production supervisor

equipment operator

sourcing specialist

screen printer

programmer analyst

Oriental Trading Company

Oriental is a great place to get a good start for employment.  If you are a production worker, you don't need many qualifications to get an entry level position in the warehouse, and they have a variety of shifts.  If you are at a career or professional level, it's a good way to get your foot in the door with a position, however, the salaries are extremely low in comparison to the job description or labor. 

The culture here is very laid back and friendly.  I like that they are open to employees being able to use the Internet and engage in social media freely, as long as it is being used respectfully of course!  Most companies frown on use of the internet, such as Facebook. But Oriental understands that people are mature and that its common sense not to misuse the internet at work. There are guidelines in the handbook for Internet usage of course, but not a lot of issues with anyone abusing those guidelines.

In regards to adapting to your job, the culture here is that you either sink or swim...you wont receive much training and you mostly have to ask questions and figure things out on your own.  In the office setting, you will find that there has been a lot of transition in which employees that have moved to other departments did not cross-train anyone to perform their jobs before they left, so when a new employee takes over, there is  no one to train them.  Considering that a lot of the work is connected to other people's work in other departments, its easy to have numerous projects that other people have worked on, and those people are no longer in those positions, so you are without any resources of who to go to for questions.  

Other than the lack of communication and cross training, Oriental is very big on engagement, and in addition, its easy to move anywhere else in the company, and only after 90 days.  The benefits are good, but expensive.  I like my team and we all get along great. My manager supports the need to allow time for people to develop, and most of the management here is very nice and  they do not micromanage.  Although my compensation doesn't fit my skill set or job duties, I think its a great place that will lead me to bigger opportunities later.

Look, this isn't going to be a very good review. I barely notice stuff for myself, let alone other people. Here's what i got:

There's a lot of opportunities for advancement, if you're into that. The occasional "daily" meeting mentions open positions within the company, and i've seen multiple people go from entry-level operators to 3-deeps and supervisors over time. This also means there's a lot of change in your supervisors and managers. For someone like me who needs to build a relationship with someone over time, this is not super-great.

On a few special occasions, they bring in food and have, effectively, paid time off at work. During the summer "tailgate" you can play carnival-style games and win prizes, and at the Christmas party they have a raffle with company products. It's always at least as long as a regular lunch (30 minutes), but paid. They don't do it very often, though, and with covid they've cut back more on it.

In my particular department, work hours fluctuate a lot. This can mean getting to go home early (unpaid) or needing to work an extra 8-hour shift, or at least being expected to work an extra couple hours during the regular work week. Which of these is the good thing and which is the one you have to endure depends on your personality. 

Overall, i would recommend working here. You could do way worse, and from what i can tell there's plenty of opportunities to advance if that's what you're looking for. Just be sure you can stand working in a warehouse, because you're gonna be doing it a lot.

I work there as a contract worker thru staffing temps im glad im a temp I wouldnt want to commit to them they don't care about quality just quanity because im a temp im slave ok I get it and I understand the process you see most temps have very little work expereance but surprise I used to hire temps my self the only reason I did is because I needed work mules and if they werent working out and I felt I was losing money paying them they would be removed on the spot   so yea I get it but I see the way their regular employees are disregaurded like their just some kind of machine with on oil leak or something and oh well theres other people who will work for us who are just as desperate as they were for a job and well get as much out of them as we did those other otc world keeps turning weather you get fired or quit  ok so times are changing they give you some mighty attractive benefits only to keep there publice name clean im not a machine and I don't need a supperviser who hasn't done any physical labor all day to show me how gun ho he is now because hes borded and full of energy they arnt sh..  to me they haven't been working for the whole shift then after one half hour there pooped ill stop now

There are zero opportunities for advancement at corporate and the team has lost most of their really good talent due to this issue. The same 5 people get promoted over and over that are usually already in upper management and the people doing the work often don't get title changes or reasonable raises at all, despite being there and getting high reviews for years. This has been passed on to HR during a lot of people's exit interviews as feedback and they are aware but are not "able" to make any changes. They are aware of the issues and why so many people are leaving and simply don't care to make the changes to keep them. There has been at least 15-20 people who have left various departments under the marketing umbrella in corporate in the last two years. Requests for learning opportunities, even cross functionally fall on deaf ears. Goals are often distributed late in the year for that year and change after the fact, which is frustrating if you have goals you then have a month or two to meet. Communication is lacking/gets lost in translation due to unnecessary levels of management. 

Typically the work day is nonstop with 2 15 minute breaks paid and 30 minute lunch unpaid. This is a quota driven company and there are no quality assurance with products they sell. Truck loadings a hard job indeed. The management has no problem sending other people to other departments, which increases the work load on  the shipping department, so your overworked and underpayed. The shipping department has a hard time retaining loaders and some of the work ethic in others is questionable. I worked there for 4 years and everyday was miserable. You freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer in side the trailers. The delivery equipment is poor and outdated and poorly maintained, even though they are trying to improve, but not continuously.  Others tend to create more work for you as they want to work fast and hard, but don't think what they are doing. This was a mindless job with a see light push button get food pellet attitude. Find something else to do. Allot better jobs out there. The management culture is entrenched due to most have worked there along time and are set in their ways and will not change how they handle the employees. Good or bad.

A typical day at work is intense,sweaty work. Which does not bother me, I love to work hard. I have learned that perfection and caring about the how customers orders are received,at some places of employment does not pay. Quick,speedy and showing no care of how the merchandize is presented in the box is more important and puts you in a higher pay base than a nicely organized,presentable box. I care more about customer satisfaction,than my own pay check. Most of your immediate supervisors do care about your concerns with problems you might be having but cannot resolve any without consulting higher management. If you have no trust in promoting someone to be able to resolve problems (in accordance to company policy) why bother having them as a stepping stone. Just let warehouse upper management control the show. Really enjoy my co-workers. We all work together to get the job done. Helping the best we can when others are having problems. For me the hardest part of the job is the not caring attitude of management for how the product is packed out(presentation for the customers). What I do enjoy the most is my co-workers and will miss them dearly.

If you want to work for a company that is stuck in the old ways of doing things and is deathly afraid of change then this is the company for you. Management is completely threatened by new ideas and change. They will stifle you at all costs if you present an idea that makes them uncomfortable. They do not have a clear understanding of what employee engagement is actually about. They bribe employees with cupcakes then force you to sit in a room for an hour and talk about what is wrong with the company and then do nothing about it. They also claim to be safety conscious but they are more concerned with performance numbers and will ignore safety issues especially if it costs money to address. The company as whole is so cheap that if they found a penny glued to the floor they would spend an hour just to scrape it up. The equipment is old and outdated and it takes weeks to months to fix and hourly wages are below the average which is why you always see employees work for a couple weeks then leave once they find another job.  Most of the management team has no idea who their teams are because the turnover is so high and a lot of them don't care anyways. The ones that do care have either been run off, fired, or quit.

This was a temporary, seasonal job. The training was less than sufficient. We were pushed to upsell, which I don't mind at all, except their method irritated customers. They pressured you to have an average of 3-minute calls while taking orders and rated your performance/ review on your call time. It was Christmas and orders were large. It was impossible to offer great customer service in three minutes. If your calls weren't short enough, they had you log off so they could talk to you about it. Nevermind that you just had a huge order that made them lots of money AND you sold a lot of additional items. You didn't make the cut to stay on permanently because your call time wasn't an average of 3-minutes. If I was the customer on the other end of the phone, I would appreciate a helpful and patient customer service person. Instead, the customer was being rushed and repeatedly asked to purchase something else even though they clearly stated that was all they wanted more than once. This is not how I prefer to handle customer's needs.

It might just be the area I worked in, but leadership proved to be incompetent of the workplace and unwilling to solve problems. Simple issues persist for years, literally years because it's never a high enough priority to address. While normally this would only be a annoyance,  due to their bonus system they count on offsetting their lower rate of pay, these issues will effect your income.

I should also like to make note of how they recognized their employees who routinely go above and beyond the normal call to make ends meet, or more accurately the lack there of. I'd taken on many tasks that required much self sacrifice and even hurting my own performance, and couldn't get so much as a "thank you" for my efforts.

I'll end by saying if you haven't any work experience you can do worse then OTC, but don't put much faith in their promise of promoting from within or how good their bonus system is. If management was only good at one thing it would be talking, but talking without action is meaningless.

A typical day of work included helping customers over the phone on inbound calls to order from various catalogs - mostly party planning and decorating for holidays. It was a fun environment that included alot of prizes and rewards for a job well done. It was also a strict environment as far as how you presented yourself - no swearing allowed, you would litterally get written up for it. Dress is casual, and there was plenty of opportunity for over time during busy season, as well as time off during the slow season. They worked with me regarding doctor appointments during my pregnancy, as long as I presented a doctors note, it was excused. The most enjoyable part of my job was the fact that I felt rewarded for excellent customer service apart from my pay and compensation - we got to choose something from the prize room (I'm not sure if they still do that). The hardest part of my job was turning down when they would offer VTO (voluntary time off) due to it being slow.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production supervisor 3 salaries reported	$54,900 per year
Equipment operator 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour
Sourcing specialist 3 salaries reported	$57,333 per year
Screen printer 1 salary reported	$19.50 per hour
Programmer analyst 3 salaries reported	$60,333 per year

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