change work life culture, transparency and overall morale. There are opportunities for growth, but it will require hard work, low attendance points and personal accountability. Summers are really hot and winters are cold. Good Attendance is key because you have to accrue PTO and sick time every pay period. Training is subpar, but there are seasoned operators to get great insight from. Turn over rate is high. The work is hard and tedious but over time it becomes easy depending on your own work ethic. Job security is fair depending if you show up to work on time and get the job done. You get what you put in at this job, because everything changes and you have to adapt to achieve your goals. Good-Luck, you got this. 

I do feel that there was some uncertainty in terms of what was needed for the role I had, so that played a part in the ratings. The interview process was very through in that there were assessments, an initial phone screen, video interviews (at least 2) along with a in person interview, so that process took about 2-3 weeks. I think that there was growth on both sides in learning and understanding the demands and needs of the job and the people. Although it did not work out I appreciate the opportunity and hope that they were able to get what was needed and allow more work/life balance overall. There were some high stress moments, high demand on time, and the culture was a bit stuck in "this is how we've always done it." The hardest part was not pleasing everyone when the unspoken expectation was to do so.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Production worker 15 salaries reported	$20.06 per hour
Maintenance technician 18 salaries reported	$26.36 per hour
Maintenance supervisor 16 salaries reported	$32.28 per hour
Laborer 10 salaries reported	$23.19 per hour

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