field service technician

refrigeration technician

assembly operator

warehouse worker

administrative assistant

Pentair

This is one of the most inefficient and reactive environments I’ve worked in. Day-to-day operations are highly reactive, driven by last-minute requests, unclear direction, and constant changes in priorities, which make it difficult to produce thoughtful or high-quality work. In my experience, it was not “sink or *SWIM”* in my specific BU, but rather a shared struggle across the board with everyone underwater.

There is no consistent definition of “done,” leading to excessive revision cycles and repeated rework. Projects stall or loop indefinitely due to unclear ownership and a lack of decision-making accountability. Instead of resolving issues, additional stakeholders are often added late in the process, further complicating timelines and outcomes.

Cross-functional alignment is inconsistent, and teams are often expected to compensate for gaps in structure or planning. High performers frequently take on additional work simply to keep projects moving. In my experience, accountability for underperformance was inconsistent, while avoiding conflict often seemed to be valued over driving quality outcomes. Burnout appeared common among high performers.

While there are capable individuals across the organization, the overall lack of clear processes, ownership, and strategic direction made it difficult to operate efficiently or grow in a meaningful way. Leadership direction often felt unclear or subject to frequent change, resulting in work being revisited or redone multiple times with limited clarity on long-term expectations.

In my experience on this team, the work environment could be highly stressful, and it was not uncommon to see colleagues become visibly overwhelmed during meetings. Concerns about management style were raised, and while HR became involved at one point, the outcome appeared limited to coaching, with no visible follow-up or check-ins with the broader team. This created an environment where sustained stress and burnout felt normalized rather than addressed.

Ultimately only time will tell but so far I would say the experience has been alright. There are a lot of people who have been working for Pentair for 15+ years which is usually a good indicator but my concern would be the opportunity for advancement given the position. Most of the decision makers (exec's and senior mgmt.) work at headquarters and I have no interaction with any of them as a remote employee. I do value the flexibility of working remotely however and they claim they are big on internal promotions and personal development. There is a whole week dedicated to personal development apparently but they stress that it is primarily up to the employee to create their own development plan. you have to work for a year before applying for different roles without explicit supervisor permission and you must be performing well. 

The hours are inflexible and a lot of the job is taking phone calls from field technicians which is not exactly what the job description suggested. The pay is okay but there was no negotiating for even $1 - $3 more per hour before accepting the offer. There is a ton of information to learn but training is given. Supervisor is really one of the best Ive had before. 

Like I mentioned, people seem to stick around for much longer than is common nowadays so I am hopeful that this will be a company I can stay with for the long term and grow within as far as my role and responsibilities. It is a huge corporation with 3 main divisions and my experience is only within one of them so YMMV. 

Great Company; however, it is a boy's culture.  Culture mentality is summed up as follows:  "Well, I can play too".

You can have a structured target or project that gets pulled and cancelled when close to finishing.  For example:  Start a project for an education class that is aligned with managements targets.  Everything is progressing well only to be shifted into a different project with no conclusion of the old project.  

The Sustainment piece can be put into place with no adherence.  Countless projects have great buy in and sustainment only to be shelved by new management and leadership.  

On a lighter side, the most enjoyable piece is bringing value to employees, leadership, and to the customers.  Yes it is challenging, but very rewarding to help our associates achieve their full potential through cross functional teams or ongoing coaching.  

In summary, not every manager and employee has the right traits and talents to lead and influence.  This company tends to hire elites into the managerial positions, which is good if they understand how to run their department and win hearts and minds of the associates.  For example, if a manager comes from a process plant making glass.  The learning curve into a plastics plant is very steep, and they may be hesitant to learn the best practices from those around them.  

Full disclosure:  Often when we speak of others it is often a reflection of ourselves.  This is a very objective review noticed by other individuals at this facility.

Pentair's Aquatic Eco-Systems business unit is still developing, having been acquired by Pentair as a medium business and being grown into a fast-growth part of the large, global business that is Pentair.  With the large business culture comes many of the benefits - well-established departments and departmental duties, opportunities for advancement and training, and a wide array of support personnel (IT, HR, technicians, commodities management, etc).  Pentair also focuses on creating a positive work environment, spending (perhaps a bit too much) time promoting corporate culture and goals.  The downsides of big business are very apparent, though - upper management frequently has little understanding or appreciation for many of the challenges faced by ground-level personnel, and it's easy to become viewed as a cog in the works.  Middle-management does a good job mitigating this effect, though the issue still remains.  Sometimes getting additional support from other departments can be difficult, especially when small-to-medium issues need to be addressed.  Everybody has "their own job" to do, which frequently precludes being able to pick up a new task without getting their manager involved, which ultimately bogs things down.

The engineering department at PAES recently went through a major transition in operating procedure and the company standards being applied to the group. New employees will reap the benefits of these changes, though the learning curve is fairly steep for anybody not coming from a similar big business environment.

The pay, benefits, and most of the people are pretty awesome. Like any other place, there are those who start a lot of drama and it's irritating. Otherwise, it's hot year round, messy but much cleaner than any other factory I've worked in, you're gonna work hard and you're gonna sweat a lot. There's almost always overtime to be done. If you're like me, you can do up to 60 - 65 hours a week in the summer to make up for your 40 hour winter weeks (even that's rare). They schedule you typical 8 hour shifts, monday-friday (third shift is sunday - thurdsay nights) and to days a week minimum is an extra four hours before or after your shift. I mostly enjoy the friends I've made on the job and some of the work I'm certified to do. There's always room for advancement as long as your shift and department are fully staffed. The hardest part of this job is the long summer hours, honestly. And the thing I most dislike about this job is the management. Oh boy, I have a lot of issues with these people... Some of them are pretty cool, but the ones I directly deal with are not concerned with your well being, don't take your concerns or comments seriously, and like to talk badly about employees behind their backs. And there is ZERO communication... They are not leaders or supervisors, they're more like children in high school. HR doesn't help either, you need to call the anonymous employee hotline.

every day i would arrive early and clock in speak with the people who worked last shift to make sure everything was in order and i knew what needed to be done, i would retrieve and deliver different parts to assembly lines depending on their work orders, periodically i would need to make sure the parts were in good working order/ pull a QC (quality control) order, when the shift was over i would speak with the person taking over for me to make sure they too were up to date and knew what needed to be done. i would then clock out and head home to my family.

i learned the skills needed to operate a forklift and was certified (in house) i also learned the skills and organization methods to make me a skilled and proficient material handler.

management was very on top of things and reliable, communication was good so everyone knew what needed to be done and when.

Co-Workers were difficult because many of them were new and in training, those that were experienced and knew what they were doing tended to keep to themselves.

the hardest part of the job was attempting to locate misplaced parts

I thoroughly enjoyed the environment and physical aspect of the job along with operating the forklift

Pentair has a great culture centered around win-right values. The people that work here align to those values and care about them. The organization has gone through a lot of change in the last number of years, but with change comes much opportunity! There is still opportunity for the company to advance their internal technology, processes and how they operate in a matrix environment, but they’re taking steps to continue making improvements. The one area I think there is a large opportunity for improvement is in career advancement & mapping. As someone who is very driven, works hard and goes above and beyond to take on additional projects (& asks about next steps) I often get half- answers or unclear expectations on what my career path may look like here. I think the company does a great job of hiring talent, but they need to find a way to better communicate and articulate opportunities to employees earlier in their careers. 

Good job. Short breaks. If you want to get ahead at this place it’s not what you know but who you know. They show favoritism so it’s best to stay to yourself if you don’t want any conflict. The leads don’t applaud you for hard work done they just focus on the negative and make it a big issue throughout all shifts. If you are unfavorited the leads will watch you closely and put favorable employees to watch you too. Which ultimately would lead to termination. The work is simple though, working assembly alone at a machine. The heat It’s unbearable in the summer no air or ventilation. They do keep water stored in nearby cooler and pass along popsicles only if they temperature is about over 80 degrees. Overall management is ok but they don’t value the employees as much as they should and for that it’s a huge turnover rate. Pretty much be job is cool it’s simple and easy but associates are the big problem, most are not team players and gossip a lot. 99.9% women in assembly and mostly men doing hard labor work.  I hated the fact that if you were well liked you could basically get away with murder there and if not you are watched and told on constantly even for little things.

Management is always telling employees that they have the opportunity to advance, when it reality, it is nearly impossible to advance unless you suck up to management. Never have the required tools or parts to complete the job that you are working on. Always searching shop floor for the things you need, or are waiting for the proper parts to arrive. Pentair supposedly prides themselves as "One Pentair" by bragging that their employees are team players. Maybe in other Pentair locations, this is true, but not where I work. Everybody only cares about themselves and refuses to help other employees even when they are working with you on the same line. Complaining to management only paints a target on your back. I've tried complaining to HR about things, and nothing happened either. Management always asks employees to recommend this company to family and friends as Pentair cannot retain its current employees & also haas difficulty recruiting new employees. There is no way I could recommend working here to anyone. Employees are also VERY underpaid and the pay structure is set up to hit your "max pay" after 10-12 years of working there.

You will hit the ground hard, running fast, dodging hits and punches from the customers. Then get ready, because TSR's will now run you over with the bus, and management will back up the bus and run over you again to hurt you when you are already down.
All management is concerned about is the data- meeting the numbers that upper management has set forth in front of them.  When talking to your manager about your own struggles to meet their expectations, they don't care nor want to hear it.  They will only tell you about their own struggles and that they need to answer to upper management - and then they push you even harder. 
It's like having a parent with no compassion for you, they are self-centered on themselves.  They will not support you to help you grow in a career path. You are on a long path of hardships with pain. They will take charge of your e-mails answering customers and embarrass you in front of them - remember the bus?  
Who would want to work for a Self-centered, narcissistic manager who does anything they can to make themselves look good at the expense of others…?  

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Field service technician 11 salaries reported	$21.01 per hour
Refrigeration technician 3 salaries reported	$29.00 per hour
Assembly operator 103 salaries reported	$19.94 per hour
Warehouse worker 146 salaries reported	$15.64 per hour
Administrative assistant 4 salaries reported	$22.38 per hour

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