welder

painter

automotive technician

assembler

electrician

Pierce Manufacturing

The work is not that bad. However it's actually slow paced and not much will be achieved in a 10 hour day. I say 10 because you will always be on 10 hour days due to overtime and this is done prior to normal shift start. So plan on starting 330am to 4am everyday Monday through Saturday.  You will not be told about having to work Saturday until the Thursday before. Also if you aren't apart of anyone's club, you won't be given the time of day. Management does not care about you or life. They preach family culture and people first. This is just a public relations stunt. If you are friends with the supervisor, you will get easy jobs and raises. If not? You get poor jobs and basic raises. Also being friends with the supervisor gets you out of mandatory overtime.  There are several payscales and it depends what HR person hires you to determine starting pay. Usually 17 an hour to start and about .67 cents a year. If you are buddy buddy with bosses, you get a double raise at $1.34.  The longer you've been there, the less work you have to do and the more you get away. Safety is also a joke. Nothing changes about safety concerns until someone gets hurts.  

We did not receive a raise, no bonus, no time off, no social distancing during Covid unless unless we're in the office and salary. Hourly had increased overtime and if you are quarantined because of contact with a positive case at work, you get sent out for the CDC recommended time and the company uses your vacation time.  


8 or 9 hour day gets you a 10 minute and 15 minute break. That is it.  10 hour day is two 15 minute breaks, that's it. 

Pierce manufacturing is the king of short cuts, cutting quality and hiding poor work on their products. The solution to all issues is more overtime. And if you want to be a team lead, you better be friends with the supervisor outside of work first. Otherwise if no chance.  

And training? That almost doesn't exist. Especially within the Airport products dept 

Where to start, I work 9-10 shifts Monday through Friday with mandatory saturdays most weeks which are 5-8 hours long. We get one 20 minute break and one 30 minute break and it’s no where near enough time to rest with the amount of physical labor my job entails. I am constantly feeling drained and stressed due to the strenuous work load placed upon me and my team. I do not feel that HR cares to fix any major problems brought to their attention as I’ve talked to them about issues and none have been fixed. Even if we get done with our work load it always feels as if we’re digging ourselves out of a hole too big to ever crawl out of. Like others have said the clock in system here is terrible and doesn’t allow for flexible schedules so getting fired if you’re struggling to make it there at 5 a.m every day is a real possibility. Vacation time is non existent when I started here I had no days vacation only 3 floating holidays I think now you get 2 weeks vacation but I’m not too sure about that. Now the only good things about pierce is your pay and benefits and that’s stretching it. most places in and around this area don’t have a high pay rate, so Pierce is really good considering most places here start you out at 10-12$ an hour. The benefits are fairly decent. The worst thing about Pierce is the false sense of identity and family oriented community within the company, nobody cares if you have a family or if you’re sick or have been in an accident you’re either at work or you’re getting pointed until you’re fired no matter how long you’ve been there or how hard you’ve worked. Pierce Manufacturing? Horrible company to work for I’d try to find somewhere else unless you really need the income.

I can proudly say I left Pierce after a decade.

There is literally no advancement out of any place in engineering. They may bump you up a title/pay with your tenure... But your experience and dedication will never be rewarded with advantage, even if you get a degree.

Management here was and apparently still is, a total sham. Everything I've learned since I left is that this place is an ever increasing cluster mess and getting worse. Good luck getting people to stay at this heap beyond a couple years when all of the old school employees leave 😉. I make 85% more after leaving to work elsewhere here in Appleton in a position they never would let me (or others I knew in the same role) have at Pierce.

You couldn't pay me 6 figures to work there. The culture is so rotten and problematic. The only people that don't think so are the ones in the good ol boy club making it that way, Or the ones that are naturally too timid to have a presence outside their work and lack the confidence to move on.

Those who are capable and not apart of the conga line, move on and quickly. Those who are old school and too grumpy to go elsewhere stay out and get zero percent raises 

If you do get a job here, you learn what it means that they "churn and burn" through employees.

Miss the trucks, the dynamic customizations and that's absolutely it.

Maybe rather then have office subordinates read "Who moved the cheese?" You should have miss and upper level managers read "The Toyota Way"... Might be able to save your company.

Pierce builds great products and most of the working people are friendly and fun to work with. Floor and office personnel work well together however the office is a very tough place to work. Upper management is top heavy and has excessive infighting, politics, and backstabbing between the various departments. Communication across layers of management is very poor. Corporate culture is military like, you take your orders and keep your mouth shut. 

One of the worst problems is all of the executives, directors and VPs coming from Oshkosh Corp trying to advance there careers and make names for themselves. Many are very arrogant, do not understand the custom manufacturing process that has made Pierce great. They are focused on making big changes and often impose processes and policies that damage and destroy productivity, morale and business overall causing loss of sales. There is never accountability in upper levels of management.

If you work for Pierce in engineering be prepared to work continuous overtime. Working staff is always maintained well below critical levels. They have a tendency to cut good people doing work and then hire more VPs and directors. This results in a very high stress environment with poor morale with very little opportunity to advance.

10 hour days with only two 15 min breaks. You either start at 4am or 2pm. Terrible schedule for home life; for those with kids. Mandatory 10 hours of overtime on Friday, they wait until Wednesday to notify you. So forget day plans on Friday. Depending on department, direct management doesn’t listen to regular employees’ insight or needs. Management is always pointing their fingers at the little guy (reg employees). Training is terrible. They throw you in with anybody right to the wolves in their fast paced never ending work load. No time to correctly train. Learn as you go and by mistakes. And they WILL point out your mistakes. Upper management is always on about rework and quality. But are constantly wanting to push trucks out the door at record pace. Only the seasoned vets are treated fairly. The only upfront good thing about Pierce, is that it is highly recognized around the area and pays the best for general labor in our area. Forget raises if you haven’t been here long. They will knit pick you for every little thing. Generally, most people here enjoy being at work, will talk with you about anything. Benefits are nice, make sure you have your info in order otherwise it can only be fixed via outsourced hotline.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I helped save people's lives by  buildng the finest fire fighting equipment in the world. Pierce was a very rewarding job for me. Great pay and great insurance. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The loud constant noise in my work area. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
 Pierce Manuf. is a large manufacturing plant with many different departments. Its a stationary assembly line. Fire trucks are built there. Many different models. Many job tasks to learn. Computer work is also part of the work tasks. There are hundreds of people who work there and depending where a person works, there are at least 3 different work shifts. With overtime.  It's a moderate paced job. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
My day shift starts at 5:40 am and ends at 1:40, 5 days a week.  I work from work orders, prints, 
work instructions, and a bill of material parts list. I work from a work bench in my work area, with hand and power tools. 
I  read work orders and prints and assemble parts to be installed on the trucke during the assy process.

Poor management and terrible communication.  Overworked production and fabrication employees.  Job pride is not as strong as it used to be, and products are suffering due to poor moral and lack of management support.  Your peers are fun to work with but it is very difficult to advance within the production side of the company, as they are adamantly a non-union company, so there is barely any protection from poor management and they work on the good ol boy progressive system, they say they don't, but they do.
If you maintain good attendance and don't question their decisions, you are rather safe for job security, as your opinion or suggestions don't matter but it makes you a troublemaker.
Their benefits are decent, and they have an in-house nurse and a contracted physical therapy company that works with employee injuries in house.  But management doesn't like you to be broken through their push on production, so suck it up and keep working.

Updating MSDS online
Assisting with Accident Investigations, identifying root causes for accidents, implementing corrective actions and writing Accident Investigation reports.
Leading Ergonomics meetings of 12 to 20 employees, identifying high risk factors associated with employees work stations, and implementing solutions for these high risk factors.
Assisting with internal Safety Audits for the Fire and Emergency segment, to ensure that each facility is compliant with Oshkosh Corporations Safety Management System and with OSHA.
Training new employees via power point on Company Safety Policy, proper PPE, Fall Protection, Workers Compensation, Identifying Hazards, Hazard Communication, Safety Signs, Emergency Response, Housekeeping, Fire Truck Safety, Crane Safety, Knife Safety, Tool Safety, Ergonomics, Proper Lifting, Safety Committees, Bloodborne Pathogens, Lockout/Tagout, Ladder Safety, Confined Spaces, Machine guarding, Fire Safety and Prevention.
Checking and updating lifting fixtures throughout the facility to ensure that all lifting fixtures are safe for employee use

Over worked - underpaid.  They start you out at decent pay, then they make every excuse in the book to not give you a raise.  Meanwhile, you have to train the new people they hire at a higher rat of pay. But then they don't get raises and eventually realize that they are now training people that got hired at a higher rate of pay.

Management keeps pushing harder and harder for people to work faster, with little to no regard for quality.  As long as it works when it rolls out the door.

The hours get long.  Management keeps pulling in impossible schedules which turns into weeks and months of over time. (Which you kind of need because of lack of raises)  People get burned out and struggle to keep up the pace.  The whole time, management complains that if production would just work faster, they wouldn't have to pay the over time.  No matter how fast people build the trucks, they just want them faster.

Co-workers are mostly great people.  I've learned a lot from them, as there is no formal training at the company level.  Most days it was my co-workers the made it bearable to even walk into the building every morning.

This place is a joke!  VERY POOR management and leadership.  The typical day starts with about an hour of workers  wandering/ talking  on their phones and horsing around.   The production speed is just above crawling speed.  Most workers  "are just trying to look busy" . There is NO MANAGEMENT accountability .  They expect you to use your own tools, but don't order them or have them ready for use.   The waste of supplies is also unbelievable.   MGMT makes false promises they NEVER deliver.  Didn't ever see  that Management has the experience to lead or train.  The team leaders would leave without direction, tools or instructions to workers... therefore they are left to "look busy over and over" when in reality they weren't. Mass layoffs at every level are common which should say something about the management style.  The poor management and direction with this company made it hard to want to go back and work another day.  Too much horse play, gossip and  back scratching going on here!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Welder 4 salaries reported	$22.81 per hour
Painter 1 salary reported	$24.62 per hour
Automotive technician 3 salaries reported	$20.58 per hour
Assembler 4 salaries reported	$23.25 per hour
Electrician 1 salary reported	$21.59 per hour

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